Swallow Coach Company: EOS

The Swallow Coach Company of Rainham stepped in to fill the partial vacuum created on the fringes of Essex by the departure of Travel with Hunny. Apart from double-deckers to deal with schools contracts, the company also provided three Dart SLFs for Route 66 (Harlow - North Weald - Epping - Upshire - Waltham Abbey - Loughton - Debden). Although a unique through route, it faced competition on four of its stages by other companies.

To service it Swallow acquired three long Dart SLFs that came from recently demised (and much lamented) Pennine Motor Services. They kept the striking orange, grey and black Pennine livery, adding a route band along the roofline and EOS fleetnames. Route 66 began ooperation at the beginning of September 2014.

A Marshall-bodied Dart SLF, once with Metroline as DML46, arrived in October 2014 for use on route 16 from Harlow. It departed in February 2015.

More Darts arrived in summer 2015. One from Lothian Buses was found to be defective, and was returned to Ensign Bus. Its number was taken by one of three from Dawson Rentals, 10.5m Caetano Nimbuses that had originated with Docklands Minibuses. A fourth similar bus came from Dawson via Ensign, having originated with Ealing Community Transport.

Two more Caetano Nimbus came in December 2015, this time from Metroline, two of the Darts taken over from First: DC1540/50. Another six of these arrived in August 2016. These buses allowed Swallow to standardise their offerings on the services between Waltham Cross, Harlow and Epping.