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NEWS FROM COACH & BUS 2003
Bus and Coach Professional reviews the orders and annoucements at last week's Coach & Bus 2003.
Blazefield is launching a new up-market double-deck fleet on its Ripon-Harrogate-Leeds service early next year with 12 Wrightbus-bodied Volvo B7TLs finished in a distinctive black, red and silver livery.
The vehicles will have 68 Esteban seats, with those on the upper deck being leather-trimmed. Each seat has the route number – 36 – on the headrest. The Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini bodies have tinted double-glazing, GPS linked to a passenger information system using 16in TFT flat-screen displays.
The driver has electrically-controlled coach-style rearview mirrors, backed up by an innovative camera system.
The first of the order was on display at Coach & Bus 2003, and it was also the first Wrightbus double-decker for Blazefield, which runs almost 200 Wrightbus single-deckers.
East Lancs has won its first major double-deck order from Ireland, with Bus Eireann taking 17 Vyking bodies on Volvo B7TL chassis.
Sales of Iveco EuroRiders with TransBus bodies are to be handled by TransBus Coach Sales, with the first chassis now at Scarborough for bodying. This follows the collapse of Coach Europe, which had been selling EuroRiders with both TransBus and Beulas bodies. An announcement is imminent about sales arrangements for Beulas-bodied EuroRiders in the UK, with rumours at Coach & Bus 2003 suggesting Mentor Coach & Bus as the likely name.
TransBus announced orders for 21 new coaches at Coach & Bus 2003. The biggest single order came from regular TransBus customer Logan’s Coaches, based in Northern Ireland, which is to take eight Volvo B12M Paragons. But the most popular model was the Profile, with 11 being ordered by six operators. Most of the Profiles will be on Volvo B7Rs, but two are on TransBus Javelin chassis. The total of 21 was made up by an order for two Cheetah midicoaches from Holmes of Chesterfield.
Pre-show orders announced by TransBus were 12 B12M automatics with Panther bodies for Shearings, and five R-series integrals for Alfa Travel of Chorley, taking the Alfa R-series fleet to 14. Alfa’s managing director Paul Sawbridge says the R-series offer significant savings in fuel costs, with fuel consumption in the region of 12mpg.
FirstGroup is to evaluate a TransBus Enviro300 in Bristol. The 12.5m-long 48-seater was one of TransBus’s show exhibits, and with 28 seats in the low-floor area offers more accessible seats than any of its competitors. The Enviro 300 is also around two tonnes lighter than other vehicles of similar seating capacity.
FirstGroup already operates two Enviro300s on a contracted service to the Falkirk Wheel, but has in recent years has sourced most of its single-deck buses from Wrightbus.
The trial of an Enviro300 by First follows a similar evaluation by Stagecoach, which had standardised on MAN chassis with TransBus ALX300 bodies.
Launched at Coach & Bus 2001 sales of the Enviro300 have been sluggish as the market for full-size single-deckers remains depressed.
Irisbus was the only manufacturer showing a purpose-built yellow school bus at Coach & Bus 2003, with its Vehixel-bodied Scolabus. Staffordshire County Council is taking 15, due to enter service at the start of 2004. They will be 68-seaters.
The company also exhibited the new Agora Line single-deck city bus, and announced that seven will be taking to the streets of Norwich next month on a revised park-and-ride contract which will be operated by Norfolk County Services using Agora Lines maintained by TransLinc.
The Agora Line is supplied from France as a shell, which is completed in the UK by Optare. It is powered by an Iveco Cursor 8 engine.
EvoBus hopes to usher in a new era of low-floor minibus operation with its Sprinter 25, a 25-seater built in Germany which provides a step-free entry. There are seven seats (including two tip-ups) in the low front section, and EvoBus managing director Hans Smits launched it at Coach & Bus 2003 as an ideal replacement for step-entry Vario or older T2-based Mercedes minibuses.
The Sprinter 25 offers a lighter-weight and lower-cost alternative to the heavier-duty small buses available from TransBus and Optare. Its most direct competitor is the Daily-derived Logo from Irisbus, bodied by Unvi and seating 24.
The Sprinter 25 was one of three EvoBus products at the show to win a Bus & Coach Design Award in a scheme sponsored by the Institute of Vehicle Engineers and the Society of Automotive Engineers. It was judged best minibus, while the Citaro was best single-decker and the Setra S315 best standard coach.
Grampian Software has signed a £250,000 deal with the Go-Ahead Group to supply its OpenPeople software. OpenPeople manages payroll, human resource and driver allocation in a fully-integrated package.
Volvo is to offer the articulated B7LA with Hispano Habit bodywork. A London-specification demonstrator is being built. Until now all UK B7Las have had Wrightbus Eclipse Fusion bodies. A 12m B7L with Hispano bodywork has been working as a UK demonstrator for some six months.
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