All Change Please! / Educating Tonbridge: Hams to Hugh Christie

[Chris]

Three of the four vehicles to Hugh Christie Sch... sorry, Leigh Academy Hugh Christie, were provided by Hams until the end of the school term (the fourth is Arriva's 582, for a future post). Two are provided on the HC1, and one on the HC4, but all pass to Autocar from the start of the new school year, with 4 bids for the HC1 (the duplicate will now be renumbered HC2), and 3 bids for the HC4. 

Wednesday is early finish day, which allowed a multi-stop trip on 15th July, resulting in these pictures at Pinnacles roundabout, north Tonbridge. Evora MC74 HAM was one of the vehicles on the HC1 to Sundridge, via Leigh, Edenbridge and Westerham, whilst Hybrid Volvo 7900H L6 HAM was the other vehicle. Although both display Sundridge, one would usually stop short at Edenbridge (which will be the one renumbered HC2). The Volvos are recent additions to the fleet from Lothian, and this is the only one so far to have been painted into the mildly modified livery. They've been fairly elusive so far, and Bustimes has picked up some details from the previous vehicles with their registrations. 

The HC4 was in the hands of older 'decker DW05 HAM, where I did just about manage to capture the somewhat faint destination display, which the eagle-eyed may note is for the morning journey rather than afternoon service to East Peckham via Hadlow, Kings Hill, West Malling and Wateringbury. Unusually, it also seemed to pick up the latter part of service 4 (Tunbridge Wells to Ryarsh) that day, but was showing not in service by the time I caught up with it in West Malling. 

Chris