605 & 606 X438/9KON
Warwickshire
County Council has control through the tendering
procedures of a number of both daytime, evening and
Sunday bus services in their County. As a way of driving
up vehicle standards on these contracts they tender a
number of these routes in packages where they supply the
low floor vehicles. One of the early packages tendered
around four years ago was the one which contains the
service 23 Stratford to Whichford via Shipston on
Mondays to Saturday daytime, 2 Monday to Saturday
workings on service 279 from Stratford to Hampton Lucy),
a number of short-working journeys on service 21 from
Stratford to Broadway). Also evening services on routes
25/6 from Alcester to Stratford and 28/9 from Stratford
to Evesham. All of this package of work was won in 2000
by Guide Friday (now trading as Stratford Blue and part
of Ensign Bus) for which Warwickshire County Council
provided two brand new Mercedes Citaro 48-seater buses
in October of that year painted in their green and
yellow "County Links" livery. On re-tendering of the
services First Wyvern were successful in winning the new
contract and so the vehicles were transferred from
Stratford Blue to First Wyvern. The new contracts which
are only on a short term basis started on Tuesday 4th
January 2005 though the buses did not arrive at
Worcester for service preparation until the 7th January
2005. Johnson's of Henley in Arden operate two similar
vehicles X432/3KON on the services 21 and 22 for
Warwickshire County Council. Both First Wyvern vehicles
entered service at Evesham during the middle of January
2005 and neither actually carry a fleet number. The
ticket machines on each vehicle are coded to show the
numbers in the registration mark as the fleet number.
With the closure of Evesham Garage the vehicles moved to
Redditch Garage. However in January 2007 the vehicles
were returned to Warwickshire County Council.
Warwickshire County Council moved them to Johnson's of
Henley in Arden to join sister vehicles
X432/3KON. The vehicles have since been withdrawn.
Registration Number |
Fleet Number |
Body Make |
Seating Capacity |
Date into Service |
Allocation |
Livery |
X438KON |
605 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B48F |
Jan-05 |
Withdrawn and returned to Warwickshire CC then with Johnson's of Henley in Arden 1/07 |
Warwickshire CC "County Links" livery |
X439KON |
606 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B48F |
Jan-05 |
Withdrawn and returned to Warwickshire CC then with Johnson's of Henley in Arden 1/07 |
Warwickshire CC "County Links" livery |
Current vehicles of this type in the fleet
During 2018 the decision was taken to upgrade the Worcester fleet with 13 full sized Mercedes single deckers all of which were refurbished prior to arrival at Worcester. The vehicles fall into 3 distinct batches of vehicles. The buses were destined to replace the remainder of the Enviro 300’s which were transferred to First PMT many of the Optare Solo’s and Dennis Darts at the depot.
64012-6 & 8
A batch of eight Mercedes single deck vehicles were
allocated to First Beeline in February 2003 and
registered LT52WXA/B/L/N/O/P and LX03LNE/F and took the
national fleet numbers 64012-9. The vehicles were
allocated to the Slough depot. In October 2015 the
vehicles were transferred to Southampton to join the
First Southampton fleet and were reregistered OIG6942-8.
64017 was made into a driver trainer at Southampton and
the remaining vehicles were transferred to Worcester
depot. Before entering service all of the vehicles were
refurbished by Thornton Brothers Limited of Ashington
and repainted into the standard First urban livery with
a Fuchsia front.
