Pulhams Coaches has taken delivery of four Mercedes-Benz Citaros to serve its new 99 service that connects Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham Hospital.
The Bourton-on-the-Water-based operator has been awarded the seven-year tender, in partnership with Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, to provide transport predominantly to NHS staff.
MD Andy Pulham (pictured left) and his wife Kathryn visited the new Mercedes-Benz Customer Centre in Mannheim to choose the specifications for their vehicle using the latest multimedia tools.
Each Citaro has 41 high-back leather seats and also include USB ports on every seat, wi-fi, 240v sockets, contactless payment, double-glazing and two-tone flooring.
Mobitech destination equipment – supplied by the Mercedes factory in Mannheim and programmed by McKenna Brothers – is also featured, including an interior split screen.
The buses were painted metallic silver at the Citaro factory in Mannheim to match Pulhams’ corporate fleet colours.
“We consider this bus service to be a more premium service, so we chose to apply our corporate coach livery onto the buses to make them more special and to make them stand out,” says Mr Pulham.
These are the first Citaros for Pulhams, adding to the operator’s 22-strong fleet of buses.
Ian Wallace, EvoBus (UK) Senior Manager Bus Sales (pictured right), says: “Our challenge was to have a flexible approach to UK-based suppliers, build and deliver the vehicles within the schedule.
“I’m happy to say we achieved this and the result is four fantastic looking vehicles delivered on time without any specification deviation.
“Thank you to the team at Pulhams for their valued business.”
