Merseyside Dennis Dart Website

• Simon Ackers has kindly supplied full details for all of the ex London General Darts now operated by GTL, those being Ex DRs 7301 - 7304 and DRLs 7401 - 7406. For full details see the fleetlist here and for photos and other info, see his recently updated Unofficial GTL website. One of these, that is already in service, 7404 K575 MGT, is named 'SUSAN'.

• Some other interesting news, from Peter Ferrigan, on sales of buses away from Merseyside is that CMT Buses have now apparently sold ALL of the MetroRiders that it inherited from ABC Buses! Although it is not yet clear who these were sold too, it appears that one purchasers took the lot, including the ex Greenbus one! More details will be added A.S.A.P. Also following the news that Supertravel are now starting to sell off its Marshall Minibuses, it has been reported that they may be replacing them with some Dennis Dart SPDs, again, this news is very early and so not many details are known, so the quantity, and age (If not new) will all be confirmed as soon as possible!

• Quite a lot of reallocations are due to take place within Arriva NW&W in the next month, the biggest news is that ex MTL Darts 7563 - 7566, R563 ABA - R566 ABA are to be moved from Green Lane to Llandudno! There are many more alterations to take place, so I will update that fleetlist in the next few days with all the alterations! Also to be added, probably tomorrow will be notes on recent odd workings, as many people have sent me them, and I've not got around to sorting them out, though one noted on Monday by Neil Hilton and Dave Root, was Supertravel Dart KP51 SYE unusually operating the 222/224 (City Centre Circular), and this has also gained fleetnumber 024, having been the last unnumbered bus in the fleet!

• With all the Arriva buses having returned from Manchester, after the Commonwealth Games, many of the same buses are due to go on loan to Arriva Midlands North next week too, for the Shrewsbury Flower show and the V2002 event! Those expected to go are Volvo Olympian/Palatine IIs 3327, 3329, 3331, 3332, 3335 and 3337 all from Speke, many of which were at Manchester, with these expected to leave next Wednesday, whilst on Monday Plaxton Pointer 2 bodied Dart SLFs 7563, 7564, 7565 and 7566 are due to go from Green Lane. All buses are expected to return to Merseyside after the events, which will be about to weeks. Also to move is ALX200 bodied Dart SLF 2275 P952 RUL, from Chester is also expected to go. Also following the return of vehicles from Manchester, Volvo B10BLE 2716 Y716 KNF has returned to Speke, having been on loan to Green Lane.

• The GTL Titan de roofed on Sunday night in confirmed as 2653, which was named SARAH, a name already transferred to Titan 2339 KYV 339X. Also GTL Dart 7302 is confirmed as being registered H547 XGK.

• Quite a few permanent reallocations are also taking place within Arriva NW&W, with Marshall bodied Darts 7640 V640 DVU and 7644 V644 DVU have been reallocated from Speke to Skelmersdale as part of a large scale reallocation scheme - Due in Speke soon are Volvo B10Bs 6601, 6603 - 6610, and 6622 from St Helens. Finally, Plaxton Pointer bodied Dart 1106 L936 GYL, which is reallocated from Huyton to Caego (Cymru), and is seen in these photos by Neil Hilton, still wearing its 'Liverpool City of Culture 2008' branding, and route 10B! - To see his photos, click here for the front view, and here for the rear view.

• Just a short news update today, with news that yesterday, one of GTLs Titans (Still not identified), hit the railway bridge at Old Roan Station, and therefore de roofed itself. Fortunately, it DIDN'T have any passengers on it at the time, as it would appear that the driver was taking an unusual route from Gillmoss to the start point of his service.

• Some other GTL news is that Dart 7304 is reported as being registered H552 XGK, and is named 'PETER'. Theses short Darts appear to be being used regularly on the 92 (Penny Lane - Crosby), and so a photo of them will hopefully be taken soon! Further news on the Alexander bodied Lynx is that this is in fact HXI 3009, and not HXI 3006, and so it is not the first pre-production Lynx chassis (Unless Citybus have two!), but it is only about the third production chassis, so is still a very interesting chassis, as well as having a VERY rare body!

