Mersey deckers to get glued-in glazing
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DIRECTLY-GLUED glazing with square-cornered window panes feature in a new standard double-deck body design for Merseyside PTE.
Following the undertaking's decision to use Wareite laminates for window surrounds, the last five of a batch of 22 East Lancs-bodied Atlanteans are being used to pioneer the latest ideas. One will have glued-in windows.
All five will feature epoxy resin-finished aluminium floors, solid-state electrics, and a centralised heater radiator mounted at the front where a Bristol VRT's bus radiator is fitted normally.
Forty Willowbrook-bodied double-deckers — 30 Atlanteans and five Dennis Dominators — will also conform to this standard, but will otherwise resemble Bristol VRTs delivered to National Bus.
Merseyside has also ordered 35 Leyland Nationals, 34 current models for delivery by June, and one National 2 which is expected by November.
The Dennis double-deckers will be compared with five Leyland Titans and five MCW Metrobuses, all of which are due to go on trial in the autumn.
One bus of each type will be allocated to each of Merseyside's five divisions and will take part in a comprehensive individual vehicle costing system which is being introduced to the entire fleet this year.
Believed to be the first for a British PTE, this will take account of all maintenance costs incurred by each vehicle, and should reveal a wealth of information to which many bus managers do not have access at present.