17 New EV double-decks for Cheltenham

[AdamH]

Quick update on the EV buses... Gloucester depot was successfully connected to the grid on 6th March with about half their new EV fleet (15 buses) entering regular service from the following day. The other half were recovered from storage at Bristol and Stoud depots on 9th March, and entered service on the same day. The only exception being 73214 which has returned to Yutong for work under warranty.

These will mostly be used on local Gloucester Services 1, 2, and 2A, and Service 71 between Gloucester and Tewkesbury, but they have already started to stray onto other local routes.

All MAN single-deck buses have now moved out of the depot, with 4 going for scrap and the remaining cascading to Swindon depot, which in turn will display Scania single-deck buses to Stagecoach South East.

Still waiting for a switch-on date for Cheltenham depot. But they currently have 7 EV buses on site for use for driver training and occasional service work. These are recharged using two temporary conventional chargers, so are run on rotation and will not all be out at the same time.