The
Optare Spectra
bodied DAF double deckers have been the mainstay of the Wilts &
Dorset
fleet for nearly 24 years. The
first
‘step entrance’ examples entering service in April 1993. The first ‘low-floor’
buses were introduced
in 1998. The
Spectras were employed on
routes all over the Wilts &
Dorset empire, so a common sight in
rural Wiltshire or along the coast in Dorset and Hampshire. The first Spectra, 3101
was retired from the
fleet in March 2009. The
last low-floor
Spectra is 3185 and was delivered in 2003, just as Wilts
& Dorset were acquired by the Go-Ahead
Group. Due
to
Government legislation, the Disability Discrimination Act became
effective from
1st January 2017, meaning that double deckers
not adapted to meet
its requirements had to be withdrawn from stage carriage service by
that
date. With this in
mind, George Cooper
arranged a running day to say farewell to the Spectra.
Most of the existing fleet had been sold to a
new owner in Lincolnshire for contract work and would leave the south
by the
end of December 2016. The
day of the
event was Saturday 17th December and two
Spectras and a Volvo Olympian
were to be used, duplicating the normal services, which would run ahead
of the
specials. As the
remaining Olympians
would also fall foul of the DDA rules it seemed fitting that an
Olympian should
help the Spectras out on this special day.
The vehicles chosen were Damory 1655
(R155 NPR) still wearing its
‘Stonehenge Tour’ livery, 1668 (Y168 FEL) in Salisbury reds livery
and
Volvo Olympian 4756 (R756 GDL) with Northern Counties bodywork still
carrying
the final version of the Wilts &
Dorset livery.
The
day starts at
Ringwood Bus Station where we join 1655 which is operating an X3
service from
Bournemouth to Salisbury. The sights and
sounds are enjoyed as we ride to the city centre and meet up with
1668. Our filming uses many locations around Salisbury
city centre in-between each journey that we make onboard the
Spectras. We then ride on 1668 operating service 66 to
Idmiston Bridge and return to the city to join 1655 to do a short
journey on
the Activ8 service to Old Sarum and back.
We then ride on 1668 to Salisbury coach park for a photo shoot of all
three vehicles with ‘Salisbury’ - ‘Spectra’ - ‘Swansong’ displayed on
their
destination blinds! From here we ride on
1668 on the X7R service to Romsey. We meet 1655 at Romsey and join it
to ride
‘local’ service 30 to Halterworth. From Romsey
both Spectras return to Salisbury. We
are then privileged to see the Spectras running through the wash at the
Salisbury
reds depot
in Castle Street. With
day turning to night, we then ride on 1655 with Olympian 4756 on the
Activ8
service to Amesbury, returning to Salisbury as an X4. Our
final ride is with both Spectras on the
X3 service to Ringwood. Our cameras
travel onboard 1668 to Ringwood for the final journey. From
Ringwood 1668 returned to Salisbury and
1655 did the final ever journey to Bournemouth as an X3. It
then returned to Blandford and within a
few days it had left the fleet. We would
like to thank everyone that helped with the day to give the Salisbury
Spectras
a really good final Swansong!