13-strong Anglianbus MAN CNG fleet to move to the South West of England & replaced with ADL E400s at Beccles
Plymouth Citybus is set to acquire 12 gas buses – the Go-Ahead Group-owned (GAG) operator has told CBW.
The Caetano-bodied MAN EcoCitys are currently in service with fellow GAG operating company Anglianbus. Based at Beccles depot, the CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) buses were originally ordered by Anglianbus when it was still independently-owned. Acquired with the support of a successful bid for what was the third round of the Department for Transport’s (DfT) Green Bus Fund, the buses entered service between December 2012 and April 2013. GAG acquired Anglian Bus in April 2012.
“We are at a stage where the project is nearly ready to be delivered,” explained Mark Collins, Commercial and Marketing Manager at Plymouth Citybus.
“It is an exciting opportunity to bring clean fuel buses to the peninsula, leading the way in the area.
“We now have the agreed the necessary contractual agreements with all parties – and there are quite a number of them. We are currently working with the DfT and the Gas Bus Alliance to bring the gas buses here.
“We have work to do on installing the infrastructure at our Milehouse depot. The current gas supply is a low-pressure line, which allows us to operate up to 20 gas buses with one fill up a day. We are also working with Plymouth City Council on funding for the infrastructure at Milehouse – but not the cost of the vehicles. Part of the project also includes moving the infrastructure from Beccles too.”
As for which route(s) the gas buses are intended for, Mark said: “As the buses are quite big we have identified routes 43, which will serve Ernesettle and the 27/28, which serve Eggbuckland and onto the Hospital.”
Asked about how the buses will complete their lengthy journey from East Anglia to Devon – a distance of approximately 370 miles – Mark replied: “Getting them here will be a logistical challenge. We are working with the Gas Bus Alliance to get them filled once on the journey. Gas buses have a good range.
“We feel driving the buses here is preferential to transporting them by low-loader. It’s standard practice for fleet moves to and from here.”
Turning to timeframes, Mark said: “Realistically, we’re looking at getting them into service this side of Christmas. They will come down here when we have the infrastructure in place. It will, for example, take eight weeks alone to re-paint the buses using our in-house bodyshop. The EcoCitys are only four years old, so we don’t anticipate they will require major refurbishment.”
Asked why the EcoCitys were leaving Anglianbus, Gavin Hunter, Managing Director of Go Ahead in East Anglia, told CBW: “We are upgrading the services the gas buses currently operate on with 65-plate ADL Enviro400 double-deckers to increase capacity. “Unfortunately there is not enough suitable work for the gas buses in East Anglia. A lot of the work we do on rural roads means longer single-deckers are unsuitable. Some of the gas buses have already been withdrawn, while others remain in service.
“We’re pleased to transfer the EcoCitys to a sister operating company and we’re sure they will serve passengers in Plymouth as well as they have our passengers here in Norfolk and Suffolk.”
