Transdev.

[2206]

New Transdev CityZap service between Leeds and Manchester starting from November 5th.
The driver can choose to take the fastest route, just like the car.

[Trident 4609]

Council owned Rossendale Bus Co. (Rosso) has been sold to Transdev.
http://lancashirebus.co.uk/news.jsp?newsID=2197

Key points are that the 'Rosso' name is to be retained and £3 million worth of investment is planned for new vehicles for Rosso routes.

[winston]

A good purchase by Transdev, Rosso should do well under them & hopefully they'll receive the same standards of high quality new buses / brandings as per other Transdev Blazefield subsidiaries

[Tony]

A good purchase by Transdev, Rosso should do well under them & hopefully they'll receive the same standards of high quality new buses / brandings as per other Transdev Blazefield subsidiaries

NX cast offs? :-)

[MW]

Is it Transdev who run the B7TL Geminis with Gemini 2 fronts. If so, they're a good company. Have you seen the specification on the interior on some of those buses. The leather seats look so much better than Platinum. I may be confusing it for another company however. It's the Witch Way buses I'm talking about I think

[winston]

NX cast offs? :-)

They're only for karting around the kids

You know, like those Harrogate Route 36 / Yorkshire Coastliner branded Gemini's 3's that are better specs than Platinum's :-p

Is it Transdev who run the B7TL Geminis with Gemini 2 fronts. If so, they're a good company. Have you seen the specification on the interior on some of those buses. The leather seats look so much better than Platinum. I may be confusing it for another company however. It's the Witch Way buses I'm talking about I think

@MW yes, correct company Transdev Blazefield

[Tony]

They're only for karting around the kids

You know, like those Harrogate Route 36 / Yorkshire Coastliner branded Gemini's 3's that are better specs than Platinum's :-p

@MW yes, correct company Transdev Blazefield

The ex NX presidents aren't just for carting kids around, a couple have been tarted up good and proper as cover for high quality routes

[Cheese]

Just got a (terrible!) photo of W119DOP in Harrogate, sun and wet roads didn't help but it was stretching its legs earlier on the 71 from Harrogate to Wetherby and Leeds, a good long run. Still seems strange to see these Presidents now with other operators.

[P419 EJW]

A bit late but it's worth mentioning that CityZAP Manchester - Leeds sadly ended on 21st July 2018. I took some pictures of their CityZAP B7RLEs in Manchester last week.

ML04 ZAP: https://flic.kr/p/29kkhWN
ML05 ZAP: https://flic.kr/p/26GKHQq
ML06 ZAP: https://flic.kr/p/282x76V
Rear shot of ML06 ZAP: https://flic.kr/p/29pu6SF

Sad to see it to go, it was a brilliant connection between Manchester and Leeds, and it was cheaper than trains! Unsurprisingly, on the last day, reports in Transdev group on Facebook have said that the journeys were full...

[winston]

Another new batch of Volvo/Wright Gemini 3's for Yorkshire Coastliner:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/70333100@N08/44128086321/in/dateposted/


EDIT:

New Coastliners branded up:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/70333100@N08/44519659991/in/photostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/70333100@N08/43802550784/in/photostream/

[Trident 4609]

https://mobile.twitter.com/alextransdev/status/1230836399777161219?s=09

Transdev have ordered 19 E400MMC's, to be split between Burnley (for the X43 'Witchway' service between Manchester and Burnley/Skipton) and York for Cityzap (Leeds to York).

[winston]

https://mobile.twitter.com/alextransdev/status/1230836399777161219?s=09

Transdev have ordered 19 E400MMC's, to be split between Burnley (for the X43 'Witchway' service between Manchester and Burnley/Skipton) and York for Cityzap (Leeds to York).

Another one to drop Wrightbus then.

[mikestone]

I really don't understand why the administrators didn't keep staff on to complete oustanding orders.

[Ian Hardy]

I really don't understand why the administrators didn't keep staff on to complete oustanding orders.

I don't think the administrators were expecting to sell the company as a going concern. There was a problem that the land on which the Wrightbus factory is located was not owned by one organisation, a part was owned by one of the Wright family who was un-cooperative by not wanting to sell the land, only at the 11th hour did they agreed to sell it, but in the meantime the administrators did not have enough income to pay all the staff, so they had to lay them off.

Reading articles about Wrightbus and how it was run i.e. the firm made £xmillion donations to religious organisations while the company was not making a profit and the staff had no pay rises, it is amazing that it survived at all. If it was not for the Borisbus orders then it would have probably gone bust a lot earlier.

[mikestone]

I have no doubt that Wrights had been working on the assumption of further London orders, even if not Borismasters, but surely there was more chance of selling a company that hadn't let down its customers.