ITALY The Irisbus Iveco GX127 city bus was launched in the Italian market in March 2011. The 9.45m bus is available with an Allison T280R fully-automatic transmission and a 264 hp TECTOR diesel engine.
The GX127’s first customer was Li-nea, which, in association with Ataf, is responsible for Florence’s public transportation. Not only did the company provide a market test bed for the GX127, it specified an Allison transmission for the first time in the fleet’s history.
By the end of October, the first bus had run 67,000km under an intensive duty cycle. Pleased with outstanding performance, two new Allisonequipped GX127s were ordered and recently arrived.
The first GX127 was assigned to Route 27, which enters the town of Scandicci, on the outskirts of Florence. This city route has stops every 300 to 400m, along narrow car-lined streets. For conditions where size and manoeuvrability are paramount, the Allison transmission and the GX127 are a perfect match. Thanks to the transmission’s adaptive controls, shifts are smooth and almost imperceptible to passengers. The output retarder in the transmission allows smooth progressive stopping. The seamless transition between the retarder and service brakes ensures greater control, easier maintenance and longer intervals between oil and filter changes.
“Allison fully-automatic transmissions have been a very nice discovery,” said Cappellini, one of Li-nea’s 208 bus drivers.
