Omni revives its six-wheeler
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• Omni Coach has completed its first six-wheeler PCV — a model which was put on the shelf after the marque's former UK manufacturer called in the receiver in November 1990.
The County Durham-based manufacturer will initially supply only welfare variants of the 7.5m unit, until a more powerful engine is chosen to take care of the extra weight demanded for bus work.
The first three-axled Omni is due to be delivered to Leicestershire County Council's Social Services Department this week. It is fitted with 10 permanent forward facing front seats, four nearside tip-up seats and six removable forward-facing rear seats.
With the six rear seats removed and the side seats tipped up there is space for seven wheelchairs. There are double doors at the rear with a lowering device to reduce the back step height from 360mm to 230mm.
Other operators interested in the 20-seater, which is longer than the standard Omni, can expect to wait up to five months for delivery, and to pay £45,000£50,000. A prototype of the bus version should be ready by the end of the year: it will cost about the same as the welfare model.
The bus will use a four-litre engine to handle the extra weight of 29 seated and 12 standing passengers. Omni is still evaluating engines to replace the standard three-litre 63kW (85hp) Perkins engine. Cummins and Perkins are believed to be the most likely suppliers.
The company also plans to offer an automatic gearbox on both the six-wheeler and standard Omnis as an option to the ZF manual box.
The 29-seater bus will be aimed at the same market as the Optare MetroRider, says Omni Coach's managing director Grant Lockhart. He believes that the low floor height of 330mm and first step height of 230mm will make it popular with city services. The six-wheeler has been launched almost a year earlier than planned following interest from operators in the concept vehicle exhibited by former owner City Vehicle Engin eering at the 1990 Institute of Road Transport Engineers show — two months before it called in the receiver.
In the next 10 months Lockhart plans to produce around 50 Omnis; up to 20% of them are expected to be six-wheelers. If the plant is on line to meet this output, which will give a turnover of over £1.5m, he will double the workforce of 20 by the end of the year.