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Darlington's Roadliners cause a fuss
Page 39
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• The 12 Daimler Roadliner single-deckers operated by Darlington Corporation Transport are this week in the centre of a major row. Last week the town's trading and public protection committee was told of the extra operating costs the vehicles incurred.
The committee's chairman, Cllr S. McLoughlin, said when the council had bought the buses six years ago they had been hailed as revolutionary. Since then, though, they had proved a bad buy.
Mr P. Ellis, the fleet's general manager told the committee that the Roadliners — fitted, with Cummins V8 engines — required 10 per cent more fuel than other comparative vehicles. The engine sometimes needed overhauls after only 50,000 mile's compared with the other 56 vehicles in the fleet, all of which have Gardner engines, which often clock up 250,000 miles. Mr Ellis also reported that 33 per cent of material costs and 371 per cent of labour costs were spent on the Roadliners.
Mr Ellis told CM this week that both engine and chassis were out of production. The vehicles had to travel to Teesside for maintenance. He had considered re-engining with Gardner units but had ruled this out because of exorbitant costs. Now, Mr Ellis is preparing a further report for the committee which is to meet next month to consider the future of the vehicles.
Mr J. D. Mundelia, chief engineer of the Potteries Motor Traction Co Ltd, which at one time had 54 Roadliners told CM this week that several of the vehicles had been disposed of. Of the remainder 10 had Perkins V8.510 engines and the others were operating reasonably satisfactorily.