Somehow, Arriva has come into the possession of an Optare Solo (admittedly, it looks a bit tiddly on a route normally operated using full size Dennis Darts and the occasional double decker but never underestimate how many can be fitted into these buses) with a sign on board dating from the days of Chester City Transport. It’s like a vague memory that the erstwhile municipal operation had at least one bus with Cheshire County Council “Cheshire Rider” livery and this, with its dark blue paintwork, might have been one of them. That recollection leads me to wonder if Arriva has the bus on loan from Cheshire East Council, especially with the local authority’s logo featured on the sides of the vehicle.
This week, it has appeared operating 130 services between Macclesfield and Manchester and carries signage publicising the real time bus tracker that has been available since the end of last year. The strap line goes something like “to find out if the 130 is on time, go online”. With that sort of livery and the mention of Cheshire East Council, you’d expect the bus to have a GPS tracker but I have seen little evidence of that so far. Maybe, it’s one of life’s little ironies.
It also has appeared at the same time that Arriva has updated the 130 timetable to cope with all the upheaval that the A34 bypass and associated works has brought to Alderley Edge and Nether Alderley. Adding to that is what is happening in Macclesfield with roads being dug up all around the town to replace old gas mains. It’s like everything is happening all at once but we’ll have to hop that they stop up soon enough.
