MidlandRed.net
Midland Red West: Volvo B7 — Type Overview
Acquired from First Leicester
66976–66987 (R/Nos: KX05MGZ & KX05MH—)
In the last week of August and first week of September 2005, First Midland Red took delivery of six Volvo B7RLE single-deck buses, fleet numbers 66982–66987. These vehicles were fitted with B43F Wright Eclipse bodywork and had been new to First Leicester in April 2005. They entered service at Worcester depot in the first two weeks of September after being fitted with new cash trays and ticket machines, and having their destination blinds reprogrammed.
The originally intention was to use these vehicles alongside the Alexander Dennis Enviro 300 singel-deck buses at Worcester depot on Service 144 between Birmingham and Worcester. However, Service 144 was being inter-worked with Kidderminster depot at that time so this was not practical, as the Kidderminster drivers and fitters had not been trained in the use and maintenance, and it was decided that training two depots would not be economical. Therefore, they entered into service on Service 44, running between Great Malvern and the Worcestershire Royal Hospital.
In April 2006, First Midland Red started to passed four of these vehicles back to First Leicester, with an equal number of simular Volvos replacing them at Worcester depot from First Northampton.
On 16th July 2009, two of these vehicles, fleet number 66982 and 66987, returned to First Midland Red at Worcester depot to be used on Service 144, with another two vehicles, fleet number 66984 and 66986, arriving the next day. By the end of July 2009, a total of nine vehicles, fleet numbers 66979–66987, had entered service with First Midland Red. Fleet number 66979 was used at Kidderminster depot for rail replacement work, while the other eight vehicles were all at Worcester being used on a mix of rail replacement work and Service 144. With the end of the rail replacement work in September 2009, fleet number 66979 moved to Worcester depot.
Following frequency reductions on services at Leicester, three addition Volvos moved to First Midland Red at Worcester depot in October 2009. These were fleet numbers 66976 and 66977 which arrived on 6th October, and fleet number 66978, which arrived on 8th October. All three vehicles entered service within a few days, and two Dennis Lance SLF Pathfinders were taken out of service at this time.
[ Page Top ]On Loan from First Northampton and First Leicester
66969 & 66976 (R/No: KX05MGZ & KX05MJU)
In September 2005, two more Volvos arrived at Worcester depot. These were fleet numbers 66969 and 66976, registration number KX05MJU and KX05MGZ, and were on loan to First Midland Red from First Northampton and First Leicester. Like the other Volvos at Worcester, they were used mostly on the Worcester–Malvern Service 44.
They both returned to their owners in November 2005.
[ Page Top ]Acquired from First Northampton
66963–66965 & 66967 (R/Nos: KX05M——)
Four vehicles acquired in April 2006 from First Northampton, replacing the four vehicles on Service 44 passed to First Leicester at that time. These four vehicles all returned to Northampton in September 2007, when First Northampton won a new contract that required modern low-floor vehicles.
[ Page Top ]On loan form First Somerset and Avon
10177 (R/No: WX55HWC)
On the 2nd September 2005, and again on the 5th September, a Volvo B7L Articulated bus, on loan from First Somerset and Avon, was demonstrated by First Midland Red in and around Worcester City Centre. The purpose of the visit was to demonstrate to local councillors that an articulated vehicle could be practically used on the city’s park and ride services, and thus to try and persuade the council to release funds for such vehicles to be used.
The visit also coincided with the re-launch of the park and ride services, with the new brand name “Worcester Express,” and the vehicle helped to create more publicity. The public were invited to look over the vehicle while it was parked in Angel Street, near the bus station, and councillors and press were given demonstrations journeys to and from the park and ride site and Royal Hospital, but the vehicle never operate in service at Worcester.
The vehicle on loan was fleet number 10177, registration number WX55HWC, which was brand-new at the time and waiting to enter service with First Somerset and Avon for use on their Service 18/418, running between various Bath University sites and Bath City Centre. While on loan to Worcester, the vehicle carried an orange version of FirstGroup’s Barbie livery, without any type of branding. By the time it had entered service at Bath, it had been fitted with “Bright Orange Bus” branding for the university services.
[ Page Top ]Summary
If you talk to any Worcester driver who had a chance to drive these vehicles, you will almost certainly find they say they were the best vehicles the garage has ever operated. In fact, the only drivers who didn’t like them all complained that they were too easy to drive and felt too much like a car!
These vehicles felt very well built with none of the shakes and rattles that are found on the Alexander-Dennis Enviros which were the same age. Unlike the Enviros, the driver could see where he was going at night as they had headlights that work, and the interior was designed in such a way that the interior lights didn’t reflect in the windscreen. The other notable difference when compared with the Envro was the quality of the gear change, which was very smooth in the Volvo making the vehicle easy to drive smoothly. Anyone who has been a passenger on an Enviro in stop-start traffic will know smooth driving is a distant dream.
The only downside to the Volvo was poor heating in the cab, and the fact that they were so easy to drive caused one or two accidents, as drivers tended to get a little too complacent with them.
[ Page Top ]