On board King Alfred POU 494 - 1 Jan 2004 (519-11A)

Thursday 1 January 2004 – ‘Friends of King Alfred Buses’ (FoKAB) Running Day at Winchester (and surrounding area)

The upper deck of former King Alfred Motor Services POU 494, a 1956 Leyland PD2/24 with East Lancs ‘lowbridge’ body. ‘Highbridge’ buses (approx 14’ 3” high) had the traditional layout of two seats either side of the central aisle on both decks. To create a lower height (approx 13’ 4”) bus the upper deck seating on the ‘lowbridge’ model was a long row of four seats featuring an aisle along the right side, the shape of which was very prominent over all the right hand side window seats in the lower deck. Passengers had to take heed of warning signs on the seat backs to exercise caution when leaving their seat. The headroom for a standing person was comparable in both types. The ‘lowbridge’ type body was common with many operators for many years but was rather inconvenient for both passengers and conductors alike. A passenger who sat by a left hand side window in the upper deck had to disturb three others to get off the bus first. Conductors needed very long arms to collect money and issue tickets to reach such seated passengers although our conductor was dealing with a closer passenger in this view.