LIVERPOOL PLUMPS FOR SINGLE-DECKERS
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ABIG switch to high-capacity dualentrance single-decker buses is planned by Liverpool City Transport, where an existing order for 130 Leyland Atlantean double-deckers has been replaced by one for 60 Atlanteans and 70 Leyland Panther single-deckers. The department has also been authorized to invite tenders for the supply of a further 65 high-capacity singledeckers for delivery during the financial year 1968/69.
The original order called for 65 Atlanteans for delivery during the financial year 1966/67 and a further 65 during 1967/68. Instead 60 Atlanteans and five Leyland Panthers will be delivered in 1966/67 and the balance of 65 Panthers the following year. Bodywork of all vehicles will be by MetropolitanCammell-Weymann Ltd.
A wide front entrance and wide central exit will be fitted to the single-deckers, but final details of the layout of these buses have still to be completed. They will be designed for both crew and one-man operation.
Mr. A. Burrows, general manager of the undertaking, told COMMERCIAL MOTOR this week that the revised order obviously marked a change in policy. There were many routes in the city suitable for operation by high-capacity single-deckers. The former proposal that large-capacity double-deckers operated as one-man buses—with the topdeck sealed off outside peak hours—was not being implemented, at least for the time being. An appraisal of the situation would be carried out in about three years, and the new policy did not necessarily mean the end of double-deck bus purchasing.
Manchester's new move
Meanwhile, Manchester City Transport has modified the design of 96 rear-engined double-deckers on order to include a separate central exit from the lower saloon, and a staircase ascending forwards, with a view to the one-man operation of these vehicles. The original layout was illustrated in drawings published in our issue of December 3 1965. Space for a larger proportion of standing passengers may be included in the revised lower saloon layout.
Work for coachbuilders
LUTON Corporation transport committee has accepted the tender of Eastern Coach Works Ltd. for five 48-seat dual-entrance bodies at a cost of £2,937 let. each, to be mounted on Bristol RELL chassis already on order.
Accrington transport committee has accepted East Lancashire Coachbuilders' tender for three single-deck bodies to be mounted on Bristol RELL chassis. Rotherham transport committee recommends acceptance of the tender of Park Royal Vehicles Ltd. for 12 double-deck bus bodies to be mounted on Daimler Fleetline chassis already on order.
CONDUCTOR GIVES IN
A SHEFFIELD CORPORATION bus conductor who lost his job because* he refused to join a trade union has changed 1-ti mind. Mr. Kenneth Platts, 48, of Ivy Hall Road Shiregreen, has joined the Transport and Genera Workers' Union—and has been reinstated. When he left the corporation service in Augur he lost 20 years' pension right but it is expecte( that the corporation will order that his lonE service should still count.