File:Sunray Travel A972 YSX.JPG

English: Sunray Travel bus (reg. A972 YSX), a 1984 Volvo Ailsa B55 double-decker with Alexander RV bodywork, pictured at the 2009 Cobham bus rally at Wisley Airfield in Surrey.

Having previously operated with Fife Scottish and Cardiff Bus, it's pictured here in the blue livery of Epsom, Surrey based operator Sunray Travel. It's parked up between duties on the rally shuttle service, route 477 between the rally site at Wisley Airfield and Cobham bus museum (as denoted by the S in the window?). It performed the same duties at the previous year's rally on 6 April 2008 while still in its Cardiff livery (as seen in this image).

As fleet number FRA72, it was delivered new to the nationalised operator Walter Alexander & Sons (Fife) Ltd, the Scottish Bus Group subsidiary covering Fife (renamed Fife Scottish a year later). There it stayed into the privatisation era, receiving the corporate livery of Stagecoach stripes in place of Fife red & cream, following their purchase of the subsidiary in 1991.

In the mid-1990s FRA72 once more returned to a state owned operator when it moved to Wales, joining the fleet of council-owned Cardiff Bus. It was one of a number of Ailsa's bought second hand by Cardiff in the mid-1990s, both from Fife Scottish and the Merseyside based group MTL Holdings. For its size, Cardiff was already a large user of Ailsa's, having already bought 36 from new in 3 batches over the period March 1982 to February 1984, numbering them 401 to 436. The second hand purchases were duly numbered following this sequence, with FRA72 becoming 452, and receiving their orange livery. It also lost the characteristic triangular front route destination box, favoured by the SBG.

Cardiff Bus were the last significant user of Ailsa's, with 452 being one of the buses remaining until their withdrawal from the fleet - the final official farewell being held on 15 December 2007. 452 passed to Sunray in early 2008.