There are many well-established bus operators in the North East of England, but a recent addition to the scene is an operator that should probably have tea and biscuits with the Traffic Commissioner as soon as possible.
In the imaginary world of television, Land Rover Defender-driving detective DCI Vera Stanhope (played by Brenda Blethyn) cracks murder cases within two hours on a Sunday night on ITV1. The episode that aired on Sunday 29 January marks the start of series 12. Called ‘Against the Tide,’ Vera is called to a lighthouse when the body of a local council worker is found in a sailing boat, but it becomes clear that his life wasn’t plain sailing.
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However, this being a coach and bus magazine, you have probably guessed by now that the plot does indeed include some passenger carrying vehicle activity!
The scene opens with an imaginatively numbered service L80 departing bay C at Morpeth bus station bound for Alnwick. The victim in this story gets kicked off the bus shortly after for filming the driver on his mobile, and is deposited on a coastal road. At which point you get the first glimpse of fictional bus operator Through Bus, with Arriva North East providing Wrightbus Pulsar 2-bodied VDL SB200 1531, MX12 KWN, for the filming. The vehicle, of course, had any reference to Arriva covered over with Through Bus vinyls and the number plate changed to to a rather more youthful FR14 AFV. Later scenes were filmed inside a depot that also depicted an Optare Solo with Through Bus vinyls.
As the story line progresses (spoler alert!), we find out that the victim in this story was building evidence against his boss, a senior officer at the local council, who was committing fraud and awarding council bus contracts to Through Bus, a company that her husband had significant shares in.
The only thing that let the story down was the fact the Through Bus bosses were making the drivers work double duties and using two tachograph cards each (in service buses!) to do so, then blackmailing them. Vera’s evidence showed the drivers were sleeping at the depot and taking drugs to stay awake. But aside from the tachograph aspect, it was a good episode and can be viewed again on the ITV Hub or on ITV X.
