Leyland wins £16m double-decker order
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LEYLAND Bus has won a £16m order from London Buses for 260 double-deckers to be delivered next year. The buses arc to be Leyland Olympians fitted with Gardiner 6LXB engines driving through Leyland's Hydracyclic transmissions.
Bodywork is expected to be supplied by Leyland Bus through its Eastern Coach works subsidiary in Lowestoft. The buses will be standard ECW-bodied Olym pians, but will be adapted to incorporate some of the fea tures from an Ogle bus design study commissioned by London Buses.
Thicker non-slip handrails, a split entrance, repositioned bells and a bus stopping sign will be included.
The next London Buses order, for buses to be de livered in 1987, will take into consideration the results of the current Stockwell bus comparison, but will incor porate all of the Ogle design features. The four chassis manufacturers involved in the Stockwell trials are Leyland, Hestair Dennis, MCW and Volvo.
The Dennis buses have bodywork by Northern Counties, the Volvos are bodied by Alexander.
The order is expected to be the largest placed by a British operator this year, although it is fairly small by previous London Transport standards. It must have serious implications for Leyland rival MetroCaminell-Weymann, which has supplied large numbers of Metrobuses to London Transport during recent years. A MCW spokesman told CM that the company has contin gency plans to enable it to overcome the loss of London business.