Last update
29th December 2011

SM Coaches and Olympus Bus and Coach (including RoadRunner Buses) are connected Harlow based independents.  Both are shown together here, as besides ownership falling under the same family, operationally the two have been very closely linked, although a more settled and separate pattern is evolving between SM Coaches and the others.

The story started in a small way just post deregulation when as SM Travel, route T15, then a peak hour ECC contract linking Potter Street with the industrial area at Templefields (omitting the town centre) was taken on. The route evolved into being a commercial operation providing an all day service on Monday to Saturday serving the Town Centre, and had numerous extensions and deviations over the years. The service is now incorporated into what is quite a significant and fast-growing network of both local and more distant services into Essex and Herts. Expansion has been progressive for a number of years, and reached a peak in 2010 with intensive competition with Arriva and also Centrebus. Although this has retracted a little, they still present a major challenge to the larger and historically more dominant operators in the town. SM and Olympian have also traditionally had both private hire work and schools services, and a fair size coach fleet is also therefore maintained.

The Olympian Coaches name is used for some contract work, and also for the London commuter services that were taken over with the Stort Valley Coaches business in 2001.

As far as vehicles are concerned, the last few years have seen the introduction of generally newer vehicles, most in the form of quite modern second-hand acquisitions to the front line of the operations; historically the bus fleet at least had a typically older profile. 

The traditional SM fleet livery was of white with maroon skirt and sign-writing, but when the SM & Olympian bus operations effectively merged a couple of years ago, this gave way to the white with blue skirt and sign-writing livery previously carried by Olympian. There are a variety of coach liveries carried at present, which may be transitional.

The Roadrunner name was used for some recent registrations. Other regular services use the SM Coaches name. The "Townlink" name, fleet numbers, and route branding were all tried in 2010, but are now falling out of favour.

Dennis/Plaxton Mini Pointer Dart SLF A batch of four vehicles arrived in November 2011. All are from Go North-East. Three initially appeared in the all-over yellow of their former owner whilst one (V193ERG) received SM Coaches livery. One (V188ERG) is operating with Roadrunner, whilst the others are with SM Coaches.  A fifth vehicle has since arrived.
	V188ERG V189ERG V191ERG V193ERG V194ERG		The first into fleet livery is V193ERG, seen on the 19 at Harlow Bus Station. (R Hudson).
			The "as acquired" look is shown by V191ERG. (R Hudson).
			A rear shot of V193ERG shows the less common strip display. This is not back in use with SM at this time. (R Hudson).

Irisbus Agora Line Following the theme of operating something different, size-wise the largest of the 2006 new vehicle intake was a less than everyday occurrence in the shape of EU06KHK. It spend much of it's early life dedicated to schools services, and appearances on normal bus duties were rare. In 2010 this changed, and besides becoming a regular, further similar vehicles joined the fleet. At this time the some additions retain yellow livery with SM fleet-names added.
301 302 303 304 . .	OY53RDU OY53RDX OY53RFE EU06KHK AU05FKC SN06AFK		The present livery is seen here on short-lived service 18. (R Hudson)
			For much of its life, 304 was not seen on normal local service, and so the inside would not be known to many. Here is a view taken whilst the bus was more recently on a regular town route. (R Hudson)
			The retained yellow based livery is shown on OY53RDX here. (R Hudson)

Volvo B7TL/Plaxton President The first low-floor double deckers in the fleet originated with London United. The appear smartly refurbished and carry Roadrunner branding. They materialised at first, perhaps unexpectedly on the 392, then on the M2, M4, with appearances  on SM routes 14, 18 and 19/20. Recently they appeared on the R1, and on loan to Lea Valley Buses. We believe that the intention is that should be the primary allocation on recently introduced route 511. W473BCW retains red livery, the others are in corporate colours.
	W461BCW W462BCW W468BCW W473BCW		The LED conversion and RoadRunner branding clearly evident on W461BCW, seen on the last leg of the 392 up to the Town Station (since passed to TGM). (R Hudson).
			W462BCW has gained fleet livery, seen on the M4 (since discountinued). (R Hudson).

Volvo B6LE/Alexander ALX200 Six of these vehicles are entered service with Lea Valley Buses, replacing all of the other owned and hired fleet at that time. Route branding for either the 255 (pink) or 555 (purple) was applied. These were immediately taken over by RoadRunner on the demise of LVB, and have seen service on the R1 and 511 as well as the inherited 255 service. The 555 passed in shortened form to TWH.
	P704BTA P705BTA P710BTA P713BTA P328JND P355JND		P328JND, as well as P713BTA, were branded for the 555. Part of this has been retained now that the vehicles remain in service on other routes. (R Hudson).
			This is the pink equivalent used by LVB for the 255. Vehicle and service have been taken over by Roadrunner (R Hudson).

Dennis Dart SLF/Marshall Capital C39 SMs link with Marshall bodywork, which seemed set to disappear with the Iveco minibuses, was restored with the arrival in late 2008 of two Dart SLFs. Further vehicles were added (April and July 2010) to the Roadrunner fleet. The fleet-numbered vehicles the ones in the SM fleet.
207 208 RR RR	P830BUD P831BUD T408AGP T418AGP		An interesting display on the rush hour M1 service "FOR TEMPLEFIELDS CHANGE AT TRAIN STATION". 830 is seen leaving the bus station.  (R Hudson).
			T418AGP illustrates the Road Runner fleet-name.  (R Hudson).

Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2 In September 2007 Olympian Coaches received five of these vehicles, principally for the Sumners/Katherines services where they replaced Iveco/Marshalls. They started life with Armchair and later operated with Stansted Transit. All have LED displays on the front and nearside. In January 2010 four similar ex-London General vehicles arrived. Many further examples were received. Route branding was put in place on many of the SM vehicles in 2010, but has since been removed. A number were used by Lea Valley buses, although largely they returned when that operator purchased a batch of ALX400's.
206 209 RR 210 211 RR ex-LVB ex-LVB RR RR RR	P741RYL R476LGH R477LGH R481LGH R485LGH P678RWU P681RWU R479LGH P324EFL P758FOD P301AYJ		Branding for the 1 and 31 is shown in the form of the red flashes seen here on 209. (R. Hudson).
			Roadrunner branding is missing from many of the more frequent acquisitions. P758FOD illustrates this on the R1 service.  (R. Hudson)

Mercedes L811D/Dormobile  These minibus examples are still hanging around, and pop up now and again. Schools services and private hires are regular stamping ground, but service bus operation does occur.
	L192MAU		Parked up at the depot L192MAU shows off the new coach livery and logo. (R Hudson).

COACHES

 

Scania/Irizar Century .
	S342SET S343SET		. (R Hudson)

Iveco Euromidi 95/Indicar Eco-3 .
	N179OUT		. (R Hudson)

DAF SB3000/Van Hool A high-end coach, principally for the London commuter services. The livery and branding used illustrates that the Olympian name is still retained for these services.
	Y314HUA		Seen leaving the bus station, the vehicle is actually operating on SM Coaches service 19 (Harlow - Epping) (R Hudson)

 

Iveco EuroRider 35/Beulas Stergo .
	LV02LLJ		(R Hudson)

Please note that this is an unofficial site, and whilst every effort has been made to ensure the information is accurate and up to date, no claims can be entertained for losses caused by any errors or omissions here, or through any shortcomings on the part of the operators themselves. We would be grateful if any errors could be notified to us, in order that we can make a prompt correction. Any suggestions, comments or other forms of feedback are most welcome by e-mail. This site acknowledges the support provided by local operators, but is not directly linked with any operator.

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