Another 70 seater - this time a double-decker bus

 

Another 70 seater added to the fleet!

 

Welcome to our 70 seat double-decker "posh bus". So much more than a normal bus, our 'decker has 70 high-backed and comfortable coach-type seats with seat-belts. It's quicker than a normal bus too and cruises happily at motorway speeds. For safety, and to comply with legislation, it is speed-limited by an electronic device to 100km/h. Absolutely perfect for moving large groups in a very cost-efficient way. A very useful addition to the fleet - it even has a radio to keep the kids amused!

 

 

"766" is a MKII MCW Metrobus built in Birmingham. It was new to one of the big bus companies before being brought with another identical bus by Motts Travel of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire where it was used on school contracts, local private hires and a network of bus routes to Wycombe Wanders football club on match days. Replaced by newer buses brought from Ireland, this bus and it's identical sister were sold to J&L Travel Ltd near Chesham in Buckinghamshire. The other bus suffered a mechanical failure and was stripped of spares and scrapped whilst this one "766" was being used on school work and local private hire jobs right up to the closure of the company in August 2014.

 

See the lights with www.blackpoolcoachhire.com

Coach travel through the Blackpool Illuminations 2014

Well we had the big switch-on of the Blackpool Illuminations last weekend with Peter Kay and some girl band. The lights are looking great this year and you really should get a group of people together and hire a coach from us www.blackpoolcoachhire.com to show them to you!

 

 

Isn't this picture from KC Photography of the Illuminations, and especially the Tower, fantastic?! More superb pictures of Blackpool can be found here http://www.flickriver.com/places/United+Kingdom/England/Blackpool/Hoohill/

 

This evening we went for a walk to the Wyre Estuary at Thornton Cleveleys which was nice followed by dinner in a "Hungry Horse" www.hungryhorse.co.uk/pubs/iron-horse-thornton-cleveleys which was also pleasant (and very busy too).

 

Tomorrow I have a meeting with a local business that may need our help running a shuttle-bus service for their workforce for about 10 weeks  http://www.blackpoolcoachhire.com/other-services.html so hopefully that will become a firm booking.

 

Fingers crossed :-)

 

Schools back from Summer holidays

Oh and of course the schools went back today and tomorrow so we should start getting busy with enquiries and bookings from them now too....

Ride the Lights (but not in a www.blackpoolcoachhire.com coach this time)

Ride the Lights 2014 www.blackpoolcoachirehire.com

 

Yesterday was the annual Ride the Lights event (more info see their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/673454132723632/?fref=ts )

 

From 6pm till 10pm the Promenade was closed to all motor traffic and the Illuminations were on in advance of the "proper" switch-on this weekend. Thousands of cyclists (and some unicyclists) came from all around the area to ride up and down the Promenade unhindered by cars, lorries and buses to enjoy the unique spectacle.

 

The Illuminations look great and the lights on the Tower this year are very cool as they change colour around the Tower, up & down, in waves. The local radio station was there supporting the event with music and activities by the Comedy Carpet www.comedycarpet.com

As our son hasn't quite got the hang of cycling yet our bikes stayed at home and we "walked the lights" instead. Some things that struck me as potentially dangerous were the amount of cyclists on the pavement; cyclists ignoring RED traffic lights and the general lack of organisation. Traffic signals to side roads/T junctions that were closed should have been covered-up, whereas the ones where pedestrians can cross should have been enforced. With only two accidents we saw (an Ambulance in attendance at one of them) I am amazed there weren't more.

The other problem, was the problem Blackpool always has: By the Tower there was a lot of rubbish being blown around by the breeze.

Blackpool Council www.blackpool.gov.uk really need to get a couple of motorised road sweepers out at this type of event, before it and after it. The town often looks a mess with loose rubbish blowing around. Clean it up please!!

Apart from that - what a fun event for the town! We walked from North Pier to the Pleasure Beach and back (stopping for Donuts to share on the way back!) and it was lovely to see. There were many bikes that had been decorated with lights, some with music and some pulling small trailers with little dogs or small children in them. Another great Blackpool event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rail Replacement at Blackpool North

Rail replacement at Blackpool North Station

Last night we had an urgent call from the company that organises coaches in the event of trains being unable to run needing vehicles urgently at Blackpool North Station running to Manchester.

