The new Swift service (blink and you miss it!)

This post should have been about Trent Barton's event in Uttoxeter where they showed off a Scania/Volvo bus due to be launched on the Swift on Monday. Unfortuanately this was not the case, as a Bramcote Bus Blog correspondent discovers...

The Trent Barton Optare Excel that took me from Derby all the way to
Uttoxeter, seen here about to operate the 15:25 to Derby via
Mayfield and Ashbourne.

Trent Barton's "Trent Barton Live" Facebook page announced  that there would be events celebrating the launch of the Swift on Saturday 7th of May in Ashbourne and Uttoxeter. The Bramcote Bus Blog sent out a correspondent to find out more. I took the Swift bus from Derby to Uttoxeter at 14:10. We arrived 10 minutes late, at 15:35 and I spoke to the bus driver to ask where the event was. He didn't know, so, seeing an approaching Arriva Dart with "4 Town circular" on the front I got on. As we were nearing the end of the route, and entering Uttoxeter again after countless sharp turns, we passed through the market place, where the Swift bus was parked. Unfortuanately there were no bus stops nearby and the driver refused to allow me off. By the time I got back to the bus station and worked out a sensible walking route the bus had gone, hence the title of this post.

I did however experience a run on the twenty minute circle line route four, operated by Arriva. The driver had no timetables for the service and the bus station only had a poster with the route and times from Uttoxeter Tesco. In fact, I could not find timetables to take home on any route at the bus station and there was no information office to obtain information from either. The service is however on the Arriva website, and a full interactive or printable (pdf) timetable is available for viwing or download. I also saw some other buses in the centre of town  and details and pictures of these can be found on the Uttoxetter Pictures page, here. These are all interesting examples of the local buses in Uttoxeter.

The afternoon was an interesting one and I did manage to get one piece of Swift promotional merchandise. The correspondent who went to the Spondon Flyer launch day discovered one lonely Swift pen, hiding among the Spondon Flyer keyrings and passed it to me, so I did end up with some Swift merchandise after all! It was an interesting afternoon in Uttoxeter, though unfortunately not the one I planned to have.