Dennis Enviro 300

300 SN54HXG & 317 SN08AAF

SN54HXG is an Alexander Dennis Enviro demonstrator. The vehicle was actually built by Transbus and entered service in January 2005. The vehicle entered service with First at Worcester on Friday 9th June 2006. It is in the fleet whilst warranty work is carried out by Alexander Dennis on the existing First fleet. SN54HXG is normally used on service 44 (Worcester Royal Hospital & Malvern). The vehicle was withdrawn in late July 2006. On February 11th 2009 a further Alexander Dennis Enviro demonstrator arrived at Worcester. The vehicle entered service at Worcester on Friday 13th February 2009 and was returned back to Alexander Dennis the following month.

67600 SN53KKY  

In November  2003 Firstgroup took delivery of a Transbus Enviro as a group demonstrator vehicle. The vehicle is a 46-seater and has high back dual purpose seats. is 12.7 metres in length which has proved to be problematic as it was initially allocated to the Bath deport of First Avon and Somerset as the company had plans to take delivery of a batch of the vehicles. However the length of the vehicle proved a problem and to keep it out of harms way it was soon moved to First Manchester. Other than the four vehicles for Herefordshire services (see below 67601-4) Firstgroup did not place any vehicle orders with Transbus due more to the fact that the company went into receivership in the Summer of 2004. As part of a rescue package the bus manufacturing and the Dennis chassis building interests passed to a new company called Alexander Dennis which has it's head office at the former Alexander factory in Scotland. The new company has now started producing the Enviro buses once again and Firstgroup has now placed an order for a number of the vehicles for their First Wyvern subsidiary. In readiness for these vehicles 67600 was transferred to Worcester from First Rouchdale in November 2004 for use mainly as a driver type trainer.  As a number of the new vehicles are to be allocated to Redditch 67600 moved to Redditch from 15th December 2004  for use as a driver type trainer. Whilst the vehicle was reallocated to Redditch as a driver type trainer it has been used in service though the digital destination blind equipment has not been recoded for Redditch destinations. During the last week of March 2005 67600 moved back to Worcester Garage in exchange for 67601. In September 2005 67600 moved back to Redditch for use on the service 51 route. This is one of few routes it can be used on in Redditch that don't involve negotiating speed bumps which because of length of the vehicle it grounds on them thus damaging the bus. Redditch garage has no where enough low floor vehicle to run the town network which has caused complaints from residents on the Batchley estate (route 51) and so 67600 is kept on this route thus ensuring at least 50% of journeys on the route are operated by a low floor vehicle. 67600 now has a working digital destination blind. Route branding for service 51 orange line was added to this vehicle on 25th June 2006. 

Livery Key :  Barbie 3 - is the new corporate Firstgroup livery for all vehicles which is a modified version of the original Barbie livery (The dates in brackets are when the vehicle was last repainted).

67601- 4  VX53VJV/Z,VX53VKA/B

In partnership with Hereford Council First Wyvern has continued the investment in new vehicles for their Hereford Garage by the purchase of a number of Transbus Enviro 300 vehicles. They are primarily for use on the services 419/420 between Hereford and Worcester. The first two vehicles VX53VKA/B were delivered to Worcester Garage on 24th January 2004 for preparation for service at Hereford Garage. These vehicles are short wheelbase versions of the Enviro which are normally 46-seaters. However, in line with Firstgroup policy a number of seats have been sacrificed to give passengers more leg room. VX53VKA has taken the fleet number 422 now 67603) and has been prepared for service at Worcester with the fitting of a ticket machine mount, cash trays and various stickers such as legal lettering and fleet numbers. By Thursday 29th January 2004 422 (now 67603) had move to Hereford Garage for driver and engineering  training. A third vehicle VX53VJZ (which is to be initially 421 and now 67602) arrived at Worcester Garage on Friday 30th January 2004 for preparation for service at Hereford Garage. The last of this quartet of new vehicles for Hereford arrived on Tuesday 3rd February 2004 at Worcester Garage. This vehicle carries the rather appropriate fleet number 420 (now 67601) as it will spend much of its time together with sister vehicles operating the service 420 between Hereford and Worcester. All four vehicles entered service at Hereford Garage on Friday 6th February 2004. Following the reduction in frequency of the services 419 and 420 in September 2004 67601 was reallocated to Worcester for use on the service 363. During the last week of March 2005 67601 moved  to Redditch Garage in exchange for 67600. With the service changes in Worcester in September 2005 67601 moved back to Worcester Garage.

Livery Key :  Barbie 3 - is the new corporate Firstgroup livery for all vehicles which is a modified version of the original Barbie livery (The dates in brackets are when the vehicle was last repainted).

