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East Lancs Myllennium | |
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Overview | |
Manufacturer | East Lancashire Coachbuilders |
Production | 1999 - 2006 |
Assembly | Blackburn, Lancashire, England |
Body and chassis | |
Doors | 1 or 2 |
Floor type | Low floor High-floor |
Chassis | DAF SB220 Dennis Dart SLF MAN 14.220 Scania N94UB (Omnitown) |
Related | East Lancs Myllennium Lolyne East Lancs Myllennium Lowlander East Lancs Myllennium Nordic East Lancs Myllennium Vyking |
Powertrain | |
Engine | DAF GS160M (DAF SB220) Cummins B Series (Dennis Dart SLF) MAN (MAN 14.220) Scania DC09 (Scania N94UB) |
Transmission | Voith, ZF, Allison |
Dimensions | |
Length | 8.5 m (27 ft 11 in) – 13.9 m (45 ft 7 in) [1] 11 m (36 ft 1 in) – 12 m (39 ft 4 in) (Hyline) [2] |
Width | 2.3 m (7 ft 7 in) – 2.53 m (8 ft 4 in) |
Height | 3.1 m (10 ft 2 in) 3.41 m (11 ft 2 in) (Hyline) 3.0 m (9 ft 10 in) (Omnitown) |
Chronology | |
Successor | East Lancs Esteem |
The East Lancs Myllennium was a type of single-decker bus body manufactured by East Lancashire Coachbuilders on DAF SB220, Dennis Dart SLF, MAN 14.220 and Scania N94UB chassis. It was superseded by the East Lancs Esteem in 2006. [3]
The Myllenium was designed in 1999 as a bus for Millennium Dome shuttle services M1 and M2 operated by London Central, with 17 in total on DAF SB220 chassis delivered for the services, three of which were LPG gas-powered. The buses were equipped with air conditioning and an electronic guidance system designed by Alstom for driverless running on a 0.8 miles (1.3 km) section of guided busway linking the Millennium Dome with Charlton and Greenwich railway stations. [4] The buses never ran in passenger-carrying service on the M1 service using the guidance system, and London Buses would later admit in 2000 that the guidance system was not yet ready for deployment on the planned 'Millennium Busway'. The Myllenniums would eventually be downgraded to regular service buses for use on London Buses route 486, the M1's successor, which commenced operations from 24 February 2001. [5]
Soon after, the Myllennium became available for other operators, with the majority of orders coming from Arriva North West and First Berkshire & The Thames Valley. 22 were bought between 2005 and 2007 by Surrey County Council for contract use, initially for school contracts before moving onto park and ride routes. Enterprise had also bought two for contract use with Red Funnel in 2005, with them being handed down to Go South Coast division Bluestar once the contract with them was finished.
In line with previous East Lancs products, the Myllennium bodywork was also used to body less standard buses than public service vehicles. Notable examples include Myllenniums modified as outside broadcasting vehicles that were delivered to various regional BBC Radio stations across the United Kingdom.
CT Plus' buses.gg operation took delivery of around 30 short-width Myllenniums on Dennis Dart SLF chassis between 2004 and 2005. These were later phased out in 2018 with thr delivery of new Wright StreetVibes. [6]
The Hyline body was designed to re-body reconditioned Leyland Tiger and Volvo B10M chassis. The bus itself could seat up to 67 passengers. [2]
Six Leyland Tigers were rebodied in 2000 as Myllennium Hylines for Strathtay. [7] Two further orders were placed, both for Volvo B10M chassis. Looking rather different from the Strathtay examples, the Volvos was built with bonded glazing and had the emergency exit located at the very rear off side. [2] The concept was not a great success, as a result no further orders followed - the Hylines representing the end in the United Kingdom of rebodying for the bus industry. It was built like the Myllennium single-decker but for high-floor buses and thus, it could not be ordered with any new, low floor chassis. The body was discontinued in 2002. [note 1]
The Volvo B7TL is a low-floor double-decker bus chassis which was launched in 1999 and replaced the 2-axle version of the Volvo Olympian. It was built as the British bus operators seemed hesitant to purchase the B7L double decker with a long rear overhang.
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The Volvo B10M was a mid-engined city bus and coach chassis manufactured by Volvo between 1978 and 2003. It succeeded the B58 and was equipped with the same 9.6-litre horizontally mounted Volvo diesel engine mounted under the floor behind the front axle. An articulated version under the model name Volvo B10MA was also offered, as was a semi-integral version known as the C10M, with the engine in the middle of the chassis.
East Lancashire Coachbuilders Limited was a manufacturer of bus bodies and carriages founded in 1934 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England. The company went into administration for a short while in August 2007, before being bought by Darwen Group and performed a reverse takeover with Optare when its parent purchased the company in 2008 and its site and business was later closed in 2012.
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