Spectra or Trident

[Bob]

Didnt the Nationals run at Wolves until this time? I remember wondering why Twm would spend all the money they did re engineing a number of them with Volvo engines in the mid 90s only to withdraw them a couple of years later! what a waste!

[4006]

I think the people best qualified to answer this would be the management, maintenance staff and drivers at Park Lane, and every one of those that I have spoken to is counting down the days to when the hybrids are introduced and the Spectras (and the other Optares at Park Lane) are moved out for the last time.  To quote one driver on the 255 when he saw he was taking over a Spectra instead of the usual Trident - "oh no, not this heap of sh**".

It is also notable that Travel West Midlands, having bought over 100 Optares in 1998 and 1999, have since ignored Optare completely when buying new buses. 

As far as the Spectras are concerned, the first 22 were bought because they were the only low floor double deckers available at the time.  I think that 4001 was the first production low floor double deck bus built, but was not the first one in service.  TWM organised a noon launch of 4001 as the first low floor double decker in service in the country, only for ABUS of Bristol to put Optare Spectra S222 AJP into service at 0650 the same morning to scupper the launch.

However, after the first batch, the next 100 buses ordered were the Presidents, which suggests that the 22 Spectras did not come up to expectation.

I guess also they must have had a 'good deal' with Optare as they may have done with Scania as since the last batch of Scanias they have gone with the Volvo's since. I guess also what must come into consideration is the garentee and maintenence costs/contracts!

To reflect I think it is difficult to compare a bus made in the late 90's which was a new concept at the time to a modern bus where the build is common place amongst manufacturers. Some Spectras are crap but sime Tridents are also and obviously taking the age of the Spectras into consideration it is obvious they will not be as reliable as newer buses (even the new B7's are in and out the garage for repairs/faults just like the Spectra's)
Forgive me if I sould a hypocrite as generally I take the P*** out of the Spectra's however you can ask any of the current drivers at Park Lane and ask them what the best bus is and 90% of them will say 'The old METRO's!)

[Ashley]

Any NXWM driver that was driving when Metrobuses were in service would say Metrobuses were the best whether they knew anything about buses or not

[Andrew1991]

I loved the metrobuses, maybe I like the older buses or something. But saying that I like the newer buses nx have got too.

[Ash]

I think the people best qualified to answer this would be the management, maintenance staff and drivers at Park Lane, and every one of those that I have spoken to is counting down the days to when the hybrids are introduced and the Spectras (and the other Optares at Park Lane) are moved out for the last time.  To quote one driver on the 255 when he saw he was taking over a Spectra instead of the usual Trident - "oh no, not this heap of sh**".

It is also notable that Travel West Midlands, having bought over 100 Optares in 1998 and 1999, have since ignored Optare completely when buying new buses. 

As far as the Spectras are concerned, the first 22 were bought because they were the only low floor double deckers available at the time.  I think that 4001 was the first production low floor double deck bus built, but was not the first one in service.  TWM organised a noon launch of 4001 as the first low floor double decker in service in the country, only for ABUS of Bristol to put Optare Spectra S222 AJP into service at 0650 the same morning to scupper the launch.

However, after the first batch, the next 100 buses ordered were the Presidents, which suggests that the 22 Spectras did not come up to expectation.

I guess also they must have had a 'good deal' with Optare as they may have done with Scania as since the last batch of Scanias they have gone with the Volvo's since. I guess also what must come into consideration is the garentee and maintenence costs/contracts!

To reflect I think it is difficult to compare a bus made in the late 90's which was a new concept at the time to a modern bus where the build is common place amongst manufacturers. Some Spectras are crap but sime Tridents are also and obviously taking the age of the Spectras into consideration it is obvious they will not be as reliable as newer buses (even the new B7's are in and out the garage for repairs/faults just like the Spectra's)
Forgive me if I sould a hypocrite as generally I take the P*** out of the Spectra's however you can ask any of the current drivers at Park Lane and ask them what the best bus is and 90% of them will say 'The old METRO's!)

NX seem to swap between manufactuers like they brought in quite a few omnilinks then changed to the eclipses, this was similar to when they brought the geminis from 2003-6 its taken 5 years before any more were ordered. As the trident and enviro400 seem to take preference in choice. Its also similar to when the merc were ordered NX could have sticked with merecedes and brought in citaro's but went with volvo and brought in the eclipses when bringing in new single deckers in 2006. Variety is good though makes the fleet more interesting and i guess NX have just shopped around for the best deals for large orders and companies that meet there expectations and specifications on vehicles.

[nitromatt1]

Euro 4 engined Trident for me, especially the Enviro400 bodied ones

[Sh4318]

No competition for me, Tridents are my favourite buses ever, like Matt said, the Euro 4 engined examples sound great

[ilovetea4370]

Very tough one for me, I would actually say Spectra I think, closely followed by any BV52 Trident in the fleet :P Not a fan of the ZF tridents though. 

[Trident 4609]

Quite hard to pick. I have both Tridents and Some Spectra's on the 59 near to where i live

[Westy]

There will never be a 'standard' NX bus like the Fleetlines & the Metros will there!

[nitromatt1]

There will never be a 'standard' NX bus like the Fleetlines & the Metros will there!

I think the O405Ns are a contender, as they aren't common buses outside the NXWM fleet, Whittles have an O405N but I don't know of any other companies in the Midlands who do and I haven't ever seen any others around the country

[Ashley 4569]

The Mercs we have in NXWM land are pretty unique to the UK. However the chassis are combined with the Optare Prisma bodywork I believe, a chassis/bdy combo that did sell in small pockets, EYMS have about ten of these active

[winston]

The Mercs we have in NXWM land are pretty unique to the UK. However the chassis are combined with the Optare Prisma bodywork I believe, a chassis/bdy combo that did sell in small pockets, EYMS have about ten of these active

122 were built, North East Bus which WMT once owned had a batch of 25

http://www.buslistsontheweb.co.uk/index.htm?http://www.buslistsontheweb.co.uk/list.asp?listname=238&Type=Body

[Westy]

What I mean is NX will not concentrate on mainly one vehicle type like the PTE tried to do .

Apart from what was inherited from the municipals, the PTE tried to standardise on Fleetlines, later Metrobuses & Nationals.

There was only 2 deviations, the VRs & the Alisa Volvos.

Compared with modern day NX & Tridents, Scanias, Enviros, Volvos, Mercedes etc, there isnt a bus which sums up the West Midlands, like the London Routemaster.

[4130Quinton]

The Mercs we have in NXWM land are pretty unique to the UK. However the chassis are combined with the Optare Prisma bodywork I believe, a chassis/bdy combo that did sell in small pockets, EYMS have about ten of these active

There were only 204 standard Mercedes Benz O.405N built for the UK market. The first ten built by UVG before it collapsed and the remainder built by Mercedes at Tankersley. TWM got 193 of these new and later got the second demonstrator/maintenance float (becoming 1743). The other ten comprised of the original demonstrator plus two for Finglands, one for Go West of Kings Lynn and the final six for Citybus in Belfast. The latter now work in Derry/Londonderry for Ulsterbus.

The 122 Optare Prisma models were built on the higher floor Mercedes Benz O.405 chassis rather than the low-floor O.405N (just checked it out to see if I have that fact correct)