Gareth Evans reports on Scania’s Interlinks, which have entered service across Lucketts Travel. Six Interlinks have joined – two each for the firm’s Worthing, Coliseum and Lucketts fleets.
In the space of almost 12 months, Scania’s Interlink Finesse coach has gone from a standing start to 50 on the road. The popular two-axle coach provides a high level of versatility, although a tri-axle variant joined the offering late last year, giving further choice.
Interlinks can be found in fleets large and small across the British Isles – a high-profile customer being Lucketts Travel, which has operations stretching broadly from Southampton to Brighton.
Forming part of Lucketts’ £7.5m fleet investment for 2017, six Interlinks arrived in April – two each for the firm’s Coliseum, Worthing and Lucketts fleets. The coaches are allocated to West End, Worthing and Fareham depots respectively.
Why Interlink
Asked what attracted the Fareham-based operator to the Interlink, Ian Luckett, Director at Lucketts, replied:[wlm_nonmember][…]
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“Scania asked us what we wanted and we worked together to optimise the combination. We agreed on the 3.6m high body, Scania 400bhp engine, coupled to an eight-speed two-pedal Opticruise transmission.
Specification
Based on Scania K410EB 4×2 chassis, Lucketts’ 12.8m-long Interlinks are powered by Scania’s 13-litre 410bhp engine, coupled to an eight-speed Scania Opticruise gearbox. In addition to the Scania telematics package, the Lucketts Travel vehicles come with a two-year repair and maintenance contract.
The Interlink’s stainless steel and composite construction provides a strong, lightweight body, which coupled with a reduced isle depth and in turn a clearer locker area, helps provide excellent luggage and 53-seat capacity.
Onboard, the seating includes half real leather and piping with three-point seat belts as standard and contemporary LED interior lighting. At a time when many coach operators have steered away from offering free onboard WiFi as it can prove prohibitively expensive when faced with the possibility of 53 people streaming, the inclusion of USB charging points still allows customer expectations to be fulfilled.
Other standard specification features include a driver’s seat with armrests and heated base, a reversing camera, a preheater, a Bosch professional line audio / visual system and a 35-litre fridge integrated into the dashboard.
Additional options specified by Lucketts include a rear rather than centre offside door, a hot water outlet by the courier seat and on two of the coaches, PLS cassette wheelchair lifts.
With a centre-sunken WC, an Interlink has a luggage capacity of 10.5 cubic metres. However, Lucketts has boosted this to 11.9m cubic metres by changing the position of the WC.
Ian took up the story: “We decided on a slightly different configuration with these coaches. In place of the centre sunken WC we would normally have, we chose a rear floor-mounted WC. Clearly, a WC is important but we feel it’s better to locate it at the rear. If you have a centre-sunken WC, you compromise on seat spacing. You end up with great spacing to the front but it’s tighter behind it.
“Also, we use the Interlinks on cruise transfer work. Cruise operators want maximum luggage capacity, which is not in short supply on the Interlinks. That means we can carry 40 rather 30 passengers.
“Nowadays, I’m sure I’m not alone, our attire has become far more casual. Perhaps encouraged by the budget airlines, we’ve become conditioned at packing less, which means travelling lighter – but of course, if people are travelling for weeks on a cruise, they’ll pack accordingly.”
Asked about the choice of the two rather than the three-axle model, Ian said: “We want to standardise our large vehicle fleet as two-axle 53-seaters. Ten years ago, it was 49. The issue with tri-axles is you can’t send them everywhere.”
Scania attraction
Why does Lucketts Travel continue to buy Scania? “It’s to do with the service and support from the local dealer in Fareham, as well as Scania Bus & Coach,” Ian responded without hesitation.
“It’s become a self-fulfilling prophecy. We bought some Scania coaches, received good service from our local dealer, so we purchased more, the dealership responded with investment and so it continued. As a result, we’re fortunate that Scania Fareham is not short of technicians who are coach-aware.
“The local UK and Europe-wide support from Scania is fantastic too. It’s more than helping with a breakdown at the roadside, although that too is important of course. A specialist part can be here in anything between three and 48 hours.
“If it’s not at the local dealer, it will be delivered to our premises 24 hours later from Scania in Milton Keynes – and after that, a component will come from Scania’s Parts & Logistics Centre in Opglabbeek, Belgium. We have even received specialist parts from Belgium in 24 hours.
“That level of service really is key for our operation, which is 24/7 and our workshop staff are on duty 24 hours a day, five days a week.”
Scania’s view
Lucketts’ representative at Scania is Richard Birt, Regional Accounts Manager at Scania Bus & Coach, Scania (Great Britain) Limited. Covering the South West Area, he took over from Richard Sear who retired in early 2016. His area stretches as far east as Chichester, up to Milton Keynes and across to the Brecon Beacons. Commenting on the Interlink’s reception to date, Richard said: “We have been delighted with both the interest and the high demand following its launch in 2016. We’re currently expecting to deliver more than 50 units in the first year – which I feel is quite an impressive figure.
“We typically sold 15 to 20 OmniExpresses per annum, so we thought 30 would be realistic for Interlinks. Fortunately, we managed to secure extra build slots to meet that extra demand.”
Confirming that the two-axle variant had proved more popular than the tri-axle, Richard added: “I believe that’s thanks to Interlink’s ability to offer 53 seats with a WC on two-axles, plus the luggage capacity, operators have questioned whether the additional length of a tri-axle is worth it. Everyone is impressed with the Interlink’s luggage capacity, which is class-leading.”
Looking ahead, Richard said: “We have already registered a huge amount of interest for 2018 and are currently placing build slots with the factory to ensure we can meet the demand for next season.”
For more details about Lucketts Travel, visit www.lucketts.co.uk or call 01329 823755. Watch a video of CBW’s test drive of the Interlink at https://youtu.be/6SpVlcBr5IQ. Visit Scania’s website at www.scania.co.uk/buses-coaches or call 01909 500822.[/wlm_ismember]
