Low floor coach - third time lucky?

[overthewater]

So which Stagecoach company will get these, since an order has been placed.

http://www.route-one.net/articles/C...eopard_aimed_squarely_at_inter_urban_routes/c

Plaxton is to deliver an all-new coach in 2018, designed for inter-urban work currently carried out by buses or high-floor coaches.

The front section of yet-to-be-named coach is based on Plaxton’s existing Leopard model, mated with Volvo’s Euro 6 B8RLE chassis.

Stagecoach has placed an initial order for the 14.5m tri-axles.

The low front provides access through a single door to a wheelchair bay and seats for less mobile passengers.

The total capacity is 53 seats. Deliveries, to as yet unspecified regions, are expected in April 2018.

The design bears some similarity to Wrightbus’ ‘commuter coach’, called the Eclipse Commuter, built on a version of Volvo’s B7RLE chassis with a higher floor section extended to the front axle.

Intended for longer distance work, only five were built a decade ago, mostly for Stagecoach West Scotland.

With the accessibility of coaches on inter-urban work an issue with the requirements to meet PSVAR, coupled with loading times and the inaccessibility of rural bus stops and most bus stations for conventional side lifts, it is thought this design will provide a better solution.

 

[Stan Drews]

Looks like it will retain the large troublesome plug door!

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Should be interesting when the potential passengers turn up with a load of luggage. Would they have been better off just buying regular buses?

 

[overthewater]

Going by the pics it has no toilet. So you get less seat, less room for luggage and no loos, i dare say it costs more money.

 

[Fifescottish]

Surely this has East Scotland X55 written allover it?

 

[BestWestern]

Is an average passenger going to be able to tell that this is supposed to be a coach rather than a bus? At least it's better looking than the questionable Wright effort of years ago!

 

[GusB]

I don't think it's a bad-looking vehicle at all. Whether it will work or not, I'm not sure. Locally, there have been some issues with accessibility - not disabled people trying to board with wheelchairs, but pensioners trying to board with shopping trolleys. Drivers are reluctant to get off their backsides to open the side lockers for shorter journeys, and from what I've heard, they're also equally unwilling to lift said shopping trolleys into a higher-floor vehicle. I'm not sure if this is down to laziness, or if it's a health and safety matter, but round here you have a mix of people doing short-hop and long-distance travel. It seems like a fairly good compromise.

 

[padbus]

I like it. By providing the comfort of a coach with the easy access of a bus it should be suitable for long distance bus routes such as those found in Scotland (another thread suggests Border Buses are looking for something for their longer routes) as well as Traws Cymru and even the services from Cardiff into the valleys. Of course, if carrying luggage is important there is no real alternative to a full coach.

I did, as a flight of fantasy, build a model of something similar 8 years ago. I wonder if my Intellectual Property rights have been infringed? See http://www.padbus.co.uk/gallery/g194.html

 

[Volvodart]

Most of the coach routes are now used to toilet fitted coaches, and a lot of the tourist ones in Scotland can carry bicycles now. They are also likely to be too long for some routes.

 

[BestWestern]

I like it. By providing the comfort of a coach with the easy access of a bus it should be suitable for long distance bus routes such as those found in Scotland (another thread suggests Border Buses are looking for something for their longer routes) as well as Traws Cymru and even the services from Cardiff into the valleys. Of course, if carrying luggage is important there is no real alternative to a full coach.

I did, as a flight of fantasy, build a model of something similar 8 years ago. I wonder if my Intellectual Property rights have been infringed? See http://www.padbus.co.uk/gallery/g194.html

That is very good!

 

[DavidSBrough]

I think Stagecoach North East might get a couple to replace the Omnilinks that seem to not work on the X24 Newcastle to Sunderland.

 

[Blindtraveler]

My first thought was that these will possibly not be as cumfy as hoped and the luggage thing will be an issue for sure.

Hoping to iether be wrong or that SC will realise it doesnt work and not go further with it.

They certainly woant suit the X59 or X26 in Fife due to luggage.

 

[pemma]

I wonder if it would a good vehicle to replace standard vehicles used on bus services serving Airports which often have people boarding with suitcases but have no real luggage space. Not that I expect operators to do that - far cheaper to run a Solo or an Enviro than a coach or a hybrid coach/bus.

