UK target for Mem 0405
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• Mercedes-Benz plans to attack the UK citybus market next year with its 0405 chassis, which has so far been targeted at Continental, Far East and Australasian operators.
A right-hand-drive version of the 0405 chassis cowl, which has been available for more than five years, will be at the bus and coach exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham this October.
Walter Alexander of Falkirk is expected to take the 11.6m chassis after the show.
Mercedez-Benz says the northern bodybuilder, which already sends body kits for the 0405 chassis to Singapore, is the preferred builder to body the chassis. But it has not closed the door to other bodybuilders, it says.
Walter Alexander has already started to develop an aluminium body for the chassis, which has a six-cylinder 0H447H horizontal engine, producing 1 6 OkW (2 14hp) through an automatic ZF HP500 Economat gearbox.
The body for the 11.6m chassis will take 53 seated passengers with 16 standees on the one-door option, or 47 seated passengers with 16 standees with two doors.
The body is still at the early design stage, but it will not be constructed with the Alusuisse system, says Walter Alexander. Its newest addition, the Q-Type, an updated version of the sevenyear-old N-Type, is riveted with the Avdelok system.
The first new citybus is expected to be completed by next spring. It will have ABS braking and an ASR anti-slip device. And an articulated version could follow for the UK.
Walter Alexander says the new vehicle will not replace any model in its existing range, comprising the year-old single-deck Q-Type, five-year-old mini/midi M-Type and single-deck PSType and 10-year-old doubledeck R-Type. A new body for the Dennis Dart is to be added to the range. It will be shown at the NEC in October and is believed to have a more rounded front than existing models.
It will be joined by a variation of the PS-Type body on the Dennis Lance chassis.
fl Walter Alexander is supplying what it believes to be the largest double-deck order for 1991 — 36 Leyland Olympians for Scottish operator Lothian Region Transport for £3.7m.