67631-51  VX54MOV/MPE/O/U-W/Y/Z/MRO/U/V/Y/Z/MSO/U/Y

In November 2004 Firstgroup announced a major vehicle order for a total of 125 new low floor buses from Alexander Dennis at a total cost of £15M. As part of the order First Wyvern are to receive a total of 46 new vehicles which include thirty five Enviro 300 single deck vehicles.  These are all of the Enviro vehicles ordered by Firstgroup and represent the largest order for such vehicles to date. On 14th December 2004 First Wyvern started to take delivery of their second batch of production Enviro vehicles this time built by Alexander Dennis rather than the now defunct Transbus. The vehicles are built as 44-seaters with space for both one wheelchairs and pushchairs and are fitted though not working with real time information displays inside the vehicle. Numerically the first 67631 has been delivered in all over red livery as this vehicle will carry a version of the old Midland Red livery to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Midland Red company in 2004. 67631 arrived at Worcester on Wednesday 14th December with 67632 joining it a day later. Both 67631 and 67632 moved to Redditch on 16th December and are being used a static driver type trainers at Redditch alongside sister vehicle 67600.  67600 is being used to do the actual type training with the production vehicles being made available as there are a number of detail differences in the driver cab layout. 67631/3 entered service at Redditch on Tuesday 4th January 2005. After a couple of weeks in service  67631 (VX54MOV) had Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus (BMMO) style fleet names and fleet numbers added to its plain red livery in recognition of the 100th anniversary of what was better know as Midland Red. Enviro's 67646 and 67648 entered service at Evesham on Saturday 5th February 2005 and became the first new buses to enter service at Evesham since BVP773V in 1980! The remainder of the Evesham vehicles entered service over the next few days replacing Dennis Lance vehicles one for one which in turn moved to Redditch to replace Leyland Lynx vehicles. 67642 was hit head on in Lower Quinton in Warwickshire by a van during February 2007 and was off the road being repaired from then until June 2009.  There must have been something not right with either the van or the driver as the van driver and his mate disappeared before the police arrived telling the First driver (who was not injured other than being shocked) that they were going to look for a phone!  

Livery Key :  Barbie 3 - is the new corporate Firstgroup livery for all vehicles which is a modified version of the original Barbie livery (The dates in brackets are when the vehicle was last repainted).

Vehicles 67634-44 had branding for "Get around Redditch". This branding was removed during early June 2008. The branding is applied to the windows on the side and rear of the vehicles in the latest corporate style and is used to promote daily, weekly and monthly discount tickets.

67652-64  VX05LVS/T/U/V/W/Y/Z/LWC-H

On Monday 2nd May 2005 First Wyvern started to take delivery of the remaining members of the 34 new Alexander Dennis Enviro vehicles in the shape of 67659-61 (VX05LWC/D/E). (35th vehicle in the order being 67600 which had only been a First Group demonstrator). These were followed by 67662/3 (VX05LWF/G) on Wednesday 4th May 2005. A further seven 67652-8 vehicles were initially stored at First Leicester. However, 67656-8 moved to First Wyvern on Wednesday 25th May 2005. All vehicles entered service at Worcester/Kidderminster Garages on the 12/13 June 2005 for use of the service 144 (Birmingham and Worcester) jointly operated by Kidderminster and Worcester garages and on the service 44 (County Hall & Malvern via Worcester City Centre) operated by Worcester garage. The latter service was extended to County Hall from the City Centre with the introduction of the new vehicles to replace the existing service 28. Whilst all the vehicles entered passenger service in June 2005 67656-64 were licensed in May 2005 for use on driver familiarisation. To prepare for bus service revisions in Worcester from 5th September 2005 67652 and 67653 were repainted into the new "Worcester Express" livery for the new circular services round the City which are linked to the Worcester North Park and Ride and the whole batch of vehicles were transferred to Worcester. At the same time the frequency of service 144 was increased to every 20 minutes. 67654 (VX05LVU) has had a modified engine fitted that meets euro4 standard (the remaining Enviro vehicle engines meet euro3 standard). As part of the modification a second fuel tank has been fitted for a fuel additive, which is refined from sheep urine. The urine is collected by the fertiliser industry from farm waste and refined into pure urea. Ammonia from the urea reacts with nitrous oxides in the exhaust, and converts then to nitrogen gas and water, which is released as steam. Following the loss of the contract for Worcester North Park and Ride from 25th February 2008 both 67652 and 67653 were repainted back into standard Barbie3 livery.

67658-67663 have route branding for the Worcester Overground "Red Line" service 44