Posted by Dale Tringham on April 8, 2001, 9:25 pm
62.64.191.187
The second part of my notes on my trip last week follow:-....................
See my other note for comments re new Belfast DD's.
Thanks to an over-leisurely (why?) drive up the motorway on the Londonderry express coach we arrived everywhere 5-10 minutes late. Here, as in most other N.I towns of any size (Coleraine, Antrim, Portadown, Newtownards, Bangor, Armagh etc etc) there were a number of Leyland Leopards still running for Ulsterbus with all batches from ROI (1978) onwards much in evidence. The location of the bus station in 'Derry is not wonderful for photography and I only waited long enough to catch a couple of Lough Swilly vehicles as they arrived from over the border [by the way, the present foot and mouth crisis is causing delays of up to 2 hours on the Belfast-Dublin service].
An 'Airporter' bus in 'Derry was Mercedes midi M858 PVT (ex?) and BDF 203Y [orig C & G?] was a Non-PSV in Belfast with something like Belfast Science Discovery. There was also a Titan (unidentifiable but seemingly ex Stagecoach) in Dundonald High School.
Eventually finding that I had a 3 hour wait for the next bus to Coleraine (the one I watched go by did not exist according to the bus office staff - well it wouldn't would it as they only gave me details for 1 route when there were 2 !!) it was necessary to go by train - not usually any quicker for many journies. This was easily done as I had bought a 'Freedom of Northern Ireland' ticket [£27-50 for any 3 days in 8, available only from bus/train stations - quite good value as long as you intend travelling quite a lot]. At least in Coleraine I saw Open Top Atlantean OXI 518 patiently waiting to commence it's 2-month operation (July/Aug only) to the Giant's Causeway.
By the way, it was good to see new/refurbished rail/bus interchanges being completed in numerous locations but, as highlighted above, if the staff cannot give tourists accurate information it will be difficult to get them to use the services. Even so, a typically Irish timetable seems to be route 218 (Belfast - Coleraine) where there are 4 journies to the capital but only 1 (at 09.50) from it!!. Come to think of it, there is a Belfast bus map but nothing for the even more useful Ulsterbus (country) area. And while I'm on the subject [apologies to any Irish reading this] can someone please explain the map wording '.....Buses travelling out of the city show their route number and destination. Buses travelling into the city centre show the route number and destination for their next journey out of the city centre...........' (!!!!!!!) This good old Irish approach is presumably to do with the fact that *every* city route goes to the city centre - there are [somewhat surprisingly] no semi-circular or inner-ring services linking suburbs.
Also seen in Richhill was Optare Star Rider F363 SDP with Orchard Valley Coaches still in it's ex-Reading livery. A Non-PSV seen in Belfast was H393 KPY, one of those CVE Omni things.
All in all a good 3 days, particularly helped by bright sunshine on the first 2 days and the unexpected appearance of the new double deckers in Belfast.