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on all four sides which featured the slogans ‘Easyrider’, ‘Low floor bus’<br />
and ‘Easy Access’ with the fleet-name being Cardiff Bus, Bws Caerdydd.<br />
They started to arrive in October 2007 with the last three (213-215)<br />
arriving the following month. 201 and 202 were initially used for driver<br />
training in October, while 204 appeared at the Motor Show at the NEC in<br />
Birmingham the same month. November 3 rd saw the entry into service <strong>of</strong><br />
202 to 212, and before too long all fifteen were earning their keep. Most<br />
were used on services such as the 8 and 9A serving Heath Hospital,<br />
Grangetown and Cardiff Bay, but could at times, also be found working to<br />
Thornhill or Pontprennau.<br />
It was announced in 2000 that all fifteen would pass to Reading Transport<br />
to replace the last <strong>of</strong> the former Reading Mainline Routemasters. The<br />
reason being that in Cardiff, they were not considered to be a very<br />
suitable vehicle by either the Managing Director or the Fleet Engineer.<br />
This was down to three main problem areas that were identified at an<br />
early stage.<br />
The most serious issue concerned the body structure, and corrosion was<br />
identified at a very early stage and was most probably going to be a very<br />
major problem in due course, worse than the Metroriders! Secondly<br />
there were structural problems with gearbox, and the actual gearbox<br />
mountings breaking away from the under-frame <strong>of</strong> the bus. The final issue<br />
was that <strong>of</strong> fuel consumption, these buses were thirsty, returning figures<br />
as low as 6mpg at times. It was felt that they were unsuitable to form the<br />
basis <strong>of</strong> a ‘standardised’ fleet <strong>of</strong> full-size single-deck and midibus type<br />
vehicles from the same family that used the same common parts and units.<br />
The Dart on the other hand was considered ideal.<br />
Detail differences after two years in service saw 206 lose its Easyrider<br />
logo from its windscreen, while 207, 211,212 and 214 had much smaller<br />
logos than the rest. 204 had a small one then a large one. Towards the<br />
end <strong>of</strong> their short lives in Cardiff they were allocated to the Ely routes 17<br />
and 18. Their place on the Ely routes was taken by a batch <strong>of</strong> new SPD<br />
type Darts that entered service as 361-9/71 in August 2000.<br />
7
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