Blue Arrow 'taxi' on show
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• One of the special Blue Arrow buses which will start operating the first taxi-style bus service in Britain on December 29 was on view to the public in the Chells area of Stevenage on Saturday (December 13). The service is intended to link the Chells residential area, which lies on the eastern side of Stevenage, with the industrial area to the west of the town (CM December 5).
Stopping as close to the front door of regular travellers as possible, the buses will carry workers to and from the industrial estate on Mondays to Fridays at a cost of £2 for a four-weekly period. Additional lunchtime journeys will also be made, at an additional cost of £1 per calendar month— -an inclusive charge of £3 for passengers taking advantage of this facility.
Although fulfilling my wish to see a London Transport bus painted blue (writes Derek Moses), the vehicle shown, XF6, one of eight experimental Daimler Fleetlines with Park Royal bodies, carried the fleetnarne "London Country", the name of the undertaking which will take over the operation of the service from London Transport on January 1. The bus bore the official London Transport Board address, however.
The illustrations show the bus at the Chells shopping centre, and a close-up of the poster describing the service (with a touched-up photograph of a Leyland Atlantean, incidentally). Light blue livery with silver band and roof and silver lettering certainly give the bus a distinctive appearance.