Silent Rider back with PTE but not in service yet
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SILENT-RIDER, the prototype battery-powered Seddon midibus jointly developed by the Greater Manchester PTE and Chloride Ltd. will not be put into sel-vice with the PTE for some time because of minor technical problems.
A spokesman for the PTE said that the Executive would re-take possession of the vehicle later this month, but that it would not be put into service yet as it did not come up to specification. Besides overheating of the controller there had also been instances of electrical component failure.
It was originally planned to put the vehicle into service in April, but there have been suggestions recently that the venture has proved to be a "lame duck". However, Mr Cotten, Chloride's head of planning and evaluation. emphatically denied this when he spoke to CM this week. Although Silent Rider was not an experimental vehicle it had been decided to keep it on test in order to evaluate two new components, he said.
Another factor for the delay. said Mr Cotten, was the overwhelming response from other PTEs and pas
senger transport undertakings which had wanted to test the vehicle. And, went on Mr Cotten, this response had not been confined to Britain.
Engineering and bus undertakings in nearly all the 39 countries in which Chloride operated had shown interest in the vehicle. Brazil had sent a party to look at the vehicle.
Moving on to future plans, Mr Cotten said that it was hoped that two fleets of 20 vehicles the Silent Rider Mark II would be on the road in just over two years' time.