Jonathan Welch takes an Enviro500 for a drive in the Swiss Alps, and considers the model’s international appeal
Alexander Dennis’ Enviro500 has been around for a while now, although it may still be unfamiliar to many in the UK. It’s tempting to call the Enviro500 a ‘model’ the same as its smaller Enviro400 or Enviro200 stablemates, but in reality, the type encompasses a whole range of models designed to serve the different niches and needs on multiple continents. First unveiled in 2002 under the Transbus banner, the type has seen use in North and South America, Asia, New Zealand and Europe, as well as one-offs and trials elsewhere.
Within the British Isles, a few early examples were sold. First ordered a batch for services in Glasgow which required a vehicle with a higher capacity than a standard double-decker, and Dublin Bus took a total of 70 from 2005 to 2007 based on the Volvo B9TL chassis. The former are still with First, having replaced articulated buses on Aberdeen’s busy trunk routes 1 and 2, though recent transfers have seen a number head south to First Kernow. Of the Dublin Bus examples, some made their way to the UK for a second life after withdrawal in 2018, including with D&E Coaches in Inverness. More recently, Lothian has taken delivery of a number of tri-axle double-deckers which appear very similar to the latest Enviro500s, but which are based on Volvo underpinnings and badged as Enviro400XLBs.
A recent headline order for Alexander Dennis has been the purchase of 200 of the type for Berlin city operator BVG to replace MAN double-deckers on busy cross-city routes. Another place where the type can be found in Europe is Switzerland, where iconic yellow operator PostBus, or PostAuto in Swiss German, has a fleet of them for commuter services, as does fellow Swiss operator TL in Lausanne.
Heiden
A trip to Switzerland earlier this year gave me the chance to have a closer look at one of the PostBus examples at its Heiden depot. The small town of Heiden, with a population in the mid-4,000s, lies in the hills above Lake Constance some 1,300 feet below, and is linked to it by a rack railway. For PostBus’ Enviro500s, though, the key destination is further west, and the city of St Gallen, with many people commuting from the surrounding region each day.
[wlm_nonmember][…]By subscribing you will benefit from:
- Operator & Supplier Profiles
- Face-to-Face Interviews
- Lastest News
- Test Drives and Reviews
- Legal Updates
- Route Focus
- Industry Insider Opinions
- Passenger Perspective
- Vehicle Launches
- and much more!
The small Heiden depot has undercover parking for its fleet of 17 buses – 5 Enviro500s and 12 Iveco Crossway single-deckers – along with a small fuel station on the forecourt. In planning my trip, I was amused to see Google Streetview’s 2013 image of the depot, with PostBus’ previous generation of double-decker parked outside; a Neoplan Centroliner N 4426/3. The Centroliner was a range of low-floor buses offered by the German manufacturer; the double-decker also entered service with companies including New World First Bus and Kowloon Motor Bus in Hong Kong.
As I arrived at the depot and was introduced to members of staff, I was surprised to hear that the Enviro500s which replaced the Centroliners had not proved as popular among drivers as might be expected; I would go on to discover that my view of them was very different to how they were seen in a local context.
On board
For the first part of our test, I travelled as a passenger whilst PostAuto driver and friend of CBW Beat Winterflood took the wheel to take us further into the hills around Heiden and Trogen. I took the opportunity to take some video footage of the trip through increasingly spectacular scenery for our YouTube channel, and see how the bus felt as a passenger before getting behind the wheel myself.
Although the interior layout with its three doors and two stairways might be odd to British eyes, there was a familiar feel about the design. The most remarkable aspect was the rear staircase and door, the steps descending in a transverse J shape above the engine and air conditioning unit, and end at the door. Seating towards the rear is on raised pedestals over both sets of rear wheels.
Moving forwards, the centre doorway houses a wheelchair ramp, with a large accessible area provided immediately in front of it and fitted with suitable restraints as well as a pair of rear-facing tip-up seats, above which are digital information screens. There is a lot of grey around the interior, but relieved by PostBus’ yellow accent colour, which features not just on handrails and step edges, but also as part of the seat coverings, which feature the iconic post horn logo.
Further forward still, past the front staircase and the twin seat over the front nearside wheel, we arrive at the driver’s cab. The most obvious item, the steering wheel, struck me as strange; although it is a fairly standard component and used by numerous manufacturers, in the UK it is of a type most commonly used on Wrightbus products, so looked odd here but makes sense from a fleet standardisation perspective. On the whole, though, the cab would feel familiar to those used to ADL’s products in the UK, with a fully adjustable steering wheel and dashboard. A manual retarder stalk is provided – a must in such mountainous terrain – whilst a uniquely Swiss feature is the button marked ‘Wartsaal,’ or ‘waiting room.’ This function allows a bus to be left unattended by a driver, whilst on a break for example, but still allows passengers to enter and exit by pressing the door control buttons next to each door to await departure.
