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British bus battle waged in Athens
LEYLAND Bus may have pulled off a very significant deal this week. It is more than likely that by today the Preston company will have sealed an order for 20 Leyland Olympians. The other major competitor was Hestair Dennis with the Dennis Dominator.
Last week in Athens CM was told, by a very reliable source that the order would go to Leyland. Mr Spiro Pautis md of DEA the Hestair dealer, who also assembles Pegaso, said "We offered the Athens authority a Dominator on trial four years ago but we have had no reply."
If the report is true these will be the first double deckers to go into service in Athens' overcrowded streets where articulated buses of all makes and vintages abound. In addition to normal city and urban service buses there are hundreds of tourist coaches crushing for places to park at the Acropolis, Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Zeus every hour of the day.
Already Athens is so overcrowded that last Monday all transport except for buses and taxis was barred from the city centre between 7 and 9.30 am. "This should improve traffic flow and the use of public service transport" we were told.
The Leyland Olympian has been on trials in Athens and the name apart it met with public approval. This week it has been at a trade fair in Thessolonica where we understand it attracted a great deal of attention.
The bus population in Greece is multi national and if our report is confirmed (see CM next week) Leyland's challenge to the single decker market should be highly significant.
However, DEA does not intend to allow the Hestair interest to wane. "We will pursue a policy to introduce a vehicle which we believe to be the best technical proposition in this field" said Mr Pautis.