Jonathan Welch follows his tales of driving an Enviro500 in the Swiss Alps with a look at some of the other versions produced for the worldwide market
In the previous issue, we took a look at the Alexander Dennis Enviro500s that were delivered to PostBus in Switzerland in 2018 to replace Neoplan double-deckers. Hong Kong and Singapore have been other recent recipients of the model, whilst the North American market saw the launch of a battery-electric version as part of Alexander Dennis parent company NFI’s ‘Charge’-branded range of electric buses, alongside New Flyer’s Xcelsior Charge and MCI’s J4500 Charge and D45 CRT LE Charge.
Europe
Not to be forgotten, and closer to home, is the order for 200 13.8m, 4.06m high buses for another ‘yellow’ operator, BVG in Berlin, where they replace MAN Lion’s City DD double-deckers on busy urban routes. Designed with three doors and two staircases to speed passenger flow, Alexander Dennis’ European product – which can also be found in Lausanne operator TL’s white and blue livery in Switzerland – is capable of carrying 78 seated passengers, plus up to a further 50 standees giving a total theoretical capacity of 128, which is on a par with many articulated buses, though with far more seats available. Although the Berlin buses are built to a height of 4.06m, and feature an unusual forward-descending staircase, the bus is available at a standard European maximum height of 4m and the Swiss examples feature the safer rearward-descending staircase as seen on UK buses. It is available to both Class I homologation for use on city bus services as well as a Class II vehicle for regional routes, and a steered rear axle is fitted.
North America
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