Here are various buses that I spotted around Loughborough town centre on the 13th of December 2022.
Diamond East Midlands 31423 (formerly Midland Classic 34) heads up Frederick Street with the 13:05 129 service to Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
Midland Classic will probably go down as one of the shortest-lived bus operators in the history of Loughborough. On the 1st of August 2022, Midland Classic took over the tendered service 129 between Loughborough and Ashby-de-la-Zouch from Paul S Winson Coaches; just two days later, the former was acquired by the Rotala Group, and is undergoing the slow process of being rebranded as Diamond East Midlands.
Skills' Coaches' integrally-built Irizar i6s (YS22 JGY) passes along Ashby Square. The Irizar i6s was introduced just last year.
Over on Baxter Gate, Centrebus's Optare Versa 773 (YJ60 LTU) loads up with passengers for a service 154 to Leicester.
773 was new to Webberbus, Bridgwater, Somerset, in 2010, and was manufactured during the brief period when Versas were built with headlamps arranged in the shape of chevrons, halfway through the transition from horizontally-arranged headlamps to vertical ones.
Around the corner on High Street, Arriva's Sapphire-liveried Alexander-Dennis Enviro400MMC 4546 (YY67 HDN) is seen waiting with a service 16 to Coalville.
Up the street, Kinchbus's Optare Solo 478 (FJ09 MWD) waits time with a service 5 to Ravensthorpe Drive.
Kinchbus's Optare Versa 83_ (YD63 VC_) passes Arriva 4546 on its way to Thorpe Acre a Dishley with a service 11.
It is followed by Nottingham City Transport's ADL Enviro200MMC 304 (YX69 NR_), which makes a very unusual appearance in Loughborough. 304 is one of a batch of ten E200MMCs delivered to Nottingham City Transport in late 2019; it and seven of the others are normally confined to the Green Line Bridgford Bus services 5 and 7-9; as NCT's fleet is, as described by themselves, over 70% double-decker, single-decker buses almost never show up on the 1.
Although showing a not-in-service destination blind, 304 seems to have made a second round trip to Loughborough after returning to Nottingham; data from bustimes.org showed that 304 went on services all over NCT's network that day. Perhaps the NIS blind is because this bus didn't have blinds for the 1 programmed... but that doesn't explain why there was a regular double-decker bus following not too far behind...
Arriva's VDL DB250 Wright Pulsar Gemini 4750 (FJ06 ZSL) pulls up behind 4546 with a 127 for Pitsford Drive.
As of this month, twenty of the 32 Wright Pulsar Geminis new to Arriva Midlands remain in service in Leicester.
Over on Baxter Gate, we find that NCT 304 has stopped much further up the street than the service 1 normally does.
Arriva 4546, now on its way to Coalville, passes NCT 304.
Following 4546 is Kinchbus 478.
Then it gets busy.
L-R: NCT Scania N2_0UD ADL E400 646 (YN15 EJJ), with a service 1 for Nottingham; Centrebus ADL E200 557 (MX14 FUM) with a service 8 for Melton Mowbray and then Grantham; Arriva 4750; NCT 304.
Kinchbus's Mercedes-Benz Citaro 904 (BN09 FWX) joins the back of the queue...
...before advancing up the street.
904 then waits for Arriva 4750 to vacate the space behind NCT 304.
NCT 304 leaves for Nottingham.
Following drastic cuts, Kinchbus's service 2 now only needs one bus instead of five. Mk2 Mercedes-Benz Citaro 901 remains branded for the 2, though the branding has been slightly altered; 903-905 have been rebranded for the service 9 to Nottingham, replacing Scania L94UB Wright Solars 650-652, and 906, now named John Stones, is spare. 904 finally arrives at its stop on Baxter Gate as Centrebus 557 pulls out behind it.
Centrebus 557 then leaves for Grantham.
Back at Frederick Street, we see Diamond 31423 (YX12 AYZ) head up Frederick Street again with the next 129 to Ashby. I would have photographed it from the other side of the road, but as it came around the corner, I noticed something rather peculiar.
Double doors! A thing seldom seen on buses outside London (the only time I can remember riding a double-doored bus was on an East Lancs Mylennium on the Citylink service in Southampton in May 2014), and up until I saw 3242_, the last time I'd seen a double-doored bus in Loughborough was in December 2021, when, in close proximity to this location, I saw Arriva's ADL E200 MMC 3104, which was in the livery of the East Midlands Airport park and ride. 3104 was one of a batch of four E200MMCs for the airport shuttles, which underwent a hiatus that resulted in the buses being used in various places, but especially Leicester. 3104 went around the corner from Ashby Road onto Frederick Street and stopped outside the Old Arts College. Some elderly women then alighted... using the front door. Subsequently all four of the E200MMCs were repainted, converted to single-door operation and exiled to Hinckley.
As for Diamond 31423, it was new to First London as DMV44221, but swiftly moved on to Tower Transit, also in London, before being sold to Midland Classic after a relatively short career in London and renumbered 34.
NCT 642 (YN15 EJC) is later seen at the bottom of Baxter Gate.
Parked further up the street is Paul S Winson Coaches' sole Yutong TC9, 136 (XX66 PSW).
Paul S Winson Coaches have eight Volvo B7TL Alexander ALX400s which were originally with Dublin Bus in Ireland. Some of them had an extra lick of black paint applied when they were painted into Winson's livery, further augmenting the appearance of the already immaculate buses. 145 (X13 PSW) is one such bus, seen traveling up Baxter Gate after working a school service. It was originally registered 06-D-30470 and numbered AX470 when with Dublin Bus.
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