2010 – Issue 2 of 4

all ten from being advertised for sale by the end of the year. In 2006 they
were sold as a batch to the South Gloucestershire Bus Company. They
would be based at Patchway near Bristol for use on local services, and
they gained an all over white livery. South Gloucestershire sold out to
the Rotala Group in late 2007 and their stay at Patchway would be rather
brief as reliability issues continued. With the exception of 208/10 which
stayed behind to work for the newly named Wessex Connect fleet, the
others moved north to Birmingham to work for the Central Connect
operation, 208 and 210 later joining them.
By April 2008 all ten were up for sale once again! It is thought at this
stage that they all passed to Dawson Rentals (dealer) shortly after, who
was faced with the task of ultimately finding buyers for them. However,
initially, many went out as loan vehicles to a number of different small
operators.
In July 2009 that situation was believed to be as follows: 211 and 213 had
found a new home with TM Travel of Halfway, Sheffield joining a small
fleet of Excels with this expanding operator. Initially 208-10/12 went on
loan to Red Arrow of Huddersfield while this new operator established its
own fleet of buses. 210 spent a short spell on loan to Meakin of Crewe
while 207/12/14/15 went on loan to Premiere of Nottingham by
December 2008. It is thought that 207/12/15 were subsequently
purchased by Premiere. 206 remained unused since leaving Central
Connect, and its location is unknown. 209/10/14 had passed to Ventura
Bus and Coach Sales by early 2009.
In conclusion the story of Cardiff’s Excels (201 to 215) is one of a batch of
buses that should never have really been purchased by Cardiff Bus. Apart
from the five that escaped overseas, the others seem to have been passed
from one fleet to another. The only real attraction to a prospective
buyer I suppose is that they are modern looking low-floor buses. Now at
twelve years of age, their poor reliability and corrosion issues will mean
the writing has to be on the wall for the ten that survive in the UK. Also
of interest and worth mentioning briefly, as they are Welsh Excels, are
the three 10.7m buses that Bebb of Llantwit Fardre purchased in 1999.
Registered V78/9,81 JKG, they were sold by 2004 after a troubled
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