Nottingham City Transport used the ALBUM conference to reveal the first of a 53-strong order for Scania/ADL Enviro400 City gas buses.
And, with the gas pressure increased from 200bar (as used on Reading Buses’ E400 fleet) to 250bar, it will give the buses a 250-mile range.
The £18m investment – only made possible by a £4.5m OLEV grant – will see 53 buses delivered; 30 in 2017 and 23 in 2018.
They will be used on NCT’s colour-code routes, the display example being branded for the 15-minute frequency Green Line route 10.
NCT MD Mark Fowles tells routeone that the ADL E400 City body will only be used for gas buses, to ensure they stand out from ADL’s diesel E400 buses. The message is reinforced by internal and bus-back branding, explain the gas bus’ green contribution, thanks to using biogas from anaerobic digesters.
Internally, they have a hi-spec, with free wi-fi, plus Lazzerini seats including seat-back USB chargers, rather ADL’s normal below-seat USB position, and tinted glazing.
The seats have a moquette/synthetic leather covering that takes its cues from car styling, and is equally as comfortable.
At the rear of the upper deck, the gas tanks are positioned differently to Reading’s batch, with a redesigned cover and reduced-size rear window, compared with a diesel E400 City.
The 11.2m body seats 72, plus 11 standees, and the move to gas comes ahead of Nottingham becoming a Clean Air Zone (CAZ) in 2020, requiring all buses to meet Euro 6.
