Yesterday whilst on my way to Blackpool for the night for onward travel to Lancaster and Morecambe tomorrow I decided to take a look at the times in which are very interesting for both Preston Bus & Stagecoach North West.
I start with Preston, a lovely busy city full of exiting things, lots of shops to visit, but sadly I was limited to around an hour whist I awaited the Stagecoach North West service X61 to Blackpool for which it is there I was to stay the night, the X61 service is generally operated by coaches rather than buses but there is always a chance of a bus being on the service.
I started at Preston Bus Station, where I noted a small variety of Preston Bus vehicles and former Preston Bus vehicles that where repainted into Stagecoach's take over of the Preston Bus business, with these there was also Transdev with various services extending into the very heart of Lancashire.
 |
| Volvo B7RLE / Wright Eclipse FJ57 CZN |
I decided to take a trip on the Preston Bus service 23 to Sherwood ADSA as it's quite a nice place to photograph some of the buses on the 23 service but also buses on the Orbit Circular service 88 and 88A which are a clockwise and anticlockwise pair of services serving the City Centre and orbit around the city to various locations of interest.
 |
| Scania N94UD / East Lancashire Omnidekka PO56 RSZ |
A few coach services including Megabus.com and Stotts tours also call at Preston Bus Station taking passengers far and wide.
Arriving in Blackpool I checked into my hotel, then I decided to have a wonder around the lovely seaside town, various vehicles of interest to me where the Blackpool Transport (Metro Coastlines) Leyland Olympians with East Lancashire Coachbuilders body, they're one set of vehicles that I always seem to remember from my many visits to Blackpool when I was younger.
 |
| Transbus Trident 2 / East Lancashire Myllennium Lolyne PJ03 TFF |
 |
| DAF SB220 / Optare Delta J123 GRN |
With having a Stagecoach North West ticket I decided to board the appropriately named go-door-to-door 84 service which as stated serves almost everywhere you wouldn't want to visit on your way to Fleetwood, anyhow I ended up taking this service all the way from Blackpool via Victoria Hospital, Poulton, Thornton and Cleveleys to reach Fleetwood with firstly a quick stop off at Cleveleys Town Centre.
 |
| Optare Solo M950 YN53 ZWX |
Having wondered around Cleveleys for a short while I decided to get the next go-door-to-door 84 to reach Fleetwood.
 |
| Optare Versa V1100 PX08 FNC |
I then decided to ride some of Blackpool Transport's vehicles from there including the service 7 to Lytham St Anns, which I was delighted on riding an Optare Excel of any sort as I hadn't really ridden many in the past.
 |
| Leyland Olympian / East Lancashire F372 AFR |
Shortly after that I retired to my hotel for the evening to get a good night's sleep for the day after, with yet more travelling to do from 10am.
The next day I walked into the Town Centre and found where the Stagecoach North West service 40 ran and boarded it to take me to Lancaster, this was provided with one of the many MAN 14.240's with Alexander ALX300 body, which really wasn't my sort of cup of tea.
 |
| Volvo B10M / Alexander PS M541 VCW |
Arriving in Lancaster, the first thing I noticed was the strong presence of Stagecoach operating many a service far and wide with vehicles such as Volvo Olympians, Dennis Dart SLF's, Optare Solo's and Versa's and Dennis Trident 2's.
 |
| Optare Solo M850 PO51 WLN |
 |
| Optare Solo M880 MX10 DZH |
Lancaster has around two different independent companies providing services with Mercedes Benz O.814's with Plaxton Beaver 2 bodies being with Battersby Silver Gray and also Optare Solo's with The Travellers Choice.
 |
| Mercedes Benz O.814 / Plaxton Beaver 2 KF52 TZN |
Overall the mid week break in Lancashire was great, I intend to visit the Lake District and further afield in the future including going towards the Lake District and Carlisle and so on.