• GTLs ex London Transport Darts are now continuing to enter service, with another one noted yesterday being 7301 H543 XGK, which is another 8.5M version, named 'JORDAN'. 7303 H551 XGK is also named, but I didn't manage to see what it was, but the names are in a different position on these Pointer bodies, as compared to the Pointer B6s, as on the Darts, on the front the name is painted onto the angled bars between the headlamps, that is painted cream on the B6s, but red on these Darts, whereas on the B6s the name isn't on the front, and instead is under the cab window.

• Noted yesterday on the Citybus 86 (Liverpool - Allerton Library), was a VERY unusual Alexander (Belfast) bodied Leyland Lynx, HXI 3006, which is in an white livery, with orange/brown stripes. Although I could not see the legal letting clearly, I am sure this was operated by Citybus, not LMS, as it turned around at Allerton Library, as Citybus do, and also it had a via card in the front window, not dissimilar to those in their Titans. If this one is HXI 3006 (It has also been noted as HXI 3009, I unfortunately didn't check it closely myself), then is is the first prototype Leyland Lynx chassis, being chassis number B60.01!

• Quite a few odd workings this week have occurred with Arriva, as a large part of its fleet is in Manchester for the Commonwealth Games. Noted so far this week have been, 1062 M102 RMS which has also now has its seats re trimmed in Arriva fabric, was on the 10 (Liverpool - St Helens), whilst far rarer was 1063 M103 RMS on the 39 (Alder Hey - St Helens). 1063 was probably used on this route to replace a B6BLE, in place of the usual replacements B10BLEs, as they are all in Manchester for the Commonwealth Games on Monday, whilst yesterday, Scania 1068 L588 JSG was also on the 10, whilst EL2000 Dart 1222 M322 AKB was operating the 82A (Liverpool - Airport) as it is now operated by Runcorn garage, and finally, ELC Myllennium bodied DAF SB220 2464 Y464 KNF was operating on the 79 (Liverpool - Netherley).

• A VERY, VERY unusual working by a Dart in Merseyside yesterday was of ex L&M Travel (Greenbus) MPD, 2085 V484 LCW, operating with CMT on the 79 (Liverpool - Netherley). This will most probably be as a result of CMT operating a special service to the St Helens show, and so had few spare buses, which resulted in this most unusual working. This is the first time I have seen a Greenbus vehicle on a CMT route since the takeover of L&M by CMT, but it is a very unusual route to use this on, as it is only a 29 seat bus, compared to the average 44 seater Volvos used by CMT on the route!

• Another rather odd working of Merseyside Darts, though not in Merseyside is the use of Express Travel Smart liveried Darts P455 DCW, P456 DCW, P458 DCW and P459 DCW, these never having been sold by Express Travel since they stopped using them over a year ago, and are currently on loan to UK North for one of the Commonwealth Games services. Many other buses from Arriva Merseyside are also in use in Manchester, those including Volvo B10BLE/Wright Renowns 2701, 2702, 2705, 2707, 2709, 2712, 2714, 2717 - 2721, and 2724, along with Volvo Olympian/Northern Counties Palatine IIs 3315, 3322, 3324, 3329, 3330, 3336 and 3337! On top of this many buses from LMS and Wingates are also running various Park and Ride services for the games, along with First in Manchester's dedicated fleet of Volvo B7L/Wright Eclipses for the athletes - For more info see the various bus orientated Yahoo Groups.

• As you probably know, Halton Transport have been disposing of its step entrance Darts now to other bus operators, and Ben Morroll has kindly sent me this photo of former Halton 77 N672 CLV, which is now used by Hansons Bus in the West Midlands, in a livery which is very similar to the ex Halton Merseyline Lynxes, which were, as there are, repainted by Halton prior to sale!

• GTLs ex London Darts have now started to enter service, the first one noted in service, by Kevin Duggan, is 7303 H551 XGK, which was operating on routes 231/234 (Maghull Circulars), on Monday, this one being a B28F 8.5M step entrance Dart.

• Following last weeks info about the reallocation of Marshall bodied Dart SLFs from Speke to Skelmesdale, the story thickens! Apparently The Scanias from Skelmersdale (Mainly the ex 10xx Wright bodied ones) are to be transfered to St Helens, when routes 360, 386, 388 are transferred from Runcorn to St Helens garage.

