One for the community
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• Wadham Stringer is about to complete a low-floor community bus derivative of an ambulance it has been selling over the past two years.
The 13-seater is based on the Waterloovillebased firm's MIAB/W ambulance. It has a Peugeot Talbot Express cab with an AL-KO single-axle chassis and will cost about £25,000. With a floor height of 584mm and space for up to three wheelchairs, the community bus is designed for dial-a-ride, local authority, rest home and ambulance day patient services.
Wadham Stringer hopes to sell up to 100 of the GRP-bodied 3.65m-wheelbase buses in the next 12 months. It will offer the 70kW (95hp) Peugeot 2.5-litre turbodiesel engine as standard; options will include a 54kW (75hp) 2.5-litre naturally aspirated diesel and a two-litre petrol engine producing 55kW (78hp).
The first example will be completed next week and will make its show debut at the National Trade Exhibition on 9-11 June at The National Agriculture Centre, Stoneleigh Park, Warks. It has a sliding nearside door and a wheelchair lift. Before the show the community bus will be demonstrated at a series of seminars in the second and third week of May in London, the Midlands and North West.
Peugeot hopes that other bodybuilders will take up the Peugeot/AL-KO combination; Wadham Stringer has sold about 50 in ambulance format.