Roland Perry gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

The posh purple-FTR shuttle bus to the airport was replaced by a red
Citaro, all liveried-up so not a temporary thing. Had the vanity plate
'T5 FCC' disguising its age - but it was clearly not new. Ex-Boris,
maybe?

The vehicle details for T5 FCC a

Date of First Registration 15 05 2009
Year of Manufacture 2002

So it was imported to the UK, used, earlier this year.
Must be from an RHD country, so Irish?

In message , at 15:19:33 on Sat, 10
Oct 2009, Adrian remarked:
The posh purple-FTR shuttle bus to the airport was replaced by a red
Citaro, all liveried-up so not a temporary thing. Had the vanity plate
'T5 FCC' disguising its age - but it was clearly not new. Ex-Boris,
maybe?

The vehicle details for T5 FCC a

Date of First Registration 15 05 2009
Year of Manufacture 2002

So it was imported to the UK, used, earlier this year.
Must be from an RHD country, so Irish?

Googling the plate brings this up from a "bus spotter" site dated Aug
09:
"With the Wright Streetcars transferred to Swansea their place
on the Luton Parkway to Airport service has been taken by
Mercedes-Benz Citaro bendibuses from the Aircoach fleet at
Dublin Airport. Two were in operation in late June T3 FCC ex
02-D-74688 and T5 FCC ex 02-D-76812. The third of the batch
remains to be delivered."

I wonder if they'll be reducing the (zero before FCC arrived) fare, now
the main excuse (the FTRs) has disappeared in a puff of boiled frogs?
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 15:19:33 on Sat, 10
Oct 2009, Adrian remarked:
The posh purple-FTR shuttle bus to the airport was replaced by a red
Citaro, all liveried-up so not a temporary thing. Had the vanity plate
'T5 FCC' disguising its age - but it was clearly not new. Ex-Boris,
maybe?
Googling the plate brings this up from a "bus spotter" site dated Aug
09:
"With the Wright Streetcars transferred to Swansea their place
on the Luton Parkway to Airport service has been taken by
Mercedes-Benz Citaro bendibuses from the Aircoach fleet at
Dublin Airport. Two were in operation in late June T3 FCC ex
02-D-74688 and T5 FCC ex 02-D-76812. The third of the batch
remains to be delivered."

I wonder if they'll be reducing the (zero before FCC arrived) fare, now
the main excuse (the FTRs) has disappeared in a puff of boiled frogs?
--

There was definitely an FTR atrocity there last Friday - I couldn't get on
because (as usual) it was jammed full. The red Citaro came in just as the
FTR was leaving & the remaining passengers got put on that. I thought it was
an ex-London bus as well.

Agree about the comments about the up escalator - there was no sign of any
work being done to sort it last week & it seems nothing's changed.

On 10 Oct, 16:40, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 15:19:33 on Sat, 10
Oct 2009, Adrian remarked:

The posh purple-FTR shuttle bus to the airport was replaced by a red
Citaro, all liveried-up so not a temporary thing. Had the vanity plate
'T5 FCC' disguising its age - but it was clearly not new. Ex-Boris,
maybe?

The vehicle details for T5 FCC a

Date of First Registration * * 15 05 2009
Year of Manufacture * *2002

So it was imported to the UK, used, earlier this year.
Must be from an RHD country, so Irish?

Googling the plate brings this up from a "bus spotter" site dated Aug
09:
* * * * "With the Wright Streetcars transferred to Swansea their place
* * * * on the Luton Parkway to Airport service has been taken by
* * * * Mercedes-Benz Citaro bendibuses from the Aircoach fleet at
* * * * Dublin Airport. Two were in operation in late June T3 FCC ex
* * * * 02-D-74688 and T5 FCC ex 02-D-76812. The third of the batch
* * * * remains to be delivered."

I wonder if they'll be reducing the (zero before FCC arrived) fare, now
the main excuse (the FTRs) has disappeared in a puff of boiled frogs?

But how will they pay for the number plates?

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:40:25 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

I wonder if they'll be reducing the (zero before FCC arrived) fare, now
the main excuse (the FTRs) has disappeared in a puff of boiled frogs?

I thought it became chargeable when the airport lost interest in
providing it themselves, so FCC said they'd take it on if they could
charge to cover costs?

I strongly suspect the FTRs were only there as prior to the Swansea
metro First had nothing to do with them, as in normal service they
require conductors.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

In message , at 13:44:42 on Sun, 11
Oct 2009, Neil Williams remarked:
I wonder if they'll be reducing the (zero before FCC arrived) fare, now
the main excuse (the FTRs) has disappeared in a puff of boiled frogs?

I thought it became chargeable when the airport lost interest in
providing it themselves, so FCC said they'd take it on if they could
charge to cover costs?

The airport used bone-shakers, but I doubt they could get away with
providing no service for this essential link.

I strongly suspect the FTRs were only there as prior to the Swansea
metro First had nothing to do with them, as in normal service they
require conductors.

I can't parse that, especially as FTRs ran in normal service in York for
many years.
--
Roland Perry

On Oct 11, 4:13*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

I thought it became chargeable when the airport lost interest in
providing it themselves, so FCC said they'd take it on if they could
charge to cover costs?

The airport used bone-shakers, but I doubt they could get away with
providing no service for this essential link.

It was not a case of FCC taking it on an charge a fee. The LTN/LAP bus
link has been TOC responsibility for some time ... even when it ran
from Luton in the pre-LAP days. Before FCC it was certainly embedded
in the GoVia franchise. I have not looked it up, but I am 99% sure it
is part of FCC franchise.

So if right, FCC did not ''take it on'' from the airport, they merely
put an ''improvement'' in that part of its commitment - new [awful]
buses and charge a fee.

--
Nick