Six new double-decker MCV EvoSeti-bodied Volvo B5TL buses have entered service on the East Yorkshire Motor Services (EYMS) routes running between Withernsea and Hull.
The vehicles represent over £1m out of a total investment of £1.6million in 10 new vehicles. The other four vehicles, Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC 30-seater single-deckers, have already entered service with EYMS-owned Scarborough and District, where they have replaced Mini Pointer Darts.
The new double-deckers are equipped with on-board free WiFi and are based at the EYMS depot in Withernsea, have replaced Wrightbus-bodied Volvo double-deckers. They are to be cascaded onto route 66 between Hull and Hessle, where they will replace single-deckers on that route.
The Volvo/MCV buses have been bought following the operator’s experience with the chassis/body combination, which started with a single MCV-bodied double-decker bus taken on trial from the manufacturer two years ago.
The inclusion of WiFi, which is now available on four corridors run by EYMS in the area, is proving very popular with passengers. All 10 new buses are Euro 6 and are expected to give better fuel consumption than the ones they replace. This is particularly important on the Withernsea route, where buses regularly run over 50,000 miles each year compared to about 30,000 or less on local urban routes.
EYMS Chairman, Peter Shipp, said: “I can now announce that we have just placed orders for 17 similar buses – five ADL Enviro200MMCs and 12 MCV-bodied Volvo double-deckers – for delivery later this year.
“Times are extremely tough for bus operators at the moment, particularly independent private operators such as EYMS, mainly due to central and local government funding cuts and the damaging effect of ever increasing traffic congestion.
“Ideally we need to buy more new buses each year but we still need to do as much as we can afford to update our fleet which would otherwise simply get progressively older and more expensive to maintain. And of course we want to provide as many modern buses as possible for our passengers to use and our staff to drive.”
