A RED open-top tour bus that once took visitors around Chester’s delights has been found a new home in a museum in the Czech Republic.
Chester City Council has agreed to donate the bus to the Bohemia Road Transport Museum in Terezin.
The museum is said to have one of the largest collections of motor vehicles of British origin outside the UK, including cars, light and commercial vehicles, buses, fire engines and an ambulance.
Following the agreement to sell Chester City Transport to First Group earlier this year, the council was approached by the chairman of the museum, David Griffiths. Mr Griffiths asked if the council would donate the bus, which dates from 1979 and is valued at around £2,000, to the transport museum.
It is to go on display after being repainted in its former Chester City Transport livery.
The handover took place on Town Hall Square in the presence of Lord Mayor Cllr Jim Latham.
The museum has already established links with Cheshire and has several vehicles from the county including donated buses from Halton and Warrington and a fully kitted out police patrol car from the Cheshire Constabulary.
The council says the gift of the restored Daimler Fleetline tour bus to the Czech-based collection is seen as a valuable marketing and promotional tool for Chester.
Cllr Richard Short, (Con, Curzon & Westminster), the city council’s executive member for resources, said: “This will be a means of preserving part of our transport heritage that started with trams over one hundred years ago.
“This is a wonderful donation from the City of Chester and further strengthens the friendship links between Cheshire and the Czech Republic,’ said Mr Griffiths.
“It will repay its value many times over in terms of visitors from all over the world who come to Terezin.
“From next year we will be able to welcome aboard visitors who can take their first step onto a piece of Chester’s heritage, maybe even take a ride.”
