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SELNEC buys foreign buses

19th March 1971, Page 20
19th March 1971
Page 20
Page 20, 19th March 1971 — SELNEC buys foreign buses
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Keywords : Buses, Northern Counties

• SELNEC Passenger Transport Authority revealed this week that it had placed orders on the Continent for 12 single-deck buses worth about £120,000, the orders being divided between Mercedes-Benz and Scania. If these buses are successful they could lead to orders for double-deck buses on which the PTE spends the bulk of its £2m allocation a year for new vehicles.

A SELNEC spokesman told CM: "We do not want to go overseas but we must have the most reliable equipment we can find." The Executive has had trouble with the rear-engined double -deckers which make up about 1000 of its fleet of 2500 vehicles. This has led to a study of the overseas models.

SELNEC claims that it had no alternative but to place a recent £5m order with British Leyland because they were virtually the world's only manufacturers of double-deck buses. Officials of the Executive feel that with the amount of money they have to spend in the future, Continental plants might be willing to turn their hands to manufacturing doubledeckers suitable for British operation. This move would be dependent upon SELNEC finding the foreign single-deckers satisfactory.

On the other hand SELNEC has acknowledged that British Leyland has embarked on a major programme to put right faults on double-deckers about which there have been complaints.

In spite of the engineering difficulties with rear-engined double-deckers, said a SELNEC official, there was no intention of placing orders on a large scale overseas. Mr G. A. Harrison, director-general, said SELNEC had only just placed an order for 500 buses with British Leyland to cover the Executive's requirements for the next 2+ years.

He said that SELNEC does not keep a record of the number of its breakdowns but admits that engineering failures are responsible for a great loss in mileage. Last year this increased by 0.3 per cent and the situation, he says, is still unsatisfactory.

A British Leyland truck and bus division spokesman said: "We have had a close working relationship with SELNEC and we are endeavouring to eliminate the problems."


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