Open top. Rectory Grove, 2017

Southend, and thereabouts, has an open top bus service again this year, for the duration of the school holidays.

Surrey-based Go Ahead London in Merton have risen to the challenge and seem to have got it right, even with some of the unsettled weather we’ve been having this summer.

This recording is from the stop in Rectory Grove, Leigh-on-Sea waiting for the 2.18pm on a sunny day, a round trip along the high ground of Leigh, down to Chalkwell, onto and along the seafront to Westcliff and Southend, turn ’round at The Kursaal and finish at Adventure Island then back to Leigh but via Bell Wharf and Leigh Station before Rectory Grove again. You hear the chatter of the waiting passengers, they start to board in the second part, ticket sales in part 3 and taking the children up the stairs to finish with a couple of Scots accents, flying back the next day with tales of the sights and sounds of Essex I’m sure.

[Ed: From information later supplied, the route uses  what used to be a fully roofed bus, Volvo B7TL chassis, Plaxton President body. See some photographs here.]