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Post by vjaska on May 25, 2010 0:14:15 GMT
I took a look at that link and I like what optare have written about the solo... Things like.... "The company’s stand (No 109) will feature a left hand drive version of its astonishingly successful Solo single decker, Britain’s best selling bus. " Is it really britains best selling bus.... I thought that was the dennis dart. I know the dart is now dead but I'd bet there have been more sold than the optare. And... In Britain the Solo is so commonplace that people tend to take it for granted – it is the single-decker of choice for many operators, large and small” says Optare CEO Jim Sumner. “But we need to remember that on the Continent, where low floor small buses are still a rarity, the Solo sets new standards which few competitors can match. So commonplace that I see it used on only 1 route and Enviro 200's used on almost ever other route Certainly not the single decker of choice on this part of the country The Dart isn't dead as it's still available on ADL Enviro 200 & MCV Evolution bodies. Solos are usually brought for narrow routes which don't need lots of capacity, hence why you don't see many around the London area and/or your own area. I'm taking a guess that you see the 3 Optare Solo SR's on the 433. Apart from the London ones, others in or around the London area off the top of my head are Solos at Heathrow and Gatwick Airports, Arriva The Shires small collection around Watford, the 3 Optare Solo SR's on Arriva Kent & Sussex's Route 277 and Tonbridge Independant, Autocar Bus & Coach who have GP55 DEC and former J222 BUS which now has a private plate.
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Post by snowman on May 25, 2010 5:45:23 GMT
I took a look at that link and I like what optare have written about the solo... Things like.... "The company’s stand (No 109) will feature a left hand drive version of its astonishingly successful Solo single decker, Britain’s best selling bus. " Is it really britains best selling bus.... I thought that was the dennis dart. I know the dart is now dead but I'd bet there have been more sold than the optare. And... In Britain the Solo is so commonplace that people tend to take it for granted – it is the single-decker of choice for many operators, large and small” says Optare CEO Jim Sumner. “But we need to remember that on the Continent, where low floor small buses are still a rarity, the Solo sets new standards which few competitors can match. So commonplace that I see it used on only 1 route and Enviro 200's used on almost ever other route Certainly not the single decker of choice on this part of the country The Dart isn't dead as it's still available on ADL Enviro 200 & MCV Evolution bodies. Solos are usually brought for narrow routes which don't need lots of capacity, hence why you don't see many around the London area and/or your own area. I'm taking a guess that you see the 3 Optare Solo SR's on the 433. Apart from the London ones, others in or around the London area off the top of my head are Solos at Heathrow and Gatwick Airports, Arriva The Shires small collection around Watford, the 3 Optare Solo SR's on Arriva Kent & Sussex's Route 277 and Tonbridge Independant, Autocar Bus & Coach who have GP55 DEC and former J222 BUS which now has a private plate. Abellio Surrey has a few and they occasionally turn up in Kingston Quality Line and CT Plus also have a few Is the Dennis Dart a bus ? I always thought it was a chassis type Possibly the Solo is most common bus still in production as over 4000 have been built
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Post by vjaska on May 25, 2010 13:48:01 GMT
The Dart isn't dead as it's still available on ADL Enviro 200 & MCV Evolution bodies. Solos are usually brought for narrow routes which don't need lots of capacity, hence why you don't see many around the London area and/or your own area. I'm taking a guess that you see the 3 Optare Solo SR's on the 433. Apart from the London ones, others in or around the London area off the top of my head are Solos at Heathrow and Gatwick Airports, Arriva The Shires small collection around Watford, the 3 Optare Solo SR's on Arriva Kent & Sussex's Route 277 and Tonbridge Independant, Autocar Bus & Coach who have GP55 DEC and former J222 BUS which now has a private plate. Abellio Surrey has a few and they occasionally turn up in Kingston Quality Line and CT Plus also have a few Is the Dennis Dart a bus ? I always thought it was a chassis type Possibly the Solo is most common bus still in production as over 4000 have been built Yeah but Quality Line's and CT Plus Solos are London ones and I said 'apart from the London ones', whilst Abellio have begun to sell their Solos off. The Dennis Dart is a chassis and was provided with a number of bodies such as: Duple - later known as Carlyle Reeves Burgess - later known as Plaxton Pointer Alexander Dash Wadham Stringer UVG - later known as Caetano Compass Caetano Nimbus Marshall C series Marshall Capital Wright Crusader East Lancs EL2000 East Lancs Spryte Wright Handybus Northern Counties Paladin Alexander ALX200 MCV Evolution East Lancs Esteem
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Post by john on May 25, 2010 15:06:54 GMT
Arriva Shires in Harlow have a number, aswell as Regal Busways for Brentwood, whilst not forgetting First Essex with services in Brentwood ocassionally getting a Solo or two from Chelmsford
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Post by snowman on Jun 10, 2010 17:20:07 GMT
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Post by vjaska on Jun 10, 2010 22:57:24 GMT
Just in case its not mentioned
From September, the Olympus will now be available as a semi-intregal vehicle using the Mercedes-Benz OM906LA engine, Siemens Hybrid drive and MAN engine alongside the existing Scania, Volvo & ADL chassis Olympus.
