No More Renowns or Lowlanders
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WHAT must obviously be the first step in rationalizing production following the
VI' recent Leyland-THC shares " swop " Ile Commercial Motor ", July 30, 1965), is the admission by both AEC Ltd. and Albion Motors Ltd. that production of the Renown and Lowlander front-engined low-height chassis is to cease. Production of a limited number of Albion Lowlanders on order will be completed, and outstanding orders for AEC Renown double-deckers will also be honoured. The annual municipal and company bus analysis to he published by this journal next week will reveal that there are 72 Renowns outstanding for delivery next year in these respective bus fields.
The purpose of the agreed shares exchange. in which Leylands acquired 25 per cent of the share capital of Bristol Commercial Vehicles Ltd. and Eastern Coach Works Ltd. in exchange for just under 30 per cent of the shares of the Leyland subsidiary company Park Royal Vehicles Ltd.. was to free Bristol from the restriction of building only for THC companies, and tc enable Leyland to " benefit from additional capacity to meet the ever-increasing demands of very full order books ". Operators requiring low-height double-deckers. but preferring the conventional front engine -position, will now have their choice restricted to the newly available Bristol Lodekka or the Dennis Lohne, It now seems inevitable that there will be a further decline in the number of AEC double-deckers sold, as only the Regent V model remains in production, apart from the joint AEC/Park Royal Routemaster of advanced design and integral construction. Although this latter bus has now been available on the open market for two years only 50 have been sold outside London Transport, and all those have gone to the same operator, the Northern General Transport Co. Ltd.