TrentBarton - All Change on the Villager

Saturday, 22nd June 2024 saw new Alexander Dennis Enviro 200MMC (fleet number 303 - YY24 HAO) exhibited on Derby's Market Place in advance of the introduction of the new vehicles to the Villager route.
This is the first time in many years that the Villager has received brand new buses, rather than refurbished vehicles cascaded from other routes; appropriately, the last time that the route ran new buses was in the days of Dennis Darts in the late 1990s - the spiritual ancestor to the E200MMC.
With the existing Volvo B7RLEs on Wrightbus Eclipse bodies employed on the Villager having become increasingly unreliable, owing to their age, the need for replacements was becoming urgent. Time will tell at how these new buses perform in service.

[@CaydenBarker-ed7nl]

I am going to have a ride on the new bus on Saturday 29th of June up to mickleover

[@HG_Buses]

I already miss the old ones

[@StreetLightOnline]

Still here for the time being!

[@yanniskarpasea]

​@@StreetLightOnlineThey'll probably be rented to notts+derby like the old buses for the threes were last year.

[@StreetLightOnline]

Assuming that they don't go pop before that can happen!

[@RADS190]

Eugh Enviro. Dont like driving them, weak as a kitten! Now the old cummins powered Darts were great fun to drive!

[@StreetLightOnline]

Heh - it's just as well that the Villager route is relatively flat, and there are plenty of open sections where a good breeze will give the vehicles an extra push! I have a Corgi model of Villager Dart 940 on top of my PC, as it happens.

[@HG_Buses]

Hey
Please could I use some of your photos for an edit 😊
( I will give you all credit)

[@StreetLightOnline]

Yes, if you like, though I think that there will be more opportunities to photograph the new fleet before it is unleashed on the general public, so if you wished to take your own too, that might also be possible - I gather that a similar publicity event will be held in Burton.