Yorks artic go-ahead
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A NEW wage agreement with its crews means that South Yorkshire PTE will begin its articulated bus trials later this year.
Crews have voted by 1,512 to 584 in favour of accepting a five per cent wage increase with additional productivity amounts and a clause for artic bus operation, and SYPTE hopes to begin limited operations with the vehicle in the summer.
It has still to conclude leasing arrangements with MAN and Leyland, which will build the vehicles for use on Cityliner services in central Sheffield.
Four MANs and an undecided number of LeylandDABs are to be used, all of them painted in the green / orange/white livery worn by MAN's Bendibus demonstrator.
The Bendibus is expected in Sheffield in a few weeks and will be used for a mammoth driver training programme over the coming months.
Current legislation forbids SYPTE from charging fares on the artic routes, but a South Yorkshire County Council General Powers Bill before Parliament includes a clause which would give the PTE the right to charge fares on experimental services, but it is doubtful whether the Bill will become law in this Parliament.
Once sufficient artic buses are available (probably MANs initially), SYPTE proposes to launch Cityliner in place of the existing City Clipper and Early Bird services and will use a mix of artics and rigid Leyland Nationals.