Ulster's new WA Turbo Daily bus
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• Walter Alexander (Coachbuilders) has developed a midibus body range for the Iveco Ford Turbo Daily range. The bodies are suitable for PSV and welfare applications and can be produced at both the Alexander plants at Falkirk and Belfast.
The Belfast plant has just delivered the first vehicle in a batch of 50 ordered by Northern Ireland's five education and library boards.
The vehicles are built to a welfare specification and are based on the 40.8 chassis.
The bodies are fitted with 18 seats which are easily removable to provide room for six passengers in wheelchairs.
All of the buses have Henderson Linwell Hideaway wheelchair lifts and an independent combustion heating system.
The Northern Ireland vehicles have a two-piece front grip moulding for ease of repair. It is expected that PSV models would have a single-piece arrangement.
The 50-vehicle order for the library and education boards is unusual as it is the first time all five boards have ordered a standardised batch of vehicles together. The buses are required as the boards have taken over the responsibility for special schools from the Department of Health.
The combined fleets of the Library and Education Boards total over 900 vehicles.
The order was won as a result of a "competitive tender" and the chassis were supplied through Belfast Iveco Ford dealer RIC Trucks.