Nem bucks the trend
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• I veco plans to launch its new Turbo City double-decker next year — just as the UK full-size bus market is expected to drop to an all-time low.
Harry Chambers, Iveco's UK bus manager, defends Eveco's timing, saying that the company is confident about the future of the service bus industry. He believes that local authorities will recognise that there is only limited scope for expensive light-rail options.
"The double-deck bus is, and will remain, a vital part of the traffic scene in the 1990s," says Chambers, but he warns that the British government cannot expect bus operators to provide a public service, buy new vehicles and fit expensive emission controls while working in a free market: "There will have to be public funding of environmental features."
Chambers reports that there are now more than 100 buses operating in Italy equipped with particulate traps or filters, while he does not know of any running in public service in the UK with similar equipment.
One of the prototype Turbo City double-deckers due to be demonstrated to UK operators early next year will be fitted with a particulate filter.