All aboard as Seasider buses return to Skegness coast

National World - Other Local Sites

Stagecoach Seasider buses are set to  return the Skegness buse, with 12 popular characters ready to transport  visitors to attractions. We took a ride with them...

Transcript

00:00 Good morning, we are live from the Skegness interchange where the seaside buses are about

00:08 to launch.

00:09 Now I'm about to get on this bus with a rabbit, the jolly fisherman, the mayor's on there

00:15 as well and the MD of the company.

00:20 So let's go and see what they're like.

00:26 Here we go, on we go.

00:33 You're live on the Skegness standard Facebook page, so we're on rocky aren't we?

00:44 Ok, yeah, well, here we go.

00:47 Good morning.

00:48 Oh good morning, and we've got the MD here, Matt.

00:52 Mr. Cranwell, it's an exciting day for you isn't it?

00:57 Yeah, you can see the bus, there's lots of people that have turned up, so yeah, they're

01:00 really excited to launch these vehicles.

01:02 So 12 vehicles in total, each different character, so 10 of them are open top and we've got 80

01:09 characters down today.

01:10 So yeah, a lot of work's been done and hopefully you'll be able to see that as you go around.

01:14 But we've got new seating upstairs, next stop announcement, new nested station screen,

01:19 and there'll be a radio playing the music.

01:23 So yeah, we're really excited and obviously going down well today and really excited for

01:28 the next season and the families to enjoy them.

01:31 Yeah, I mean obviously the children have been here today, they've been excited, but you're

01:36 pretty excited as well aren't you?

01:38 Yeah, no, I'm super very excited.

01:40 It's really nice, and it's nice to see the smiles on people's faces, and that's what

01:44 we've been doing for the last 10 years, this is the 10th year anniversary, and so we wanted

01:49 to do something a little bit different.

01:51 So with these hybrid vehicles now, it's refreshed them, so 75% less emissions, 25% of the time

01:58 they're going to be fully electric as they're pottering around the seafront, so it's the

02:03 new green vehicle for the seafront.

02:06 And they're still such fabulous characters aren't they?

02:09 Yeah, they're fabulous characters, and we had our new introductory character in 2022

02:14 which was Scoop, which was Oliver from Grimsby, was the winning person for May in the bus,

02:21 so Scoop landed with us in 2022 to make the 12th, and people are really excited following

02:27 them, we've got the badges and the shirts, so people really get engaged to them lately.

02:32 Yeah, there's t-shirts and everything this year isn't there.

02:35 Right, well we'll go upstairs, we'd better not hold it up any more.

02:38 I'll hold you.

02:39 Oh right, okay, so I'm sure health and safety wouldn't be happy to see me walking up in

02:46 a bus, live on my phone, but here we are, we're here, and we've got a rabbit and a jolly

02:54 fisherman, it's quite a crazy bus this isn't it?

02:56 Yeah, it's just a normal day in the office, so we've got Jolly and Ralphie, we've got

03:00 the mayor, a couple of councillors as well.

03:03 We've got the mayor down at the bottom there, where are we going?

03:05 Yeah, we can go down to the end if you want to.

03:07 Oh, hello!

03:08 Oh, nice to meet you!

03:10 Yeah, you're live on the Skegness standard Facebook page, so yeah, it's a great big wave

03:17 from you.

03:18 Okay, so we'll get down to the bottom here, we've got the mayor on the back seat there,

03:25 sort of goop in there.

03:27 We've got Matt.

03:28 Yeah, there's Jolly Fisherman there, we've got Matt there.

03:32 So, we're about good to go.

03:35 I think it's exciting times now for us all, in Skegness, bringing all these new vehicles

03:42 into the town and advertising and doing a good service for the new visitors, what we're

03:48 expecting to come on.

03:49 Yes, yeah.

03:52 Jolly looks...

03:53 Jolly likes having a go.

03:55 I know, he looks like he's enjoying it already.

03:57 Jolly's definitely got the sun.

03:58 He has, he has, he's got the proper sun.

04:01 He's got the tan from last year.

04:05 We've got Karl Macy at the end there as well, obviously looking out for pylons, I would

04:09 imagine.

04:10 Are we on it yet?

04:13 No, no, we can definitely say that we're on it.

04:17 I think we'll be alright on the journey, I think we will.

04:19 So, do you get to ride on the top of these a lot then?

04:23 Yeah, we do, both with the family, you know, my kids love them just as much as the families

04:29 around here, so yeah, we'll be over Easter, I'm sure my kids will be jumping and forcing

04:34 me to get out and about on a regular basis, so yeah.

04:39 And the team, you know, the team really, really look for driving, making it full of smile

04:45 on people's faces.

04:46 Okay, and we're off!

04:48 We're off, okay!

04:50 Yeah, looking forward to it.

04:52 So we can...

04:53 Fantastic!

04:54 There we go.

04:56 Not exactly the day, is it?

04:59 We've been on the top, but it's not too bad!

05:03 It was in the morning, we've got a hard day, we're bored, the pass will do, that's not

05:09 the stage we're in.

05:11 Just climb down one seat just for a second, so we get a good job.

05:14 Much like the Black Sea tour.

05:16 Everyone can get a good job, yeah?

05:18 Yeah!

05:19 Hey, I'm the median boss, look at this!

05:20 So here we go, going past the cricket ground here.

05:23 All sorts of photographs have been taken around me, so I'm having to jiggle around a bit every

05:32 minute, but that's fine.

05:35 From here we can see the refurbished Witherspoons over there, and the work that's been done

05:46 at Allison's, which is part of the town centre regeneration.

05:53 Just going round the roundabout.

05:59 Yes.

06:00 I think it's 12th April on that Friday, 12th April, and here's the college of it.

06:08 The right truck's at home, with the one feather.

06:12 [wind noise]

06:39 So we're hoping the next off announcements really go down well, because it's all on GPS,

06:46 so as the vehicle gets close to those destinations, whether it's Fancy Island or Woodlands, there

06:53 are highlights.

06:54 Sometimes people don't know where they should be getting on and off.

06:59 [wind noise]

07:09 So when we came to the opening of Witherspoons, we didn't actually get to see that fabulous

07:14 window.

07:15 [wind noise]

07:19 We're now in Lovely Road.

07:21 [wind noise]

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