Dennis Dart - Step Entrance

During the early 1990s, Midland Red West developed an extensive network of subsidised bus services in Shropshire, operated from Kidderminster depot with a number of outstations including Bishops Castle, Ludlow and Bridgnorth. The services were initially operated using a mixture of Leyland Nationals, Leyland Leopards and Mercedes minibuses. To meet the requirements of Shropshire County Council, Midland Red West decided to purchase a dedicated fleet of 14 Dennis Darts. Thirteen of these vehicles were built to the DPTAC accessibility standard, while the fourteenth was constructed to the then-new low-floor specification. As part of the evaluation process for the Dennis Dart type, a demonstrator vehicle, M284 HRH, was operated by Midland Red West during March 1995. Following successful trials, thirteen production vehicles, registered N301–N313 XAB, were delivered in August 1995 and entered service from Kidderminster depot during August and September of that year. A major review of Midland Red West's operations in April 1997 resulted in the withdrawal of the majority of the company's Shropshire routes. As a consequence, Darts 301–312 were transferred to Redditch depot, where they replaced the majority of the Mercedes 608 minibuses then operating from the garage. By August 2000, all thirteen vehicles were based at Redditch. To help combat vandalism problems and improve the interior layout, the buses were re-seated from DP36F to DP35F. This modification involved turning the final offside double seat to face backwards, removing the final nearside double seat and replacing it with a single inward-facing seat taken from a withdrawn Mercedes L608D. The introduction of the 22/24 service between Stratford-upon-Avon and Chipping Norton created a requirement at Evesham depot for three Dennis Lances. To release these vehicles, three Redditch Dennis Darts (311–313) were transferred to Hereford and Kidderminster depots in exchange for three Dennis Lances for Evesham. However, the seating capacity of the Darts proved unsuitable for some of the work at Hereford. As a result, during late 2001 and early 2002, 309, 310 and 312 were exchanged for three former Midland Red Dennis Lances (218–220) that had been acquired by First Cymru in 1997. From January 2003, all remaining vehicles from the original N301–N313 XAB batch were reallocated to Hereford depot, where they continued to operate a variety of local services.