SUB 415G |
Leeds City Council took a number
of AEC Swifts with locally built Roe bodies which later passed
to the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. Near
the end of its life, dual-doorway 1015 was seen at Headingley
in June 1983 on a service that also used to be home to unusual
single-deck Daimler Fleetlines with almost identical bodywork. |
AUB 164J |
A later style of Roe bodywork is
seen on WYPTE 1064, busy at work on a Leeds city circular
service in May 1984. |
TDK 547K |
Another corporation to buy AEC
Swifts as part of the trend toward rear-engined single-deckers
in the late '60s and early '70s was Rochdale. TDK 547K,
with Pennine bodywork usually associated with Seddons, was
one of the last batch ordered by Rochdale and delivered to
SELNEC PTE. It was seen at Caernarfon in June 1982 while
in the ownership of Gwyneth area independent Silver Star of
Cesarea. |
EGN 283J |
London Transport bought 33ft. and
36ft. versions of the AEC Swift, with Park Royal and Metro-Cammell
bodywork. They were relatively unsuccessful, with sometimes
suspect reliability, while the longer ones had difficulty
manoevouring through the heavy traffic (the latter lesson
had to be relearnt in the 1990s with shortlived Dennis Lances
and Volvo B10Bs, although longer buses have returned again
in the form of MB Citaros and the controversial artics).
SMS283 was one of a dwindling number on regular services when
seen at Aldgate bus station in January 1980. |
VLW 94G |
London Transport decided to apply
the Merlin name to their 36ft. models, and this was reflected
by the MB prefix to their fleetnumbers. As part of the country
fleet, MB94 passed to new NBC subsidiary London Country in
1970. It was still running in LT dark green country area livery
when seen at Guildford some nine years later in April 1979. |
DPD 499J |
Shorter version SM499 was painted
into the special livery adopted for the high frequency "Superbus"
services serving the burgeoning estates in the new town of
Stevenage. It was seen at the town's bus station in April
1979. The pattern of service on many Stevenage routes remains
very similar today, although the branding and operators have
changed several times since. The LT specified Metro-Cammell
bodywork of this bus looks very dated compared to the BET
styled Swift below. |
XCY 466J |
South Wales never really got on
with their Swifts, which seemed to have trouble coping with
the hilly terrain. They quickly migrated to new NBC subsidiary
London Country which was suffering from fearful reliability
problems with its inherited LT fleet. Marshall bodied SMW8
was seen at St. Albans bus station in April 1979, having arrived
on the service from Dunstable. |
|
VJG
186J
|
East Kent changed from Reliances
to Swifts when they deemed the rear engine layout to be more
suitable for urban buses. Initially confined to urban work,
they started to appear alongside Leyland Nationals on longer
distance routes when the last Reliances were withdrawn. One
of the second batch of Marshall bodied Swifts, VJG 186J was
seen at Dover in August 1979 on the frequent main road route
to Folkestone. |
|
YJG 582K
|
East Kent turned to Alexander for
their final batch of AEC Swifts. These were confined mainly
to Dover town services, but later in their lives appeared
on longer distance routes as AEC Reliances were withdrawn.
Unlike some Swifts elsewhere, the East Kent ones with their
AH691 engines lacked neither speed nor power and were well
suited to the hilly terrain around Dover and the high speeds
of some EK rural routes. 1582 was seen at Ramsgate harbour
in April 1981. |
MBO 523F |
Cardiff Transport operated a batch
of AEC Swifts with this unusual style of Willowbrook body.
516 and 523 had migrated to nearby independent Brewers of
Caerau for school bus work when pictured in June 1982. The
location is the company's former Maesteg depot, adjacent to
that of another well-known former South Wales independent
- Llynfi Motors. Brewers were bought by First Group and merged
with part of the former National Welsh operation to create
a bigger but rather different company based in Bridgend, before
just becoming part of First South Wales.
Meanwhile sister MBO 512F is now preserved by the Cardiff
Transport Preservation Group. |
JEE 50P |
Grimsby-Cleethorpes ran a number
of East Lancs bodied Swifts. Number 50, one of the last
batch and amongst the last Swifts ever built, was seen in
Grimsby in March 1981. |
AML 569H |
Former LT "Merlin" MB569 moved
to Derbyshire independent Woolliscroft who ran it under the
Silver Service name on services jointly with Hulleys.
It was seen at Woolliscroft's Darley Dale garage in September
1982. Woolliscroft no longer operate but Hulleys continue
to run in the area under their own name. |
AML 602H |
Another ex London Transport Merlin
that was put to work elsewhere was former MB602, which was
pictured in April 1980 working for the ferry company Townsend
Thoreson as a transfer vehicle between the Dover Docks and
Priory Station. East Kent operated a number of dockside contracts
for Seaspeed and Hoverspeed with secondhand Daimler Fleetline
single deckers and an AEC Swift as a backup vehicle, but Townsend
Thoreson preferred to run their own service. |
RJG 203G |
Here is the East Kent Swift, one
of their first batch of Marshall bodied vehicles, converted
to dual-doorway and painted in National white coach livery
for the purpose. It was photographed en route for Dover Priory
on the same day as the picture above. Nowadays the few remaining
boat ferries only take cars, so foot passengers use the Eurostar/Euroshuttle
and the Dover Boat Trains from London are no more. |
NTP 181H |
Cosham Coaches of Portsmouth operated
commercial services in competition with City of Portsmouth
for a while after deregulation. It may have been quite galling
for the incumbent operator that one of the vehicles used to
compete against them, AEC Swift NTP 181H, had in fact originated
from its own fleet. It was pictured in June 1987. |
NTP 181H |
Here is 181 at Cosham in July 1981
while in the ownership of Portsmouth Corporation Transport. |
OFR 985M |
Kent County Council supported service
150 between the Medway towns and Tunbridge Wells had a succession
of operators post-deregulation, with Maidstone & District
having to take over at short notice from time to time.
One such was Auto-Reps of Gravesend. In this March 1990
view a sluggish ex Blackpool Swift has arrived at Tunbridge
Wells half an hour late, with an ex Manchester Atlantean in
attendance. The route is now run in two sections with
modern low-floor buses, with Arriva running service 77 between
Tunbridge Wells and West Malling and Nu-Venture the 151 route
between Chatham and West Malling. |
