详情

原文传递 Present day operation in one of the Outer Hebrides

题名：	Present day operation in one of the Outer Hebrides
正文语种：	eng
作者：	ALAN MILIAR
摘要：	This album is mainly about buses on one of the Western Isles - the largest and northernmost one that divides into Lewis and Harris - rather than the entire archipelago that stretches south-westwards through North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Barra. Richard Walter is a regular visitor and has observed the many changes to bus and coach operation in communities where 50 years ago the predominant service bus was a Willowbrook-bodied Bedford SB5 and the requirement for coaches was so limited that ideas of purchasing new or nearly new ones would have been banished without cause for a second thought. Today, low-floor buses - several (like the MCV-bodied Volvo B8RLE on the cover) bought new - are as essential as anywhere on the UK mainland and, at least pre-Covid, regular calls by cruise ships created a requirement for well-equipped coaches for use on day trips, many also bought new. Pre-1975 when Scottish local government was restructured, Lewis was in the county of Ross & Cromarty, while Harris and the islands to the south were in Inverness-shire. All are administered today from Stomoway by the unitary Western Isles council which functions by its Gaelic name of Comhairle nan Eilan Siar. The council directly operates scheduled bus routes and schools services in Lewis through Bus na Comhairle, the second largest council bus fleet in Scotland after Lothian. As an entity created long after bus deregulation, this is a direct operation rather than an arm's length company. Walter's pictures (and a few by resident enthusiasts) provide a flavour of the mixed content of this sometimes forgotten municipal operation, from front-engined BMC 1100FE schoolbuses to Optare Solos and Alexander Dennis Enviro200s, and the nature of the routes they run, often on single-track roads, to serve thinly populated communities. The buses and coaches of the private sector operators provide more variety and colour (the council's buses are either white or yellow or a mix of the two). The colours of the Hebridean Transport fleet were inspired by those of Epsom Coaches from whom it once purchased some Dennis Javelins, though it has since greatly increased the proportion of cream over dark red.
出版年：	2021
期刊名称：	Buses
卷：	73
期：	797