Registration Number |
Fleet Number |
Body Make |
Seating Capacity |
Date into Service |
Allocation |
Livery |
OIG6942 | 64012 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | 3rd Dec 2018 | Withdrawn 3rd March 2023 - in Store at Worcester | First Urban with Pink front (11/18) |
OIG6943 |
64013 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | 27th Dec 2018 | Withdrawn July 2022 | First Urban with Pink front (11/18) |
OIG6944 | 64014 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | 20th Dec 2018 | Withdrawn November 2022 | First Urban with Pink front (11/18) |
OIG6945 |
64015 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | 21st Dec 2018 | Withdrawn July 2022 | First Urban with Pink front (11/18) |
OIG6946 |
64016 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | 30th Nov 2018 | Withdrawn 11/22 | First Urban with Pink front (11/18) |
OIG6948 |
64018 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | 17th Dec 2018 | Withdrawn November 2022 | First Urban with Pink front (11/18) |
64021
64021 is one of three vehicles 64019/20/1 that were
acquired new by First Beeline again for their Slough
depot in early 2004. 64021 was withdrawn from service
Slough in January 2018. Like all of the other vehicles
it was sent to The Thornton Brothers Limited of Ashington
for refurbishment and has like 64042/3/4/5 has been
painted in a special purple livery which has
specifically been designed for the route 35 from
Worcester City Centre to Warndon which has been branded
the Nimrod route. The vehicle arrived in Worcester fully
refurbished and entered service on 21st December 2018.
Registration Number |
Fleet Number |
Body Make |
Seating Capacity |
Date into Service |
Allocation |
Livery |
BU04EZG | 64021 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | 21st Dec 2018 | Withdrawn 5/22 Sold to Wigley 9/22 for Scrap | Purple livery (11/18) |
64030/1/3-9/42-8
The remaining six vehicles were part of a batch of 18
vehicles that took the fleet numbers 64030-64048. Again
these vehicles were new to First Beeline at their Slough
depot and entered service there to two batches one of 10
vehicles in 2007 and a further one of eight vehicles in
2008. Like 64021 all the vehicles that were transferred
to Worcester reminded in service until January 2018. On
withdrawal they were all sent to Thornton Brothers
Limited of Ashington for refurbishment. The first two
are in a special grey livery and are the back up
vehicles for the 35 and 144 when one of the branded
buses are not available for those routes. The remaining
four are like 64021 painted in a special purple livery
which has specifically been designed for the route 35
from Worcester City Centre to Warndon which has been
branded the Nimrod route. The key issue with the
vehicles was that they had spent around one year out of
service and all need new sets of batteries which had to
be specially ordered which delayed the vehicles entering
service at Worcester. During March 2020 two more of the
the vehicles from the wider batch joined the Worcester
fleet to replace Streetlites that had been transferred
to Leicester.
Registration Number |
Fleet Number |
Body Make |
Seating Capacity |
Date into Service |
Allocation |
Livery |
LK07CCA | 64030 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | Jan 2021 | Worcester | First Urban yellow front |
LK07CCD | 64031 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | Jan 2021 | Worcester | First Urban orange front |
LK07CCF | 64033 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | 22nd Dec 2018 | Worcester | Grey livery (10/18) |
LK07CCJ | 64034 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | March 2020 | Worcester | First Urban green front |
LK07CCN | 64035 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | 17th Jan 2019 | Worcester | Grey livery (11/18) |
LK07CCO | 64036 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | Jan 2021 | Worcester | First Urban lilac front |
LK07CCU | 64037 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | Jan 2021 | Withdrawn 28/2/23 following engine fire | First Urban orange front |
LK07CCV | 64038 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | March 2020 | Worcester | First Urban blue front |
LK07CCX | 64039 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | Jan 2021 | Worcester | First Urban blue front |
LK08FNL | 64042 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | 17th Jan 2019 | Worcester | Purple livery (10/18) |
LK08FMC | 64043 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | 16th Jan 2019 | Worcester | Purple livery (10/18) |
LK08FMD | 64044 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | 17th Jan 2019 | Worcester | Purple livery (10/18) |
LK08FME | 64045 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | 10th Jan 2019 | Withdrawn December 2022 | Purple livery (10/18) |
LK08FMF | 64046 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | Jan 2021 | Worcester | First Urban green front |
LK08FMG | 64047 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | Jan 2021 | Worcester | First Urban orange front |
LK08FMJ | 64048 |
Mercedes Citaro |
B40F | Jan 2021 | Worcester | First Urban green front |