• The Marshall Darts from Speke are to replace these at Skelmersdale, and although some B10Bs are due at Speke from St Helens, Speke's vehicle requirement will be reduced anyway, as route 79C is due to be replaced by an extended route 30 (Runcorn - Liverpool) and the vehicles made spare at Runcorn from the first move would be used to operate this, which will compete directly with Halton's 14 (Runcorn - Liverpool).

• Some route 30 journeys do already go through to Liverpool, one each evening (Runcorn - Liverpool), two each morning the opposite way, but during the day, all 30s are just (Runcorn - Hough Green), but the new service will be of a 15 min frequency (As Halton's 14 is), with all low floor Darts! All of this is apparently due to happen in September!

• Peter Ferrigan informs me that CMT actually still do have one of its Leyland Nationals at its garage, albeit not in service, the one remaining one being 1076 SPC 278R. Some odd workings noted by Peter at the weekend were CMT Dart SPD 2087 PN02 KCC, on 345 (Liverpool - Maghull) and Arriva Merseyside Marshall bodied Dart SLF 7617 T617 PNC on the 10 (Liverpool - St Helens), both on Saturday, whilst on Sunday, CMT Dart SPD 2086 PN02 KCA, was on the 168 (Aigburth Vale - Bootle).

• 'Car Criminal' has kindly provided a full set of fleetnumbers for the Supertravel fleet in the guestbook, informing us that currently only one Supertravel bus, KP51 SYE is unnumbered, this still being the case yesterday, when I saw it on the 173/174 (Belle Vale - Sefton Park/Penny Lane). To see the full fleetlists, click here for the Darts, and here for the Modern buses.

• A corrections to yesterdays list of Smart buses is that First Crosville Technobus 55 S255 AFA is now back in service again, thanks to Neil Hilton for this info! In the next few weeks I will put all of that information about the Smart buses into a proper fleetlist table, along with info for other Smart services, such as First Crosville's route 41, which is a Smart route, but is operated with buses in Barbie livery, with Smart branding. I do have info about those operated by First Crosville, but does anyone know exactly which MTL or Arriva Darts that have operated in the Wirral have, or have had Smart branding, and if so for which routes, as I am not too sure on which Smart routes they are used on - Also any good pics of any of Smart buses, especially the Neoplans would be very useful!

• First PMT are continuing to renumber is fleet, the latest two renumbered Darts are 40238 R980 NVT ex 980 and 40121 M960 XVT ex 960, both of which are noted by John Cooper, whilst ECW bodied Olympian A170 VFM is now 30068, ex 170, noted by Neil Hilton.

• It is now also reported that many of the Marshall bodied Dart SLFs at Arrivas Speke garage, initially bought for route 79, are to be reallocated to Skelmersdale, replacing the older step entrance Darts, whilst the place of the Darts at Speke is to be taken by the oldest Volvo B10Bs from St Helens. Currently it is unclear what will replace the B10Bs at St Helens, but I would have thought it would have been better to replace the Marshall Darts at least with bigger low floor buses, instead of nine year old step entrance B10Bs!

• One route alteration missed of yesterday too was news that Arrivas 14 (Liverpool - Croxteth) will also be terminating at Paradise Street Bus Station from next week, just to confuse people even more with the Halton 14, which will be terminating there too, starting from Monday!

• Quite a few bus anniversaries takes place this week, as on Monday, Glenvale Transport was exactly one year old, whilst today, low floor buses have been operating in the UK for exactly nine years, as has Mersey travels Smart Bus scheme. I hope that next year, though maybe I'm a bit hopeful, Merseytravel have some sort of event to commemorate the 10 years of Smart Buses, and low floor buses in general! A full list of Smart buses is in the Smart Bus Fleet

• Of these all are still in service on Merseyside, apart from MTL 6401 which is with Ulsterbus as a publicity bus, MTL 6408 which is stored out of use at Green Lane, First Crosville 55 which is stored out of use at Rock Ferry and the whole Express Travel fleet, which has been replaced by the Supertravel 51 reg Darts.

