Porto, on its way

A long-awaited trip we were incredibly excited to make was to the Portuguese city of Porto. For any bus enthusiast or connoisseur, visiting this city is like travelling in a time machine — or having a puff of the funny stuff.

Around any given corner, you might spot countless buses in active service with over 25 years on the clock, some past their 30th anniversary, along with various cut-and-shuts. The latter are mostly buses from the Resende company that have had their front ends swapped with a different model. Consequently, you can see the sides and rear of a well-known model mated with the front face of another, which is a highly bizarre and fascinating sight to behold.

In the first photograph, we can admire a Mercedes O305 with more than 32 long years of service under its belt, kept in an excellent state of preservation. It is seen working route 32 for the Espirito Santo-Autocarros de Gaia company as it departs the Parque das Camelias bus station.

In the second photograph, we can see one of these cut-and-shuts: a MAN midi-bus fitted with a Setra 300 Series front end, pictured outside the Mercado metro station in Matosinhos.

Photos scanned from film negatives