Double Deck Vehicles

40521-7  SN11BNL/E/D/A, SN11BMZ/V/U

As part of the deal to purchase the Midland Classic operations this brought seven Enviro 400 double deck buses into the wider Midlands operation of Diamond Bus.  These vehicles were purchased new by First Group for their London operations and entered service in April 2011.  The vehicles were built with dual door entrance/exits and had a seating configuration of  H41/27D as  In June 2013 the First operations in London were sold to Tower Transit and these vehicles were included in the sale by First Group. By 2018 the vehicles had joined the Midland Classic fleet and had had the centre door removed so were now configured as H41/26F. On entry to the Midland Classic fleet all were painted into the Standard Midland Classic red and yellow livery.

40540-4 V540-4ESC

42610-15  -  new use of the fleet numbers 

With the demise of Bournemouth Transport on 4th August 2022 all their vehicles being made surplus with them being disposed of either back to  leasing companies or dealers such as Ensign Bus. Rotala acquired 19 Wrights Streetlite single deckers in December 2022 which have joined the Preston and Diamond Bus fleets. The group had a further option to acquire six 15 plate Wrights double deck vehicles. The vehicles arrived in as withdrawn condition still in full Bournemouth Transport yellow livery. The vehicles were initially put into store at the Tividale depot . On 19th April 2023 40612 and 40613 entered service at Burton on Trent after being repainted in the standard Diamond Bus livery.

42625/6 -  BJ14KTC & BJ14KTA

40633/4  LJ04LFV/GA

As part of the deal to purchase Midland Classic 2 Wrights bodied double deckers joined the Diamond Bus fleet. These vehicles are on VDL chassis’  and they both started life with Arriva  in their London red bus operation. 40633 had the Arriva fleet number DW82 and 40634 had the DW87 number. Both joined the Midland Classic fleet in 2008 and were soon painted in their Red and yellow livery and were fitted with electronic destination blinds. Unlike the newer ADL double deckers both have retained their dual door arrangement. In common with many operators of dual door vehicles the centre doors are only used as an emergency exit.  

40635-40 LK04NNL/F/E & LK54FWO/L/R

As part of the deal to purchase Midland Classic  six Plaxton President bodied double deckers joined the Diamond Bus fleet. These vehicles are on Volvo chassis and are like ones acquired by Rotala back in 2013 when they purchased the Redditch operations from First Group. Unlike the previous ones these started life with Metroline though again in  London on red bus contracts in London. They joined the Midland Classic fleet in 2020 for use on school related services though like all the double deckers in the fleet do see service on other services. All the vehicles entered service in all over red livery with the Midland Classic branding added. They were soon painted in their Red and yellow livery and were fitted with electronic destination blinds. Unlike the newer ADL double deckers both have retained their dual door arrangement. In common with many operators of dual door vehicles the centre doors are only used as an emergency exit.  

40714

SL16YPH was a Wrighbus demonstrator that was new in June 2016 and was initially on long team loan to Arriva at their Kent & Surrey subsidiary at their Guildford Depot. In January 2020 Diamond North West acquired SL16YPH and it took the fleet number 40714. They also acquired sister demonstrator vehicles SK17 HHC and SK18 TKX which took the fleet numbers 40700 (now with Go Greater Manchester) and 40715 and is now with Preston Bus. These acquisitions for part of a total order for 143 Wrights double deck vehicles mainly for the Diamond North West Bolton Depot but a number were also allocated to the Preston Bus and Diamond South East operations. With the introduction in September 2023 of the first tranche of TfGM bus franchises many of the Wrights double deckers were sold to Go Ahead for use on the franchise services they operate in the Bolton area. Several of the double deckers moved to West Midlands including 40714 which joined the Tividale fleet in the West Midlands on 15th March 2024 having stayed he North West to cover the transition period after the introduction of the first franchises. 40716 differs from the Diamond production examples as it has a low bridge body and gasket mounted windows as opposed to bonded glazing.

40725/6

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 Wrights bus. 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.   When the Midland Classic operations were purchased and with reduction in vehicles requirements at Redditch following loss of much of the Johnson's bus operation to Stagecoach the two Streetdecks were transferred to Burton on Trent so that double deck vehicles that meet the Euro VI requirement could be used on their Boots contract. which runs from Birmingham City Centre. Within days 40725 was moved back to Redditch as the X11 Boots contract is in the main currently run from Redditch.

40818-20/4-43

With the loss of the the majority of the Bolton operation with the award of the franchise to the Go Ahead Group Diamond Bus started to reduce their operations from April 2023.  Co-incidentally with a operator commitment for all bus services from May 1st 2023 in the West Midlands to be operated by Euro VI standard vehicles Diamond Bus have been able to move 15 Street decks from Bolton to the West Midlands where they will see services on the 002, 16A and 50 services. Over the weekend of the 29th and 30th April 2023 a further 3 Street Decks joined the Diamond West Midlands fleet from the North West in the form of 40819/27/41. Over the weekend of the 5th and 6th May 40833 moved to the West Midlands operation. The vehicle has sustained major accident damage in the North West on the 29th April 2024 and had been rebuilt by Wrightbus .

40844/5 -  YJ70EWD & YJ70 EWC  

As part of the deal to purchase the bus operations of Johnson's Coaches in April 2022 two Optare double deckers joined the Diamond Bus fleet from Johnson's. These vehicles had joined the Johnson's fleeting 2020 from dealer stock to partly replace some earlier double deckers that were sold to Bournemouth Transport. The 2 vehicles are built with full coach seating as Johnson's used them not only on bus services but private hire and rail replacement services 

49001 -  UU11DDD  

The Chinese vehicle manufacture is keen to expand the range of electric buses they have available for the British bus market.  Yutong have already introduced a range of electrically powered single deck buses and coaches. Yutong's British distributor Pelican imported a electrically powered double decker in October 2023. It is totally built by Yutong and is offered as a complete vehicle to operators. The first vehicle was appropriately registered UU11DDD and has been used as a demonstrator. Having operated with a number of bus companies it joined the Diamond Bus fleet in April 2024 for a month's trial. The vehicle was allocated to Tividale depot and was used on the service 50 in Birmingham. The vehicle entered service on 17th April and stayed a little longer than planned until its last day in service at Diamond Bus on 4th June 2024. This was due to some accident damage sustained during its time with the operator that had to be repaired,