More new buses - and the new livery plus those citaros

Alexander Dennis Ltd known by the acronym ADL announced this month the £2M contract for delivery of ten of the company's Enviro400 City Bus model launched in 2015 - to Blackpool Transport. The new double deckers will be clad in BTS 'palladium' colours introduced on the Mercedes 'Citaro' model in 2015. One assumes that this will become (or have become) the corporate colours for BTS and repaints may reflect this starting with the two repainted Tridents now used for Driver Training.

ADL's press release indicates that the new buses will go into service on the 9 route on which the author is a longstanding customer (since the mid 1950s!). They will replace the five Volvo double deckers now used on School Specials and 'Extras' and five Solos. The ADL model will have 72 seats and low emission technology among other new systems in signage and of course Wi Fi resource. Fleet number details will no doubt be known at the public launch.

My visit to Nottingham last week also involved an encounter with another Mercedes Citaro operator going under the dumb down branding 'YourBus'. This time conveying travellers to Nottingham's suburbs and outlying communities. Taking a leaf out of Blackpool Council's book (perhaps) the colour scheme was also purple and white but with a less ominous shade of purple. Judge for yourself.

Photographed in the city centre terminus of Service Y36 by John Woodman