• Some other news is that apparently as of Monday 22nd July, Arriva Merseyside's 82A is to be operated from Runcorn garage instead of Speke, and is to be integrated into route 32A. It seems that the branded Cadets which are at Speke are to move to Runcorn, and the services will operate as the 32A from Runcorn to Liverpool Airport, then the same bus will run Liverpool Airport to Liverpool City Centre as an 82A! On the same day, Halton's 14 and 61 are being extended in Liverpool to run right through to Paradise Street Bus Station, instead of terminating as Queen Square as they do now! Also a new route starting on Monday by LMS is the 36 (Penny Lane - Liverpool City Centre), via Wavertree High Street.

• Arriva Merseyside's Huyton garage are now getting into the spirit for Liverpool's bid for 'Capital of Culture 2006' bid, as quite a few of its buses, including 7533 P533 MBU, have Capital of Culture logos on the rearmost nearside window.

• Some most interesting news, provided by Peter Ferrigan is the arrival of at least three ex London Plaxton Pointer Darts at GTL. The registrations of two of these so far are known, K767 OGK, DRL94 which was originally registered K594 MGT, and then WLT 994 before its current registration, and also K858 LGN, DRL58 which has always had the same reg number! Both are 9M Plaxton Pointer Darts, DRL94 being B32F and new in July 1993, DRL58 being B34F and new in October 1992, though I could imagine they may be reseated to make them all B34F before entering service. I'm not yet sure on what fleetnumbers will be allocated to these Darts, but if they carry on as MTL were doing, they would probably get 74xx fleetnumbers, but I really don't know yet, so I have added them to the fleetlist sign their London fleetnumbers.

• Another brand new Dart operating in service on Merseyside too is Plaxton Pointer 2 MPD KP02 PVA, which is in service with Norbus, in a slightly revised livery with a blue roof instead of a white roof. Supertravel are continuing to issue fleetnumbers to their buses, a few more noted over the past few days have been as follows:

016 - V261 BNV
018 - KV51 KZC
019 - KP51 SYR
020 - V268 BNV
021 - X1 STM

• All of the above vehicles are Dart MPDs, and currently, 015 and 017 are still unknown.

• CMT have announced that some modifications to its fleet will take place over the coming months following driver feedback, some buses will get larger wing mirrors, mainly Darts and Lynxes whilst the drivers seats/cab in most buses are to be addressed (even newer Volvos) as this is causing concern (some seats are apparently very uncomfortable). It is possible that the Lynxes are to get a mini facelift, new mirrors, drivers seat, improved breaks, suspension and interior lighting. CMT are also revising a few routes slightly from Friday, as early morning peak journeys 79s will now avoid Lord Street, whilst the 284 is being extended from Southport on to Crossens, whilst the first journey made by each bus on the 53 will now start at the Sefton Arms Pub, Aintree so as to reduce the dead mileage each day to Netherton - All other 53 journeys will continue to make the full route, just the first journey but each bus out of the depot will make the shortened route. Other routes with change to be made to them are the Halton 14 and 61, both of which are expected to be extended to Paradise Street Bus Station shortly, whilst Arriva Merseyside are withdrawing their route 11 (Liverpool - Huyton) and 14B (Liverpool - Croxteth), and so the two East Lancs Darts at Green Lane, 1258 and 1259 may now move to Arriva Cymru, as many others of this type now have.

• Some recent odd workings of note are of Arriva Volvo B10BLE, 2708 X708 DBT on the 39 (Alder Hey Hospital - St Helens) on Saturday 6th July, in place of a Volvo B6BLE, whilst on the same day, also noted by Peter Ferrigan was Scania L113 1034 N134 DWM branded for the 320 on the 10 (Liverpool - St Helens).

• Interesting news is the arrival of two more Marshall Capital II bodied Dennis Dart SPD 11.3Ms at Halton Transport. Unless Marshall Bus (UK) is now bought by another company, these could be amongst the last Marshall Capitals ever built, as they were part built, with one almost complete when Horizont, Marshalls parent company went bust. As Halton already owned the chassis, they therefore almost had to finish them off, but it will be interesting to see if any more orders are fulfilled, if the company is not sold on the near future. The two new Darts delivered are 30 DA02 PUX and 31 DA02 PUY.

• First now actually have started to renumber its buses into one national fleetnumber series, the first local one being First PMT, 945 M945 SRE, which is now numbered 40110.

