Iveco 49-10 Minibuses

As a way of expanding the operating area at De-regulation in 1986 Badgerline entered into a number of joint ventures with neighboring bus companies such as Wilts & Dorset, Portsmouth Citybus and Southern Vectis Ltd. These new ventures were in main run with vehicles supplied by Badgerline. Some of these buses were older surplus Badgerline fleet vehicles such as Bristol RE single deckers. However, the majority of them were Iveco 49-10 19-seat minibuses, which were leased from Ryder Truck Rental. By summer 1988 these joint ventures had end and the then recently acquired Midland Red West subsidiary had a requirement for minibuses for its West Midlands operation. A number of the now surplus Iveco minibuses were moved north to Midland Red West. The vehicles continued to be operated on a contract hire bases and were initially operated from the National Carriers Depot at Aston in Birmingham. The first vehicles allocated in August 1988 to Midland Red West came from the Badgerline batch that were registered in the series D490-21HOU. By October 1989 vehicles from the second batch registered E422-942KEU were substituted for the slightly older vehicles which were returned back to Badgerline. At the time the West Midlands tendered bus network was fairly changeable and so Midland Red West were able to respond quickly by moving additional vehicles into it’s West Midlands operation on short term basis. This can be seen from the fleet lists below where some of the Iveco minibuses only spent a matter of months in the Midland Red West fleet. By 1991 Centro was becoming increasingly concerned about the reliability of the Iveco minibuses on their contracted services. In return for the letting of some longer term contracts in October 1991 Midland Red West agreed to swap the Iveco minibuses with a corresponding number of Mercedes 609D minibuses from the 1412-39 (E412-39KUY) batch, which at the time were based at their Hereford Garage. All the remaining Iveco minibuses (numbers 1922-1925 & 1927-1931) moved to Hereford Garage. The vehicles continued to be used at Hereford until 1993 when they were replaced by a corresponding number of Mercedes L608D minibuses from Bristol Omnibus Company. During their time at Midland Red West none of the Iveco minibuses were ever repainted and were always operated in livery that they arrived in just with Midland Red West makings added. In the Midland Red West fleet all the vehicles carried 19xx fleet numbers that corresponded with the vehicle registration mark – the vehicles had all been numbered in the 49xx series with Badgerline

On Loan from Badgerline Ltd