ADL Double Deckers

40521-7  SN11BNL/E/D/A, SN11BMZ/V/U

As part of Diamond Bus's acquisition of the Midland Classic operation, seven Alexander Dennis Enviro400 double-deck buses joined the company's expanding Midlands fleet. The vehicles had been built new for FirstGroup's London operations and entered service in April 2011. Constructed to Transport for London specifications, the buses featured dual entrance and exit doors and were configured to seat 68 passengers (H41/27D). In June 2013, FirstGroup sold its London bus operations to Tower Transit, with these seven Enviro400s included in the transfer. By 2018, all seven vehicles had transferred to the Midland Classic fleet. Before entering provincial service, the centre exit doors were removed to better suit operating requirements outside London, reducing the seating capacity slightly to H41/26F. The buses were subsequently repainted into Midland Classic's distinctive red and yellow fleet livery, in which they remained until the company was acquired by Diamond Bus. Their transfer to Diamond Bus represented another useful addition of modern, low-floor double-deck vehicles to the expanding Midlands fleet, allowing the company to strengthen capacity on a number of its busiest services while continuing the operation of well-maintained vehicles inherited through the Midland Classic acquisition.

40528/31/2  SN11BRV/SU/RZ

40528, 40531 and 40532 were part of a 13-vehicle order in 2011 for Alexandra Dennis E400s with H41/26D dual door seating configuration the vehicles entered service with First Capital East Limited and they entered service from Lea Interchange bus depot in June 2011. The Lea Interchange bus depot and vehicles were owned by First Capital East Limited but operationally part of First Capital North Limited and these were acquired by the Transit Systems Group on 21st June 2013. All 13 vehicles from this batch including the 3 now with Diamond Bus passed to Centrewest (No.1) Limited. Centrewest (No.1) Limited was soon renamed Tower Transit Operations Ltd on 23rd June 2013. The vehicles remained in service in London until May 2021 when they were sold to Ensign Bus Company Limited (a Purfleet based dealer). Ensign altered the seating and removed the centre door so are now configured as H41/31F and the vehicles were sold to Belle Vue (Manchester) Limited (a Heaton Chapel based operator) in September 2021. They are part of the same batch of vehicles at Burton on Trent depot that had been acquired by Midland Classic The vehicles were mainly used on TfGM school services so were painted into a yellow livery (not quiet the shade of yellow that is now used by the Manchester Bee Network). When the school services the vehicles were used on were retendered as part of the bus franchising process in Manchester Belle Vue lost the contracts to Diamond Bus North West.  As part of the franchise process Diamond bus acquired the vehicles and they were soon repainted into standard Diamond bus blue livery as the TfGM franchises don’t require school buses to be painted in the Bee Network Yellow. All TfGM contracts do however have a 15-year age limit for buses and as these vehicles have reached that age there was a need to replace them so the 5 vehicles that need replacing were swapped for Wrights Streetdecks 3 from Redditch depot and two from Preston Bus.