Plaxton presidents

[dw1308]

Could anybody shed some light on what's happening with all the presidents as in are they all being sent to Dundee or are they getting withdrawn for the scrap man?

[winston]

Another 3 x Presidents are transferring to Dundee imminently (as Tony confirmed 4053, 4056 & 4113) to allow the withdrawal of the last handful of Dundee B10BLE's which aren't DDA complaint prior to 31.12.15.

Beyond that the batch that are currently at WA, may well get stood down & put back in to reserve once the Amazon contract comes to an end.

I'd expect only Presidents in poor condition to be scrapped, whilst others in good condition may well be sold on for further service to replace step entry deckers 

[dw1308]

Ah ok, I always liked the presidents they were great when they first entered service and some of them are still in OK condition 15 years later

[Stevo]

I hope someone buys the Presidents for further service. It's been some time since you could ride on WM vehicles with a different operator. I'm not sure they will sell well, though, because they're old compared with London vehicles coming out of service, and there are so many of those they must be ten a penny.

[winston]

I hope someone buys the Presidents for further service. It's been some time since you could ride on WM vehicles with a different operator. I'm not sure they will sell well, though, because they're old compared with London vehicles coming out of service, and there are so many of those they must be ten a penny.

But ex London may need converting to single door format which these don't

[Stu]

Taking off the rose-tinted specs for a moment here...

The Plaxton President B7TLs may have been good buses, but lets face it, the vast majority are wrecks now and surely at the end of their lifespan.

I've enjoyed travelling on many over the last few years, and maybe I've been spoiled by some of the newer buses, but these are looking very tired now, and if anyone was to purchase some for further public passenger use they will need a bit of money spending on them to tidy them up, so unless NX were to sell them on at some rock-bottom price I can't see them being very attractive to buy unfortunately.

[Ashley 60171]

But ex London may need converting to single door format which these don't

Is it not the case that some ex London stock has a reputation for being abit of a handful in terms of reliability and and modifications required.

From a passenger point of view, as tired as they may look I do think many of our Presidents would sell second hand and most are pretty tidy despite the areas they have to serve.

There are companies still buying Olympians despite newer and arguably better quality stock coming on to the market. All the same it would be a shame to see good buses go to waste but we can only wait and see.

[winston]

Is it not the case that some ex London stock has a reputation for being abit of a handful in terms of reliability and and modifications required.

From a passenger point of view, as tired as they may look I do think many of our Presidents would sell second hand and most are pretty tidy despite the areas they have to serve.

There are companies still buying Olympians despite newer and arguably better quality stock coming on to the market. All the same it would be a shame to see good buses go to waste but we can only wait and see.

@Ashley 60171 Couldn't agree more with those comments, ex London are generally non standard aswell & some in equally poor condition yet newer. Although ex London are newer than these Presidents, I don't see how the Presidents wouldn't still be useful for lighter school duties

[Ashley 60171]

@Ashley 60171 Couldn't agree more with those comments, ex London are generally non standard aswell & some in equally poor condition yet newer. Although ex London are newer than these Presidents, I don't see how the Presidents wouldn't still be useful for lighter school duties

From the era we're focusing on. The B7TL and DB250 are the more favourable options, it took Tridents a while before the London specification was nearly as good as the alternative.

Stock coming out of London during the last year or so has become newer and it would appear that the DB250 is the flavour of the month, maybe this wouldn't go in the favour of a V reg Plaxton. Having said that, the ex Dublin B7TL's have sold pretty quickly and they are roughly the same age and I would assume that they have had a similar life to our Presidents which is one for the positives. I hope when the time comes that the Dundee examples get snapped up as many of those are twice refurbished.

I've never been to Dublin so if that particular comment isn't quite accurate then forgive me.