B15 project loses ground
Page 6
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
PROSPECTS for Leyland's B15 "superbus" faded still further this week as orders for Metro-Cammell Weymann's Metrobus flowed in from members of the proposed B15 building consortium.
Orders for the Metrobus have so far been received by MCW from five of the seven authorities who were involved in a plan to produce the B15 at Leyland's Southall AEC plant.
Leyland's package deal for the B15 in which the PTEs provide £7 million to develop the superbus had been greeted coolly by the authorities. Only London, Greater Manchester and the National Bus Company expressed any interest at all.
And this interest has been waning over the past weeks. London Transport chief executive Sir Kenneth Robinson has revealed that even LT has been thinking of buying buses other than the B15 because it could not afford to wait.
The Metrobus is expected to go into production in January after 20 buses have been built this year, and there are thought to be few problems involved in the mass production of the bus quickly while the B15 project still lumbers on.
London Transport already has one prototype 1115 in use, and it is said to be giving good results. Now LT is to try and obtain approval for another five B15 buses for London.