British Leyland and Duple in bids for E2500m US bus order
Page 11
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
by Derek Moses
• An Anglo-American alliance between the truck and bus division of British Leyland and American Motors is being considered in an attempt to secure an order from the USA for 100,000 buses to be delivered over a five-year period, it was revealed this week. Under such an alliance buses designed in Britain and assembled in the States employing a large proportion of British parts would be supplied.
Also attempting to secure the contract -from the recently formed Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) — is Duple Coachbuilders Ltd, of Blackpool, who submitted a design concept this week for consideration by UMTA. Both British Leyland and Duple spokesmen expressed confidence in securing all — or part — of the contract, which is worth £2500 million.
Competition for this prize contract is, understandably, very fierce, and BLMC/AM and Duple are up against such American firms as Boeing, Lockheed, Ford, General Motors and Flxible. Indeed, Mr Ron Ellis, managing director of BLMC's truck and bus division stated on Tuesday: "Competition to win this order will be tremendous but there is terrific scope in the US."
The UMTA project is to produce buses of advanced design and built to very stringent requirements which will help win back riders in the States, where the problems associated with private car growth in urban areas have become critical (CM last week).
Specification of the new buses calls for vehicles with an overall length of 40ft and width of 8ft 6in. They must be very quiet, capable of cruising at 70 mph, have very efficient heating and ventilation systems, and have crash resistant seats; they must also be capable of resisting collapse in the event of being overturned in an accident.
One type of bus which tends to spring to mind when considering the American requirements is a stretched version of the new Leyland National integral bus (a singledecker design is currently being considered by UMTA), perhaps assembled in a factory in the States provided by American Motors.
However, a Duple spokesman told me that his company could also provide a suitable vehicle — and hinted that American running units would be specified (the Detroit Diesel, Ford or Cummings, perhaps?). Incidentally, any development by Duple along such lines would be complementary to its production of luxury coach bodies.
Design concepts submitted by the end of this year (1971) will be considered by UMTA by the end of February. I understand that two or more tenderers will then be asked to build three prototypes each, which will be subjected to intensive testing. This will be followed by a preproduction run of 200 buses, which will again be subjected to intensive proving trials throughout the States, so that the successful manufacturers will not be known for some time.