There may be press speculation over the future of London’s 18m bendy bus Mercedes Citaros and it may be that it’s the London examples that enjoy (?) the most publicity (or is that post-Routemaster notoriety?), but there are now considerable numbers of 12m rigid Citaros in Britain.
Of the 500+ Citaros in Britain, Wilts & Dorset ordered 30 12m units. They started arriving almost exactly two months ago and the earlier ones have been in service for some six weeks.
How are they doing? Overall, very well, thank you. Except perhaps on the Pulseline. Popular with both driver and passenger (though Salisbury peak loading issues are not specifically Citaro-related), they follow the similar body layout of earlier Wright bodied Volvo Eclipse Urbans, with 39 seats and the curious though spacious and attention-grabbing 2+1 front seating arrangement. Passengers on routes shared between Wrights/Volvos and Citaros probably can’t tell them apart. It’s the passengers who have never experienced the concept of air conditioned, spacious interiors that really notice the difference.
And that’s the interesting thing about W&D’s Citaros. The company’s using them on a variety of routes in quite an exotic mix on:
- Branded more and supplementing Volvos on the intensive inter-urban m1 and m2 corridor in the South Dorset conurbation between Poole, Bournemouth, Christchurch
- Suburban Poole – Canford Heath m5, m6, m7
- Branded Pulseline (un-numbered) on a cross-Salisbury city service
- Medium-haul interurban/rural services between Poole, Wimborne & Bournemouth (132/3)
- Limited stop expresses between Salisbury and Bath (X4)
The Citaro appears as the bus for all reasons. Their heavyweight engineering means they seem happy in all these situations, even if there are a few tight corners in Salisbury with which the Citaro drivers have to contend. There have been calls for double decks at peak times on the 39 seat Salisbury Pulseline, following what might simply be new route loading & teething problems. It is hoped that a minority of vociferous passengers who dislike the Pulseline rationalisation and simplification are just that, a minority. Time will tell whether W&D has got it right overall. Our guess is that W&D has, and can expect overall growth with the Pulseline package - new routes and buses - which, after all, is very customer focused, replacing a service led legacy network.
The only engineering downside appears to be the droopy near side praying mantis-like mirrors have a habit of, well, coming to grief!
3 comments:
Originally posted 4/3/06 but updated to inlcude spell checker, and reposted.
So, out of the Citaro and the B7RLE I wonder which is the better? Up here in Harrogate the B7RLE's aren't too bad, but compare to it's predecessor, the B10BLE, you notice the engine is more rough, and I hear the turing circle on the B7RLE isn't as good either.
Talking on the South West, I wonder how Yellow Buses are doing since the takeover.
Matthew... more on Yellow Buses soon, though try http://omnibuses.blogspot.com/2006/02/audiences-with-transdev.html and http://omnibuses.blogspot.com/2006/02/no-joke.html
As for the Mercedes v Volvo, the jury's still out. Both, though, are admirable machines.
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