 

We sent out our 57 seater and here is a picture of her at Blackpool North Station waiting to become the 22.30 train to Manchester!

 

 

A day at Southport with Blackpool Coach Hire

A day at Southport

 

On Sunday we took a trip to Southport. This is a beautiful town with some fantastic architecture, a lovely park and gardens with a big lake and a long pier (none of which was anywhere near the water when we were there!). The pier is unusual in that the start of it is quite some distance in land and it has a tram that travels the full length of it. The weather was good and there is a big permanent fun-fair there called Pleasure Land www.southportpleasureland.com

 

From the seafront - where there is also a McDonalds, a KFC and a large cinema complex - you can see across the water all the way to Blackpool. You can easily see the tower and the Big One at the Pleasure Beach. Southport is an ideal destination for a day trip from Blackpool, with something to interest people of all ages. It takes around 1 hour to get there from Blackpool by coach.

 

 

The boating lake at Southport

 

The bustling main street with historic glass roof.

Getting ready to go Back to School?

Back to school?

 

Like school teachers, coach hire businesses are already getting things prepared for the new school year in September. For some schools there are big changes taking place - such as the creation of the Blackpool Aspire Academy from the amalgamation of Bispham High and the Blackpool Collegiate - for others it's just a question of catching-up on things, maybe a bity of a tidy and maybe a lick of paint.

 

The same here. Today I have been painting in between doing a bit of invoicing and quoting as well as getting the vehicles ready for when the kids go back to school and sorting out our marketing.

 

 

Transport for schools - School Buses

School transport makes up a large part of the works carried out by most operators, and in this respect we are no different. So if you are involved in organising of travel for a school or college we would be really delighted to hear from you.

 

 

 

Great value transport for schools!

 

we undertake all sorts of coach jobs for schools and colleges including daily home-to-school transport, regular daytime trips (such as to the swimming pool etc) and occasional days out to educational locations, museums, theme parks and zoos. And all schools get a massive discount on our standard rates! More details at www.blackpoolcoachhire.com

 

 

 

 





Quiet Summer Saturday

A Quiet Summer Saturday at Blackpool Coach Hire

 

Nothing much going on today. Just one bus out on a one-way job from Gatwick Airport. The flight landed twenty minutes early so hopefully the driver will be home a bit earlier than planned (if the motorways are running ok.) Fingers crossed.

 

My day off

 

The family and I went to Freeport Fleetwood today to look around and have lunch. Also getting some things needed for when our son goes back to school like school shoes and football boots.

 

Planning in advance is always a good idea, like getting the school things ready even though there are still three weeks of the summer holidays left; the same as when going out on a coach trip. When the customer gives us all the details we need we can plan the job properly and everything goes well and everyone is happy. We understand that things can change and sometimes routes and timings need to be adjusted, but it really helps us to help you have a great day when things are properly planned at the start.

 

 

A trip to Lake Windermere

A trip to Lake Windermere

 

Yesterday we had a nice little job taking some people from the Hilton Hotel in Blackpool to Lake Windermere. After collecting the coach from the yard and getting some fuel on the way to the pick-up point I had a few minutes to wait so I took this picture outside the hotel with one of the Blackpool Trams passing on driver training duties.

 

 

We travelled up the M6 and it started to rain quite heavily, which was a shame as Blackpool was in bright sun when we had left, and after about an hour and twenty minutes we arrived in the lovely little town of Bowness on Windermere. The coach park was practically full of coaches so after dropping the people off we parked just out of town and then walked back to look around the shops, the lake and to have lunch in a café. As I knew we had plenty of empty seats on the coach, the customer said they didn't mind and it's the summer holidays - my wife and our 11 year old son came for the day out too. She is a bit of a Geocacher (if you don't know what "Geocaching" is there is more information on their website www.geocaching.com) so we had a few of these to find while we were in Bowness. All located, no DNF's and a nice lunch (albeit a bit slow to arrive - but to be fair the man on the till did warn us about the expected delay) from Café 4 (formerly the Bowness Kitchen) we still had a bit of time for a wander round and to look in the nice little gift shops in the town.

