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Wadham low-floor midi
Page 19
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• A low-floor midibus body, the Portsdown, has been launched by Wadham Stringer Coachbuilders. It is built on the Dennis Dart chassis, though it is also offered on the ACE Cougar. The standard width is 2.35m; length ranges from 8.5m and 9m on the Dart to 10.5m on the Cougar.
Features include a large, level ticketing area with singlestep entrance/exit; optimum window line for passengers and a large full-width destination display, which can be electronic. The floor height is 525mm, with a step towards the back over the rear engine, on the Dart chassis. That on the Cougar slopes towards the back, again over a rear engine.
The body has been designed for ease of maintenance, with rivetted panels, rubber gasketglazed windows, acrylic-faced aluminium interior roof, twopiece laminated windscreen and
steel reinforced front/rear bumpers. The body conforms to most of the Disabled Passenger Transport Advisory Committee requirements.
Wadham Stringer predicts the market for this type of vehicle at around 1,500 a year and hopes to sell 200 to 300 Portsdown bodies a year. It says that its first orders include two 9m bodies on Dennis Dart chassis for Eastbourne Buses and a 10.5m body on the ACE Cougar chassis for Fareham-based People's Provincial Buses.
The 8.5m version on the Dart is priced at 257,500, excluding electronic destination sign, and Wadham Stringer expects to market the new body directly, though it says some will be available through the dealer network.
A community bus with a wheelchair lift and a left-hand drive version arc also planned.