Double Deck Vehicles

40540-4 V540-4ESC

During March 2013 Diamond Bus acquired for Dennis Trident double deckers from their sister subsidiary Preston Bus for use at the recently acquired Redditch depot. The vehicles had started life with Lothian Buses as dual door vehicles in Edinburgh. When the vehicles had been sold to Preston Bus they had been converted to a single door configuration. However they retained their trade mark Lothian Buses Scottish tartan seat apostasy and a number of tables in the down stairs seating area. Before the vehicles entered service at Redditch they were repainted in the striking all over blue Diamond Bus livery. Their entry into service allowed the former First Midland double deckers to be withdrawn. In the ensuing years all but one of the vehicles have been withdrawn. 40544 was retained at Redditch and was used on a Warwickshire contracted service for Alcester Grammar School. At the end of the school year in July 2019 the vehicle was withdrawn.

Registration Number Fleet Number Vehicle Type Body type Seating Capacity Date into Service Current Allocation
V540ESC 40540 Dennis Trident Plaxton H45/29F March 2013 Withdrawn 12/16 destroyed by fire  10/19
V541ESC 40541 Dennis Trident Plaxton H45/29F March 2013 Withdrawn 7/15 destroyed by fire  10/19
V542ESC 40542 Dennis Trident Plaxton H45/29F March 2013 Withdrawn 7/15 destroyed by fire  10/19
V543ESC 40543 Dennis Trident Plaxton H45/29F March 2013 Withdrawn 12/16  destroyed by fire  10/19
V544ESC 40544 Dennis Trident Plaxton H45/29F March 2013 Withdrawn 7/19 Sold to Peters for scrap 3/20

40610-9    V857/60/2/77/T881KLF/V882HHL/T884KLF/V885/6/94HHL

When Diamond Bus purchased the Redditch Garage from First Midland Red on 3rd March 2013 the deal included ten T and V registered Dennis Tridents. The vehicles had only joined the Redditch fleet in the autumn of 2012 and had allowed all five of the 54 plate Dennis Tridents to be transferred to the Worcester depot and a number of step entrance Dennis Lance vehicles to be withdrawn. The ten vehicles had started life on Transport for London contracts with Firstgroup and at the end of a 12 year period in service the vehicles were replaced with newer vehicles. Being built to a dual door configuration the vehicle underwent some  refurbishment that removed the extra set of doors, fitted electronic destination blinds and gave the vehicle a general overhaul. Initially the vehicles were allocated to First Eastern National before being replaced by slightly newer vehicles in late 2012 to allow the transfer to Redditch depot.

Registration Number Fleet Number Vehicle Type Body type Seating Capacity Date into Service Current Allocation
V857HBY 40610 Dennis Trident Plaxton H42/27F October 2012 Withdrawn - Sold to Ensign bus 10/13
V860HBY 40611 Dennis Trident Plaxton H42/27F 20th August 2012 Withdrawn
V862HBY 40612 Dennis Trident Plaxton H42/27F September 2012 Withdrawn
V877HBY 40613 Dennis Trident Plaxton H42/27F August 2012 Withdrawn - Sold to Preston bus for spares
T881KLF 40614 Dennis Trident Plaxton H42/27F October 2012 Withdrawn - Sold to Preston bus for spares
V882HBY 40615 Dennis Trident Plaxton H42/27F October 2012 Withdrawn - Sold to Ensign bus 10/13
T884KLF 40616 Dennis Trident Plaxton H42/27F October 2012 Withdrawn
T885KLF 40617 Dennis Trident Plaxton H42/27F October 2012 Withdrawn
T886KLF 40618 Dennis Trident Plaxton H42/27F September 2012 Withdrawn - Sold to Ensign bus 10/13
V894HHL 40619 Dennis Trident Plaxton H42/27F September 2012 Withdrawn

Former First Midland Red Fleet numbers are 40610 - 32857, 40611 - 32860, 40612 - 32862, 40613 - 32877, 40614 - 32881, 40615 - 32882, 40616 - 32884, 40617 - 32885, 40618 - 32886 & 40619 - 32894

42564/5 - K123/6URP

With the sale of Redditch and Kidderminster Garages of First Midland Red to Diamond Bus on 3rd March 2013 K123URP and K126URP were included in the sale and surprisingly unlike a number of the step entrance Dennis Lance vehicles they were retained for service making them by far the oldest vehicles in the Diamond Bus fleet. Whilst the vehicles were in the fleet for the operation of school services they did see service on other routes.  With the sale K123URP was renumbered 42564 from 34123 and K126URP was renumbered 42565 from 34126. In the event the vehicles were withdrawn at the end of the 2013 academic year and were soon sold for scrap.

Registration Number Fleet Number Vehicle Type Seating Capacity Date into Service Current Allocation
K123URP 42564 Volvo B10M CH47/35F Nov-05 Withdrawn - June 2013 - Sold to Willenhall Commercials for scrap Sept 2013
K126URP 42565 Volvo B10M CH47/35F September-06 Withdrawn - August 2013 - Sold to Willenhall Commercials for scrap Sept 2013

42625/6 -  BJ14KTC & BJ14KTA

During 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 Rotala purchased small batches of double deck vehicles for their Bristol and Preston operations. They were all Wrights bodied Volvo B5LH vehicles. They took the fleet numbers 40602-9, 40619-22 and 40625-8. Of those vehicles 40602-5 and 40625/6 were new the Bristol operation. On closure of the Bristol operation in June 2019 many of the vehicles were dispersed to other operations within the group. 40625 has led a rather nomadic life moving first to Bolton in June 2019 only to move to Redditch in August 2019 following the withdrawal of 40544. Then in April 2020 it moved back to Bolton and then onto Preston in November 2020 only to return to Redditch in August 2021. Whereas 40626 moved to the Hounslow depot in August 2018 and then to Redditch in February 2021. Both vehicles are regularly used on the service 247 from Redditch to Evesham to cater for school traffic on the route.

Registration Number Fleet Number Vehicle Type Body type Seating Capacity Date into Service Current Allocation
BJ14KTC 40625 Volvo B9TL Wrights H45/29F August 2021 Redditch
BJ14KTA 40626 Volvo B9TL Wrights H45/29F February 2021 Redditch

42725/6 -  MX20HVJ & MX20 HVK 

Back in August 2019 Rotala purchased the Bolton bus depot from First Group for £5.3M. Unusually, it did not purchase most of the vehicles instead agreeing short term leasing agreements for the buses. For the double deckers this was for just over 12 months. The Rotala plan was to replace all of these vehicles with brand new Streetdeck vehicles manufactured by Wrightsbus. Since then the company has taken delivery of 143 new vehicles plus a nearly new demonstrator vehicle. The vast majority of the vehicles have been allocated to the Bolton depot but the opportunity has also been taken to upgrade vehicles at the Preston depot. In late April 2022 it was announced that Rotala would be purchasing the bus operations of Johnson’s of Henley in Arden. Some of the services they acquired needed double deck vehicles and so 2 streetdecks were transferred from the Bolton depot over the weekend of the 30th April/1st May 2022 initially going to the Tividale depot where they were used on a rail replacement service and the 002. Within days the vehicles had moved to Redditch ready to be used on former Johnson services.  

Registration Number Fleet Number Vehicle Type Seating Capacity Date into Service Current Allocation
MX20HVJ  40725 Wright StreetDeck SC5DDRDXU20000016  H45/29F May 2022 Redditch
MX20HVK  40726 Wright StreetDeck SC5DDRDXU20000017  H45/29F May 2022 Redditch