• Not a lot else to report this week, just keep a check on the SUpertravel fleetlist, as more and more of there buses are being given fleetnumbers, all the time, and likewise, more an more GTL buses are being named!

• A very significant piece of news that has surfaced in the last few days is that First have, or are about to introduce one large fleetnumber system for all of its fleets in the country, and as a result, almost every First bus in the whole country is about to be renumbered, and as there are so many vehicles involved, five digit fleetnumbers are being introduced. The system appears to be along the lines of the firs of the five digits will be the vehicle type, i.e. 3 Double Deckers, 4 Midibus, 5 Minibus and 6 Full Size Single Deckers, with the other four digits referring to that particular vehicle, though they aren't based on the registration digits, for those buses that have them. The system noted above isn't confirmed yet either, as apparently the 3xxxx series could also be for buses with a short life expectancy. As a result, although First PMT now have the AARE school buses (AARE incidentally, if you didn't know stands for All American Rear Engined), and a few more Lynxes from Manchester, I will leave the update of those, and any further for First PMT and First Manchester until I have a good idea of how they are going to be renumbered. I will probably combine theses two lists too, as with the Arriva NW one, but I'll just stick to North West on those, as to include every First bus vehicle, just as it is in one series would take almost forever, and never be totally accurate!

• I have also now managed to get all of the Optare MetroRiders and Mercedes Benz Varios transferred from the Older Buses Fleetlists to the Modern Buses Fleetlists, and added those for Arriva Cymru. As I had already added all the Lynxes the other way, all that remains to do is to removed any duplicates, as I haven't yet deleted any of the original copies of any of the bus fleet info. Also now all of the pages on the site are of the new style, expect some of the older Archive News pages, which are also complete, back to 05/11/00, the day the site started, but I'll leave these the old style, so as it doesn't get totally forgotten, as it wasn't that bad! The normal link for the Archive News is at the bottom of this page now too, as there was nowhere to fit it at the top, as it used to be. There is now also an Archive Fleetlist page, which currently has two fleetlist, an MTL Dart one for the day Arriva bought the company, 18/02/00, and and Arriva Cymru one for the 23/02/02, the day before it was absorbed into Arriva North West - This list also shows the former Crosvile style fleetnumbers, for those buses which had had them. The normal way to get to this page will be through the Mersey Dart Facts page.

• Yesterday I saw a bus crash at at around 11.45 at Paradise Street Bus Station between Arriva DAF 3608 N608 DWY and Arriva Olympian 3327 R327 WVR. The Olympian had been entering the bus station from the Paradise Street end, and stopped having just passed the corner, when the DAF which was in the alighting bay pulled out and hit the nearside corner of the Olympian.

• This itself wasn't too bad a crash really, what followed made it far worse, as for some reason, to move away, the driver of the DAF pulled straight forward from where he was, scraping the full length of his bus, and seriously damaging the front corner of the Olympian.

• The Olympian appeared to be far worse of than the DAF by the end, as the nearside screen was wrecked, as was the lower nearside panels, and there was a bit if damage higher up, and to the tree defender. I'm couldn't see the sid of the DAF that was damaged as it was moved straight away to the wall at the back, and as all of the damage would have been to its offside, you couldn't see it!

• Also noted recently was another Metrobus with GTL, B302 WUL, again in overall London red, so I would assume this will be numbered 1302. Finally, If A1A Travels Alexander ALX200 Dart 58 Y258 KNB ever was out of service with an engine failure, it is already back in service, as noted by both John Cooper and Neil Hilton this week!

• Some more interesting news on the midibus front, is that as Volvo have stopped production of the Volvo B6BLE, as it doesn't comply to the newer Euro 3 emission standards that were enforced from October 2001, hence the Dart getting its new engine then, to replace it, Volvo have now made a deal with DAF to sell its DAF SB120CS as part of the Volvo range! Although it is not yet confirmed as to weather or not these will keep their DAF badges or get Volvo badges is unknown, but it does mean that now both DAF and Volvo will have a chassis that is almost identical to the Dennis Dart, as in Euro 3 form, the will all have (excluding the Dart SPD) Alison AT545 transmission, a Cummins ISBe 4 cylinder engine and a very similar drive line - The main difference between them will be that the DAF/Volvo has a more complex front suspension system than the Dart, and is 2.5M wide, where as the standard Dart is 2.44M wide. As far as I can tell therefore, the last production Volvo B6BLE, at least for the UK is First York 3048 YG02 DHX, which has a Wright Crusader II body. Although this is clearly newer than October 2001, I think these buses must have been built as a stockpile for First York, who have basically replaced there entire fleet in the last year with Volvo B6BLEs, Volvo B7Ls and Volvo B7TLs.