Above the driver, a CCTV screen shows the top deck, whilst a tachograph and climate control panel are within easy reach; a pair of vents in the ceiling blow cold air from the air-conditioning towards the driver. Large mirrors are fitted, with a standard and wide-angle pane, giving a good all-round view, although to a British driver used to the somewhat spindly mirror arms we have in the UK, the nearside one did seem worryingly large and expensive. The nearside one also had a third mirror pointing down to show the front nearside corner, a helpful addition on some of the narrow and twisty roads hereabouts. In addition to the standard sun blinds, an extra visor is hinged from the driver’s side A-pillar, whilst to the right of the steering wheel is the large display screen of PostBus’ ticketing system.
Lunch
After a short photostop in what I took to be the main square, the ‘Landsgemeindeplatz,’ of Trogen, where our bright yellow double-decker attracted the attention of a few locals, and a driver swap to allow a local driver to take the controls for a run up a more tricky section of route, we arrived at our first destination, pausing briefly for some more photos at the small wooden fire brigade museum at St Anton where we passed an Iveco Crossway heading in the opposite direction.
After a very pleasant lunch at the nearby restaurant, with superb mountain-top views topped with perfect blue skies, it was my turn to take the wheel and take us back down the mountain. Certainly, the swivelling, coach-like driver’s seat gave the cab a quality feel as I stepped in and adjusted the electrically-operated mirrors. This wasn’t the first time I’ve driven a left-hand drive bus, but I felt very nervous as I edged out of the restaurant car park for our trip back down to Heiden. A couple of switchback corners followed by a tight manoeuvre through a set of roadworks did nothing to inspire my confidence, and whereas normally on a test drive I’d be paying attention for things to report on, I found my full concentration was on the road ahead, and my positioning on it. In terms of road-holding, I found the bus very predictable with a good view all around from the windows, single-leaf front door and the large, clear mirrors.
With an unladen weight of around 16 tonnes, PostBus’ Enviro500s are powered by a 9-litre engine, driving through a fully automatic ZF gearbox, a combination which sounds like it should be a winner and on this unladen downhill journey felt fine, but after the more powerful Neoplans, I’m told that PostBus drivers gave the buses a lukewarm reception, citing lack of power and lack of sound insulation from the engine bay as well as squeaks and rattles from the bodywork as their main gripes.
In fairness, I didn’t find the build quality to be worse than similar buses in the UK, and whilst there was some noise from the fixtures and fittings, nor did I think it was excessive compared to other buses I’ve driven, but I suspect that is the key; to me, it felt like an upgraded bus, whereas the local drivers are used to the Neoplan product which could be seen as more akin to a downgraded coach, hence expectations will differ. It is also worth noting that the Neoplans were not fitted with air-conditioning, and would therefore have been more powerful since none of the engine’s output was being used to drive the large air-conditioning units required for a bus of this size.
Familiar controls such as the handbrake and indicator stalk were easily at hand, as were the large red illuminated buttons for each of the three, outward opening sliding doors. With it’s maximum permitted weight of 24 tonnes, I wondered what it might feel like to drive if loaded to capacity, especially on the uphill stretches of route.
We made our way back down through the village of Oberegg, where I had to make what felt like a very tight left turn at a T-junction; no doubt the unfamiliar surroundings and left hand drive made it feel trickier than it actually was. Behind the wheel of something which is both bright yellow and a Swiss icon, I had no desire to embarrass myself. I was very conscious of the size of the vehicle in urban areas, where buildings sometimes seemed quite close to the road. I found that I was constantly having to correct a drift towards the kerb, though I’m sure the blame for that lands at my door, not with the bus.
After an all-too-short but intense drive, I parked the bus back inside the depot at Heiden. For British tastes the bus felt competent, especially against the backdrop of ever-reducing engine sizes, but it was disappointing to hear that it hadn’t quite hit the spot for PostBus.
Swiss experience
To find out more about the decision to opt for British-built double-deckers, I spoke to PostBus’ head of bus purchasing Urs Schläpfer. Urs explained that the ADL offering was the only double-decker on the market that would meet PostBus’ needs of a vehicle with a maximum height of 4 metres. But why choose a double-decker in the first place, when articulated buses are king in continental Europe?
