"Two fat ladies-88!"

Black Prince took over the operation of Amberley travel, who were based in Troydale, Pudsey.

 

Amberley ran the 88 service between Leeds and Bradford, with buses painted in a blue livery, so after the take over, Black Prince decided to paint the buses allocated to the 88 route in a similar blue style, but in true Black Prince fashion, no two looked the same!

 

The blue buses were initially of the Volvo Ailsa type, but when the Scania revolution came, a batch of newly acquired Marshall bodied Scania 112s were "blued".

 

Then, to replace the Marshall buses, a new batch of Alexander bodied Scania 113s were drafted on to the route, and remained there until the 88 was taken over by Firstbus in early 2005.

 

The blue buses did stray on to other routes to cover for vehicle shortages.

The required number of buses for the 88 service was 6, so 5 blue buses plus one overall advert bus were deployed on the route as a general rule. 

 

The buses which carried the blue livery were, Volvo Ailsa, 249 262 749 752 783 Scania 112/Marshall, 86 87 88 89 90 S101 Scania 112/Northern Counties 461 Scania 113/Alexander 379 421 427 702.