• Another vehicle which is mechanically similar to the Dennis Dart and is now allocated to a North West garage are First PMTs Blue Bird AARE school buses, of which 11 are allocated to Chester garage, three of which are CX02 ECC, CX02 ECN and CX02 ECT. Currently fleetnumbers are unknown for these as are the registrations of the other 8, they are believed to be B60F and are used each school day on services around Wrexham.

• Some Dart news from Merseyside is that A1A Travels Alexander ALX200 Dart 58 Y258 KNB is apparently currently out of service with an engine failure, though I can't personally confirm this. Also further vehicle movements with in First PMT following the introduction of Overground services on the Wirral, include ex First Manchester MPD 319 S765 RNE, moving to Chester garage, to join the other two of this batch, also 915 / 916 / 959 / 960 are now all allocated to Moreton - As a result the only Darts in the Wirral left in First PMT livery are 916 and 972!

• Finally some other vehicle movements, this time in Arriva NW are that Darts 2217 X217 ANC and 7675 V675 DVU have now both moved back to their home depots, Bootle and Speke respectively, having been on loan to each others depots for a week or two!

• Some further new to about the DAF SB220 with ELC Myllennium, bodywork, X906 RHG that was used by LMS earlier in the year, is that apparently this vehicle was actually on loan from Arriva Bus & Coach! It was B46F, and later went on loan to First Edinburgh, still in Lakeland livery!

• Some more photos will be added tomorrow, along with another fleetlist update!

• Quite a lot of news to get through today, as many people have kindly sent me information over this weekend!

• A few odd workings noted over last week include, the unusual appearance of one of CMTs Dart SPDs on the 10C (Liverpool - Huyton) last Monday, and on 79 (Liverpool - Netherley) on Thursday. Although I saw it about three times on the Thursday, I was unable to identify the one on the 79, but the one on the 10C on Monday was 2089 PN02 KCF. I managed to get a short ride on this bus on the 10C, and I was very pleased. Internally it is very light and airy, helped by the light blue floor, bright seats, and bonded glazing. The ride was very smooth too, without any annoying rattles, the most annoying part must be the very loud indicator bleeper, which could be heard very clearly from the back of the bus!

• Some other odd workings noted were of Arriva NW Alexander ALX200 Dart 2271 X271 OBN, operating on the Smart 4 (Brunswick Business Park - Royal Liverpool Hospital) on Friday, noted by Dave Root, whilst another ALX200 on another Smart route on Friday was Supertravel 009 Y185 KNB, which was on Smart 173/174 (Belle Vale - Penny Lane/Sefton Park) in place of a Smart MPD. Noted on Thursday by Dave Root also was Arriva NW Dart 1216 M216 YKD, on 408 (Liverpool - New Brighton).

• Other news also is that Glenvale Transport have now got at least another two Metrobuses, C388 BUV and B304 WUL. I would assume that these will be numbered 1388 and 1304 respectively, though I can't confirm this, as although both have entered service, they are still in overall London Red without fleetnumbers. The windows, especially the upper deck ones appear to be very badly etched on these too, so they will probably need a new set of windows, before entering entering service again, following a repaint!

• Supertravel have now finally resumed issuing fleetnumbers for its buses after a gap of a few weeks on new issues, the latest two issued are 012 KP51 SYC, and 014 Y184 KNB. Strangely, 013 had been issued a while ago to R113 VLX, so I'm not sure why 012 has taken so long to be issued, when it is in between the others! Thanks to Ian Simpson and Neil Hilton for their info.