On a route reaching 1,300 metres above sea level with a change in altitude of some 600m, and with a large number of people to transport, articulated buses weren’t an option in winter, Urs explained. “They’re not really good in winter, we tried one but it needed four snow chains,” he explained. “So we decided on double-deckers. We had Neoplans from around 2007, but when you think of double-deckers, you think of the UK. We spoke to Wrightbus and Alexander Dennis. Alexander Dennis said ‘yes, we can do that’ – I think they had their eye on an order for Berlin too if they developed the product. The 4-metre height was not a problem they said, as they had already developed a version for Canada.” Besides the ease of driving in winter, the other advantage of the double-deckers is their seating capacity on a route which can take 30 minutes from Heiden to St Gallen. However, those 40 extra seats come at the cost of longer boarding and alighting times, which Urs said can add 3-4 minutes per journey compared to a four-door ‘artic.’
“The biggest problem was adding the third door,” said Urs, speaking about the layout at the rear of the chassis. “And we wanted a bigger engine but the ZF automatic gearbox couldn’t take more than 350bhp,” he explained. Following delivery in 2018/19, Urs added that aftersales care hadn’t always lived up to expectations, though he accepted that a combination of distance and the intervening pandemic and subsequent difficulties in sourcing components had made life difficult for Alexander Dennis. “We understand that we can’t have an account manager based here for a fleet of 19 buses,” he said, “and we hope that with Alexander Dennis’ delivery of buses to Berlin that will improve, though Berlin is still a long way away.”
He also highlighted the differences in expectations of Swiss drivers. “If I presented a bus to a driver with the small mirrors from the UK, they would say no!” he said.
Last double-deckers?
Looking towards the future, though, PostBus’ double-deck era may be over. “We want to be completely zero-emission by 2040,” Urs explained. “In six or seven years, we won’t be able to buy diesel buses any more, so we have to decide what we’re going to do: hydrogen or electric. We don’t know what we will do with the Heiden route, we will need a special solution.” And although Alexander Dennis already offers an electric version of its Enviro500 for the North American market, Urs isn’t sure that’s the way Heiden will go. With the advent of electrically-propelled articulated buses, it is now possible to specify both centre and rear axles as drive axles, which negates one half of the reason for double-deckers. The question of seating capacity versus standees would remain, of course, but could be outweighed by the advantages of a common fleet, and a possible ongoing post-pandemic reduction in passenger numbers.
For now, PostBus is planning to look at some of the ‘easier’ routes to transition as it builds up experience of new technologies, and will tackle the more challenging ones later on, explained Urs, adding that it’s much easier to convert a city fleet than the many, sprawling rural routes that PostBus operates. And whilst you might think that achieving a standard fleet-wide solution might be easy, Urs added that it’s anything but. “If one city wants pantograph-down opportunity charging, and another wants pantograph-up, everyone believes their solution is right,” he said. “It doesn’t matter to Bern what Zurich is doing.” But in a world where charging infrastructure – especially if it is to be shared by regional and city operators – is being installed in ever more places, such challenges will be faced by operators everywhere. “That’s the big advantage of diesel,” Urs pointed out. “There are no problems of interface. For us, standardisation is important, but I’m not sure if we’ll reach an easy solution. It’s a problem we can’t solve. It needs a law passing, but who would take charge,” he asked, describing the image of cities like Bern (whose bus fleet is red) having banks of ‘red’ and ‘yellow’ chargers; an ideal solution for no-one. Maybe it’s already too late, he added, as cities have already started to go too far down their own path.
Interesting
Interestingly, I learned that PostBus also has another small double-deck fleet: four Van Hool coaches are based at the PostBus depot in Chur and used on its longest route, to Bellinzona. In a twist of bad luck, the four Neoplan double-deckers they replaced were destroyed in a depot fire in January 2019, along with 16 other buses. Thankfully, the new Van Hools had not yet arrived, being delivered the following month. The lower deck capacity is a rather low six to eight places, alongside a wheelchair space and fully accessible toilet.
Turning back to the Enviro500s though, it seems to be a tale of two halves. I enjoyed the drive, no doubt helped by the magnificent scenery. They’re certainly impressive looking buses, especially in the bright yellow PostBus colours, but seem to have been less impressive to those who drive them every day. With large capacity electric double-deckers already available, and no doubt hydrogen options will follow, and alternative dual-axle drive articulated buses an option, it will be interesting to see how PostBus deals with the replacement of these nonetheless iconic buses once they reach the end of the twisty mountain road.
In part two next week, we take a look at some of the other versions of the Enviro500 in use around the world
