Whilst at the Ipswich 120 celebrations at the Ipswich Transport Museum, Jonathan Welch noticed this interesting poster on the rear of preserved open-top Roe-bodied Leyland Atlantean MRT 9P. The bus clocked up some 42 years with its original owner, including a spell in its modern purple and green colours before retirement from service in 2018.
At a time when manufacturers are pushing the ‘buy British’ angle and encouraging operators to consider the carbon footprint of transporting buses from foreign factories, the Atlantean serves as a reminder of what was a rather solid and dependable British vehicle type. And one which, the advert tells us, cost £70,000 new. If only a double-decker could be bought for that money today!
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The 40p per day or £12 per month for unlimited travel aboard the operator’s services also sounds quite enticing.
Meanwhile, text of a different kind has appeared on the rear and offside rear corner of one of Lothian Buses’ Wrightbus products. Wrapped to advertise energy drink Rockstar and a promotion with British rap artist Stormzy, the bus features some rather unreadable smallprint within the wrap.
For the benefit of those readers without a magnifying glass to hand, the smallprint makes it clear that the promotion is offering 150 pairs of tickets to a Stormzy gig and 500 Spotify Premium subscriptions, though we can’t help wondering how many people might actually see it, let alone read it, apart from drivers stuck behind the bus in a traffic jam.
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