Tiger / Duple Coach 549 (EXI 5549) seems to be with McDermotts of Portaferry now as I saw it Downpatrick today in their livery. I didn't know it had left Ulsterbus.Yesterday afternoon in Europa Bus Station about 3:30 I saw Gt Vic St Mk IV Goldliner 1596 (EXI 2596) leaving on a non-stop working to Derry showing '212 BELFAST CITY CENTRE' for the destination and a paper sticker with 'DERRY' stuck high up in the windscreen. Very Bus Eireann-style I thought. It wouldn't have made it any clearer to me anyway that it was a non-stop bus; hard to believe also that there could have been anything wrong with the destination display since it was a normal manual winding one. Has anybody seen this before.
Later on in Downpatrick the new (ex-Laganside) Tiger 458 (GXI 458) was being refuelled and it had '18A BELFAST' on its destination display. I wondered had it been standing in for one of the Renowns on the Carryduff to Belfast QBC route. I think that's highly likely as there would be no other reason to have 18A up. Strange that the oldest working bus in DP this summer (with its steep steps) would be used as a replacement for the newest. I don't suppose anybody saw it in Belfast? It has been very active since it moved to Downpatrick and was on the 215 Express service on Wednesday morning---very unusual also.
Does anybody know do the Excalibur Mk V Goldliners only have express service numbers on their destination scrolls? 1648 from NC was doing the normal service between Downpatrick and Newcastle on Friday morning and was showing '237 NEWCASTLE' for its destination as it left Downpatrick; that is the route number for Belfast to Newcastle (should be 17 from Dpk).