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...
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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]