SeaFront 12 returns

SeaFront 12 returned to Blackpool Promenade today with the spring timetable offering a 20-min service between Pleasure Beach and Cleveleys Bus Station, with some morning journeys starting at either Norbreck Hotel or outside the Cliffs Hotel. After the Easter school holidays are over, the midweek service will be confined to the Tower-Cleveleys section, occupying buses off our Blackpool college contracts between 0900 & 1600.
The spring service will use Olympians 269, 324 & 325 and the Volvo B10Ms 898 & 899.

898 on its first SF12 duty ready to depart from Norbreck Hotel.

Mercedes Bends to Blackpool!

On the evening of 4th March our most ambitious bus to date joined the ranks of CBNW - at least for a month - a former Go Ahead "London Central" bendybus! The bus is on loan for a 1-month evaluation trial which, if successful, may result in us purchasing further examples for a new project. Many of you will know that the Bendybuses were seen as the answer to 100% floor accessibility coupled with speed of boarding in central London and around 350 of these £250k+ buses were introduced between 2002 and 2005, some replacing the traditional Routemaster. However, politics dictated their long term operation in the city and by December 2011 they had all been withdrawn, some with just over 100,000 miles on the clock!
Ex-Go Ahead MAL49 (reg BD52LNF) will not be used in passenger service during the trial period but the superb condition of the bus will be appropriate for its intended use.

MAL49 captured at Victoria on route 436 during its relatively short service life with Go-Ahead London Central.