 

The views across Lake Windermere from Bowness are just wonderful and the people from our trip decided to go on one of the various boat trips that are available. We were lucky with the weather in Bowness and it didn't rain at all - very lucky in fact, considering the heavy shower we had passed through on the way.

 

Afterwards a visit to Holehird Gardens

After about 4 hours of free time in Bowness on Windermere the plan was to spend a further hour or thereabouts in Windermere (which is a mile or so up the road, away from the lake heading north-east) but in the event some of the group had spotted a leaflet about a local garden that is open to the public - so the group leader asked us to go there instead. Holehird Gardens is a short drive from Bowness, took about 15 minutes and the grounds are open to the public to wander round and take in the beauty of the flowers and shrubs while looking over the impressive Lake District vista. There is a little shop there too, but that had just closed when we arrived as by this stage time was getting on a bit.

 

After the gardens it was a question of retracing our earlier journey and back onto the M6, which was flowing very freely for a Friday afternoon, and back to Blackpool dropping some of the group off in the town centre and the rest back at the Hilton Hotel.

 

A very pleasant day out in some fabulous countryside.

 



Lytham Kite Festival

 

The other week we went to the Lytham Kite festival on the beach. It was fantastic!

 

 

Other news

A bit of a slow day for news today so here is a picture of the 57 seater getting some diesel.

 

 

Don't forget to take a look at the website

www.blackpoolcoachhire.com



Some photos of the air show

Today is part-two of the Blackpool Air Show

 

Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday. They're not very good quality because they were taken on my phone (which is old and rubbish) and the weather was dark and grey, but they give you the idea!

 

The Red Arrows started proceedings off and a RAF Typhoon ended the day both of which were fantastic. The aerobatics stuff in the middle was OK, but not my favourite parts. Today there should (weather permitting etc) be a Spitfire, Lancaster Bomber and a parachute display all of which I am looking forward to.

 



 



And other news...





 I have added a cookies and privacy policy to the Coach Hire website www.blackpoolcoachhire.com as one of the website SEO reports I did said that this is now a legal requirement. It's not very interesting but fortunately is very short; it's got to be on there so now it is.

For no particular reason, here is a picture of the Winter Gardens and the water fountains in the square out side St John's church taken on our way back home from a walk round the town. Looks cool, doesn't it! Love Blackpool :-)



Our 57 seat coach

 

 

This is our 57 seat coach

 



 

It's a Volvo B10M chassis with a Van Hool Alizee body. It has 57 passenger seats, a courier seat and forced-air ventilation. We brought it from a coach company based near Canterbury in Kent. It is the first of our vehicles based in Blackpool as the start of the Blackpool Coach Hire fleet. Other vehicles purchased will be moved from our other operating base near London to the Blackpool operation before the start of the new school term in September.

Our new blog and our updated Website

First of the Blackpool Coach Hire Ltd Blogs

 

Blackpool Coach Hire Ltd is a new company offering coach hire services in and around Blackpool in Lancashire. We have a new website www.blackpoolcoachhire.com which I have been tweeking to try to get it higher in the search engine rankings when you search for Blackpool Coach Hire or Coach Hire in Blackpool.

 

Take a look at it and let me know what you think by emailing: hello@blackpoolcoachhire.com

 

Today in Blackpool

In other news, today was the first day of the Blackpool Air Show 2014. The weather started out with light rain and a bit grey the become sunny and fairly warm for a while before clouding over and raining again. We went to the Prom equipped with fold-up chairs and a pick-nick lunch and had a great view. The aerobatics was very clever and the Typhoon fighter jet was awesome and very loud!

 

Tomorrow is day two of this event and I think we will head to roughly the same location - by the comedy carpet - as the view was very good.

 

Today is the penultimate day of a punk rock "Rebellion Festival" event taking place at the Winter Gardens and it's fun seeing people enjoying the town with spikey brightly coloured hair, big shoes and their unique style of clothing.