Where is the RE?
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In the "British Commercial Vehicles Number" of Commercial Motor recently, mention was made of the 170 Bristol REs for Ulsterbus.
I understand there are rumours that these will be the last RE chassis to be made, and I think it significant that there is no mention of this chassis in your specification tables.
If British Leyland does intend discontinuing the RE chassis, that is generally considered to be the most reliable British rear-engined single-decker, and yet persists with the troublesome and unwanted National it could well be accused of stubborn indifference to operators' needs.
It is well known that the Scottish Bus Group wanted more REs, but because of delivery delays had to turn to Seddon and Volvo and it is surely of some importance to British Leyland that neither SBG nor Ulsterbus show any interest in ordering the much publicised and • more expensive National.
Ft would be very interesting to hear how NBC chief engineers would react if given a clear choice between the RE and the National. With the taxpayers' money becoming more involved in British Leyland its management should not be allowed to go on telling customers what they should have rather than satisfying what they really want.
D. J. SMITH, Sapcote, Leics.