Prepared on Notepad by Ian Smith,
This page created 2nd August 2018.

The Grant Palmer OmniCity Single-deckers

Grant Palmer operates on the northern fringes of Hertfordshire, and southern Bedfordshire, including Luton and Dunstable, so just touches on the corners of the old London Transport Country area.

In June 2013 Grant Palmer bought three Scania OmniCitys for use on the guided busway between Luton and Dunstable, which duly opened on September 22nd. Two of the OmniCitys were ex-Metrobus CN94UBs. They had started, in August 2003, on Fastway duties at Crawley before going red for work on the X26 (Croydon - Heathrow). When that had been lost to Quality Line in April 2012 they were used for Olympics duties, then were sold in September 2012 to Anglian Bus. Within a year they had been sold to Ensign Bus, and thence, still with dual doorways, to Grant Palmer. They were refitted with guide wheels, and painted in red and white for use on route C (Luton - Dunstable and Weatherby)

The third bus was a single doorway CN230UB from Premier Travel, Nottingham. This had started with Arriva Midlands North for use on Warwickshire County Council routes. This too was given the red/white livery. They were reregistered as BU51WAY, BU52WAY and BU53WAY.

All three buses worked on route C, that linked Luton Interchange with Dunstable via the guided busway, then danced off to Weatherby. They also regularly worked route 42 between Toddington and Bedford.

In June 2016 BU53WAY was severely rear-ended by a Centrebus Scania, and was written off. Its registration was retained and given to its replacement: a Scania Omnicity from the Centrebus fleet. This was repainted in a new livery of maroon and red, and numbered 153. The other two were also repainted and numbered 151 and 152.

153 at Dunstable Asda 153 at Luton Interchange

The later 153 at Dunstable Asda, 12th December 2018, and then at Luton Interchange. This bus has a front doorway only.

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