Optare hosted the latest meeting of CILT’s (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport’s) Busmark group. The tour of the manufacturer’s Sherburn-in-Elmet factory was the highlight of the gathering of members from the organisation’s benchmarking club for the coach and bus industry. Whisking attendees to the plant from the venue of the meeting was an Optare […]
I first went to Marshalls Coaches of Leighton Buzzard some 20 years ago or more, when Fred Marshall was master of all he surveyed. The occasion was the delivery of an entire fleet of new Beulas Eurorider coaches which, at the time, were the coaches with the ‘wow factor’ and, if I remember correctly, leather […]
Fenn Holidays of Cambridgeshire has been among early adopters of Arriva Bus & Coach’s fixed-price maintenance packages. A renowned Van Hool customer, Fenn Holidays has a small fleet of four 14-metre TX17 Astrons which are exclusively run on tour work, with destinations throughout the UK and Europe. With experience of coach touring going back to […]
Two highly popular events staged in Morecambe last weekend delivered a fitting commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the formation of Ribble Motor Company. Stuart Jones attended both. At its peak, Ribble Motor Conmpany ran 1,300 buses and coaches, employed 5,500 staff and carried 216m passengers annually (1956). The first, held on the Saturday, was […]
Something special was called for Marshalls of Sutton-on-Trent’s 30th year in business. The anniversary came just at the time the operator was seeking a small coach. So to mark the occasion, the company went for a brand new 10.8m VDL Futura FHD2. What also makes this new vehicle noteworthy is it is the first coach […]
It’s in a picture-postcard location, right on the border between Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, but the prompt for my visit to Taf Valley Coaches on that occasion wasn’t the scenery but a newly refurbished office. And now I’m back, this time for a new, purpose-built (indeed, Edwards-built) two-storey office block. That’s the headline, but much more […]
The death of Alan White, founder of Minis to Midis, last year was a great shock as was the closure of this leading minicoach dealer a few months later. The loss of the dealer left Noones, the Irish producers of the popular Turas range of minicoaches, without a UK dealer. In October they rectified this […]
From a minibus point of view Treka well and truly stole the Show at this year’s CV Show held in Birmingham. A new vehicle from Treka is very, very rare. It is known across the industry for producing very practical coachbuilt and van conversion 16-22 seat wheelchair accessible conversions on the 5/5.5 tonnes Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, […]