Olympic SHUTTLE fleet finally goes Local
Back in March 2012 First Devon & Cornwall introduced new buses on the Plymouth Park & Ride services. These replaced the previous ADL "Enviro 400" buses which were sent off to Bath to work.
These new buses were actually part of a large order for 100 of these buses for First Group. All 100 were used for the Olympics where they carried the SHUTTLE names on their sides in large capital letters and all of these buses were delivered in the new standard livery being introduced across the whole of First Group. After the Olympics the rest of this batch of 100 buses were sent to work in Manchester with the 9 Plymouth buses returning for their Park & Ride duties.
There were in fact 200 brand new double deck buses and many refurbished double deckers on the Olympic SHUTTLE duties in the new livery and everywhere else in the country these SHUTTLE names have been replaced with local fleet names. Only in Plymouth were the SHUTTLE names retained.
However, finally it seems that new local names are being added to these comfortable buses with the appearance of the new DEVON names as seen on at least one of the Park & Ride fleet this week. It shouldn't be too long before the Olympic SHUTTLE name finally disappears.
Over time most of the local First fleet will receive this new livery scheme. Its been a very slow process so far with just the one other double decker in the full scheme.