• Some very interesting news too, forwarded to me by John Cooper, will now bring another type of Dart Chassis type into existence. Not only now will we need to worry about the length, engine type, or the height of its floor, as now a new narrow 2.3M wide Dart SLF is being developed, which will also have a new body for the chassis, the ELC Myllennium. This version of the Dart is being developed initially for Guernseybus, who have ordered 33 of this type, due to the terrain these buses will be used in, the narrower bus is preferred. They are expected to seat 33, meaning that they would probably be around 10.2M long, though as they are narrower, possibly they could have a 2+1 seating arrangement, so they could be quite long so as to accommodate all the seats, still giving people some room, bearing in mind that the standard Dart SLF, which is still narrower than many other buses, including its rival, the DAF SB120, is only 2.44M wide, which can itself be cramped sometimes. Just to note too, the DAF SB120CS is 2.5M wide, and the widest bus built for the UK, ironically another ELC Myllennium, but on the DAF SB220GS, is 2.55M wide.

• There is also now a new poll on the site, looking at your thoughts on your favourite GTL names! Please vote for which of the ten names you prefer - use either the link above, or the link in the navigation box to get to vote in the poll. The result of the last poll, about favourite Dart SLF length was as follows:

8.8M MPD 69 votes (26%)
9.2M SLF 4 votes (1%)
10.2M SLF 5 votes (1%)
10.7M SLF 23 votes (8%)
11.3M SPD 161 votes (61%)
Total Number of votes 262.

• I am surprised that the winner was the SPD, as at first the MPD was well in the lead! Thanks to all the 262 people who voted, and I hope to get a similar response to the new poll!

• Not a lot to update today, the main part of the site I am working on now is the older Buses Fleetlist, on which I am now adding the rest of Arriva NW&W to the Arriva list, therefore providing a full, detailed fleetlist for ALL Arriva NW&W buses. Also the Leyland Lynxes from all the Modern Fleetlists are now to be moved into the older buses fleetlist, whilst the Mercedes Benz Vario Minibuses (i.e. Ones with the description O.814 etc) will now be added to the Modern Fleetlists, which will removed an anomaly as to why Y reg Varios such as A1A Travels Y11 JBA were in the Older Buses Fleetlist, but Lynxes from the late 80's were in the Modern list! The Minibuses counted as Older Buses will be MCW Metroriders, and older Mercedes Minibuses (i.e. Ones with descriptions such as 709D etc), where as the Varios as stated above and Optare MetroRiders will go into the Modern Fleetlists. Although all of the Lynxes have now been added to the Older Buses Fleetlist, for now, they are duplicated in the Modern Fleetlists too, until I get chance to update all of those fleetlists again!

• Some further news on the Arriva Cymru Lynxes too is that currently there are now only 20 Lynxes left at Arriva Cymru, as another three East Lancs Darts have traveled to Cymru. The three Darts that have moved are 1228, 1229, 1230, which are all from Birkenhead, and have move to Wrexham garage. It is expected that in the near future even more Darts will go to Cymru in order to finish off the Lynxes at Cymru - The future of the ECW Olympians is still unknown, but if you take a look at the Older Buses Fleetlist, it can be seen that there are still quite a few left, and below there is also a photo of Olympian 3094 B194 BLG, at the Warrington Open Day. Thanks to 'Trixmax' for this info! Possibly to replace one of the Darts at Birkenhead, there is now a report from John Cooper, of Leyland Olympian 3264 F264 YTJ, operating from Birkenhead, a much better bus than the East Lancs EL2000 Darts!

• Other Dart news, reported by Neil Hilton, is that Arriva NW Dart 2236 X236 ANC, is now in an overall advert , apart from the front, for Merseyside Polices Think Campaign. There are now also many more 'Barbie' buses operating in Liverpool now, as First PMT (or is that First Wirral and Cheshire?), have now extended its Route 1 (Chester - Birkenhead) into Liverpool, replacing route X8. It now seems that standard fare for these routes are ALX200 Darts 992 - 997, which are to be given Orange Line 1 branding. For more details see the Merseyside Buses Yahoo Group.

• Finally here are some my my photos from the recent Warrington Borough Transport Open Day - Although these are not yet in the main photos section, I though I'd add them here first, so as they could be seen a bit earlier. Possibly the most notable photo is of Warrington 29 DE02 URX, which has the old Marshall front, and is the most recent Marshall Dart delivered to WBT. Click the link to see the photo.