BIG SWITCH HITS AEC By Derek Moses rr HE CONTINUED
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non-availa bility of a rear-engined AEC double-decker has, I judge, lost this company more custom in recent weeks.
Southampton Corporation Transport, which in recent years has purchased 75 AEC Regent V double-deckers, has decided to switch to rear-engined doubledeckers and has ordered 20 Leyland Atlanteans.
Another operator switching to rearengined buses is Ipswich Corporation Transport which has a 100 per cent fleet of AECs. The transport committee has recommended acceptance of the tender of Leyland for four Atlanteans at a cost of £3,326 each. The committee has also recommended acceptance of the tender of Eastern Coach Works Ltd. for four 74-seat bodies at £4,010 each to be mounted on these chassis.
East Yorkshire Motor Services Ltd. and City of Oxford Motor Services Ltd. are two examples of AEC-operating BET companies now switching to rear-engined buses which have ordered Daimler Fleetlines, there now being no equivalent AEC model. I understand that East Kent, which also standardizes ' on AECs, is facing a similar quandary. No doubledeckers are being purchased this year, but future double-deck purchases are almost certainly to be of rear-engined models.
Meanwhile other orders announced by Leyland Motors Ltd. include one from Liverpool City Transport for 40 Panther PSUR1.1 single-deck rear-underfloorengined chassis and similar chassis have been ordered by Lincoln City Transport (four), Lancaster (six) and Lytham St. Annes (three).
Atlantean PDR1.1 chassis have been ordered by Newport Corporation Transport (nine), Stockton/ (seven), Colchester (five) and Lytham St. Anne's (three), while Leicester City Transport has ordered 20 Titan PD3A.12 front-engined doubledeckers.