Go-Ahead London has applied these driver recruitment adverts to at least 25 of their Mercedes Vito minibuses, although that is less than half of the current fleet of 58 such vehicles. They are to be found at various garages, most notably Orpington and Northumberland Park, while other Go-Ahead garages still only operate anonymous red minibuses. The distribution presumably relates to which garages have bus driver shortages. Derek photographed RX71SZN at Bromley North station on 19th March 2024 and has perhaps unwittingly solved a slight puzzle. Bexleyheath garage has had a few crew ferry vehicles in recent years, and sometimes applies local fleet numbers (BX1 and BX2). For some reason, the numbers have often been applied multiple times. For example, I saw RJ19HSZ in 2021 with no fewer than four BX2s on the rear. RJ19HSZ later moved to Orpington and when I saw it there in 2023 it still had all of its BX2 numbers except those on the rear. As they are now carried by RX71ZSN, the logical assumption would be that the two vehicles have simply swapped rear doors, perhaps during repairs. By the way, Bexleyheath's current minibuses (RJ19HSN and RJ19HSN) are unfortunately unlettered. |
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Photo ID: |
7796 |
Photo date: |
19/03/2024 |
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Regular. An extra large copy of this photo is available. |
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Date added: |
31/05/2024 |