 

[BestWestern]

I wonder if it would a good vehicle to replace standard vehicles used on bus services serving Airports which often have people boarding with suitcases but have no real luggage space.

Well, the continued lack of luggage space would presumably suggest not?

 

[pemma]

Well, the continued lack of luggage space would presumably suggest not?

When I said the buses have no real luggage space, I mean they have no designated luggage space and suitcases are put where ever the passenger thinks one can go e.g. wheelchair area, blocking a vacant seat, in the aisle etc. However, at the same time they are carrying a small number of suitcases as the buses also carry people not going to the airport and people going to the airport without luggage e.g. airport workers.

 

[BestWestern]

When I said the buses have no real luggage space, I mean they have no designated luggage space and suitcases are put where ever the passenger thinks one can go e.g. wheelchair area, blocking a vacant seat, in the aisle etc. However, at the same time they are carrying a small number of suitcases as the buses also carry people not going to the airport and people going to the airport without luggage e.g. airport workers.

Ah I see. Do they not even have the usual sort of extended height luggage pens/racks over the front wheels etc? I'd imagine something broadly coach-based such as this idea would be even worse than a bus, though?

 

[pemma]

Ah I see. Do they not even have the usual sort of extended height luggage pens/racks over the front wheels etc? I'd imagine something broadly coach-based such as this idea would be even worse than a bus, though?

Manchester Community Transport run some services to Manchester Airport using the big type of Solo SRs so the front wheels are in front of the driver and the seats at the rear is raised so that seating can be put on top of the rear wheels.

 

[A0wen]

So which Stagecoach company will get these, since an order has been placed.

http://www.route-one.net/articles/C...eopard_aimed_squarely_at_inter_urban_routes/c

Arriva could get some for the Green Line 724 to replace the Citaros they've currently got on there - those Citaros must be getting near end of life now.

 

[robertclark125]

I think the best description of this, outstanding vehicle, is a Dual Purpose.

 

[Volvodart]

Lets see how many sales it gets before it is classed as outstanding.

 

[Great_Western]

If it has no toilet and less luggage space than a regular coach, then what makes this any bit better or more practical than the standard issue Stagecoach E300?

 

[overthewater]

If it has no toilet and less luggage space than a regular coach, then what makes this any bit better or more practical than the standard issue Stagecoach E300?

It has coach seats... yet Stagecoach found something that was cheaper 10 years earlier. If the engine was just better and if you could have added in windows that would open it would have been sorted.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/adammalarkey/13671521073

 

[Bletchleyite]

I think the best description of this, outstanding vehicle, is a Dual Purpose.

It's basically the kind of interurban heavyweight bus that seems to be very common in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but near enough completely absent in the UK.

If they hadn't just had a set of brand new accessible high floor coaches, give or take the loss of the ability to carry bikes something like that would work well on the UCOC X5.

 

[A0wen]

It's basically the kind of interurban heavyweight bus that seems to be very common in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but near enough completely absent in the UK.

If they hadn't just had a set of brand new accessible high floor coaches, give or take the loss of the ability to carry bikes something like that would work well on the UCOC X5.

Per my post a couple earlier - Green Line 724.

They've struggled to find the right solution for it since the Tigers were withdrawn in the late 90s using DAF SB220s and then Citaros - this solution actually looks like a coach.

 

[overthewater]

Surely this has East Scotland X55 written allover it?

Talk on the lines is there are for said route. Its was claimed b8 were coming then scraped, then the Kent b9 turn up. Now it's claimed there only a stop gap.

See the stock on east coast buses, that would there should have brought for the x55.

I still don't believe any off it, x55 isn't the route it once was.

 

[Volvodart]

I thought it was pretty obvious that the order that was cancelled was because they were waiting for the new coach.

 

[overthewater]

How? There said New b8 and the it changed to older b9. Its a strange stop gap putting in those b9, I doubt stagecoach know a company up north would for bust and would need the 57 plates to go north.

 

[Volvodart]

They have cancelled coach orders in other parts of the empire, probably for the same reason!

 

[overthewater]

They have cancelled coach orders in other parts of the empire, probably for the same reason!

Now this get interesting. Where else has been cancelled?

 

[SouthEastBuses]

The new Panther LE is amazing. It would work very well in the highlands where there are long, local rural services that need both coach comfort and easy access.

Maybe Plaxton should start making a 12m two-axle Panther LE soon, to be honest.