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Post by snowman on Jul 1, 2010 5:38:34 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2010 10:41:18 GMT
Arriva Shires in Harlow have a number, aswell as Regal Busways for Brentwood, whilst not forgetting First Essex with services in Brentwood ocassionally getting a Solo or two from Chelmsford Yes, Arriva Shires & Essex's Harlow base has about 19 Solos, which operate Harlow local services and also can be seen operating to places such as Waltham Cross, Loughton, Epping, Bishops Stortford, Nazeing. Regal has about 5 Solos, which are very short 7.1m slimline versions operating routes all over Essex.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2010 18:06:46 GMT
Arriva Shires in Harlow have a number, aswell as Regal Busways for Brentwood, whilst not forgetting First Essex with services in Brentwood ocassionally getting a Solo or two from Chelmsford Yes, Arriva Shires & Essex's Harlow base has about 19 Solos, which operate Harlow local services and also can be seen operating to places such as Waltham Cross, Loughton, Epping, Bishops Stortford, Nazeing. Regal has about 5 Solos, which are very short 7.1m slimline versions operating routes all over Essex. Optare seem very sucesfull with the single decker market particularly with the smaller buses. Outside of London and the main cities its the type of bus most bus companies want. A fairly high capity in a small bus which copes well with the difficult roads and routes outside of London
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Post by snowman on Jul 30, 2010 10:34:19 GMT
Optare has been partly taken over (26%) by Indian company Ashok Leyland I think they might still make a version of the Leyland Lynx in Asia www.optare.com/pr_29_07_10.htm
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2010 11:37:02 GMT
No, the Versa is entirely different and replaced the Esteem. This helps it compete with the 9.3m length that ADL offer as a dual door option on the e200. It's a great idea when you think on what operators would look at the Solo as a viable option. I'm certain First and Metrobus would look at a dual doored Solo, possibly so would ELBG Why is TfL so obsessed with dual door buses? They make sense on Double Deckers & large single deckers but it is just daft om midi buses
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2010 11:56:40 GMT
Optare has been partly taken over (26%) by Indian company Ashok Leyland I think they might still make a version of the Leyland Lynx in Asia www.optare.com/pr_29_07_10.htmOptare have a strategic partner is how it is being sold. As far as I can see the initial benefit to Optare will be they can build buses in the Czech Republic where costs are much cheaper at Ashok Leyland's very under utilised plant
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Post by Volvo on Jul 30, 2010 17:37:01 GMT
It's a great idea when you think on what operators would look at the Solo as a viable option. I'm certain First and Metrobus would look at a dual doored Solo, possibly so would ELBG Why is TfL so obsessed with dual door buses? They make sense on Double Deckers & large single deckers but it is just daft om midi buses Maybe to ease the aid on loading/offloading, especially in a busy city such as london it speeds up journey times. midi buses go upto 11.4m then maxi buses are 11.5 - 11.9m full size = 12m+ so do you really thing buses that are 9.5 - 11.4m would be better off with single doors in london? can you imagine how long buses on say a busy single deck route like the 214/74 would have to spend at stops in order for people to offload before loading if they were 10.2m single doored darts?
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Post by Madstuntman on Aug 8, 2010 0:05:07 GMT
Why is TfL so obsessed with dual door buses? They make sense on Double Deckers & large single deckers but it is just daft om midi buses Maybe to ease the aid on loading/offloading, especially in a busy city such as london it speeds up journey times. midi buses go upto 11.4m then maxi buses are 11.5 - 11.9m full size = 12m+ so do you really thing buses that are 9.5 - 11.4m would be better off with single doors in london? can you imagine how long buses on say a busy single deck route like the 214/74 would have to spend at stops in order for people to offload before loading if they were 10.2m single doored darts? I agree, Having been a driver on the 286 for some years I have witnessed the advantage of dual doors first hand in 2007 the route was converted from 10.7m single door Pointer Darts to 10.8m dual door Enviro 200's and the change to loading times was massive. Prevously when serving busy stops for instance Eltham high street you'd spend the 1st minute with waiting passengers having to stand on the kerb and wait while the bus unloaded sometimes even longer if several push chairs or trolly weilding grannys where invloved, and only then after that had finished could the loading begin. Now however the loading and un loading happens at the same time so you can get away from the stop in half the time.
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Post by eggmiester on Aug 8, 2010 1:17:11 GMT
Maybe to ease the aid on loading/offloading, especially in a busy city such as london it speeds up journey times. midi buses go upto 11.4m then maxi buses are 11.5 - 11.9m full size = 12m+ so do you really thing buses that are 9.5 - 11.4m would be better off with single doors in london? can you imagine how long buses on say a busy single deck route like the 214/74 would have to spend at stops in order for people to offload before loading if they were 10.2m single doored darts? I agree, Having been a driver on the 286 for some years I have witnessed the advantage of dual doors first hand in 2007 the route was converted from 10.7m single door Pointer Darts to 10.8m dual door Enviro 200's and the change to loading times was massive. Prevously when serving busy stops for instance Eltham high street you'd spend the 1st minute with waiting passengers having to stand on the kerb and wait while the bus unloaded sometimes even longer if several push chairs or trolly weilding grannys where invloved, and only then after that had finished could the loading begin. Now however the loading and un loading happens at the same time so you can get away from the stop in half the time. I totally agree with Madstuntman, you do notice a hell of a difference in loading times at stops between single and dual door buses. It was the same at BX until a couple of years ago when we had the DMS's and DML's which were single door as well as the LDP's, which all (except a few P/R reg ones) were dual door. You would certainly notice the difference on a busy route like the 244, if you had a DML/S, you were garunteed to run late, if you had a DD LDP you'd be holding back cause you would no doubt be well early! When i used to drive 244's and 469's and had a DML/S i always tried in vain to get subbed for a dual door LDP, or sometimes i just bit the bullet and ran late!! ;D
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