First Cymru T103 XDE at Leigh Delamere - 26 Feb 2004

Thursday 26 February 2004 (approx. 1430) - First Cymru 21153 (T103 XDE), a 1999 Plaxton Expressliner bodied Dennis Javelin, seen at Leigh Delamere Service Area on the M4 Motorway in Wiltshire when working the 1200 London to Haverfordwest National Express service 508.

It had initially worked the 0400 service from Haverfordwest into London normally arriving at 1110 but snow had delayed it so that its westbound trip didn’t leave Victoria until 1220. When working on time the Swansea based driver took over the coach at 0645 and drove into London (in at 1110 and out at 1200) returning to Swansea (arriving 1630). Different drivers worked the section west of Swansea. Snow was in the air and it got thicker through the Cardiff area. That, and slow moving traffic, further delayed progress and we didn’t arrive in Swansea until 1721.

This coach had previously carried the ‘Flightlink’ livery for operation on the Swansea to Gatwick Airport service 201. National Express replaced the liveries employed on the different brandings serving key airports (Flightlink, Jetlink etc) in favour of its all white fleet livery supplemented with the word ‘Airport’ for the coaches employed on such routes.