The
Alexander Dennis Enviro500 (previously known as the
TransBus Enviro500) is a tri-axle
double-decker busA double-decker bus is a bus that has two levels. While double-decker long-distance coaches are in widespread use around the world, double-decker city buses are less common. Double-decker buses are popular in some cities of Europe and in parts of Asia, usually in former British colonies...
built by
Alexander DennisAlexander Dennis Limited is the largest bus builder in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in the world.-History:...
(formerly by TransBus) in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, It was unveiled in 2002.
It is one of the Enviro-series bus models made by TransBus/Alexander Dennis and is designed and built according to current
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an standards and the operating environment of
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
.
Design
The
DennisDennis Specialist Vehicles is a major British coachbuilder and manufacturer of specialised commercial vehicles based in Guildford, England...
chassis for Enviro500 (also known as
Trident E500) was modified from
Trident 3Dennis Trident 3 is the first low floor double-decker bus chassis built by Dennis in the United Kingdom, with a large number purchased by bus companies in Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States and Canada.-Design:...
. It can be fitted with
CumminsCummins Inc. is a corporation of complementary business units that design, manufacture, distribute and service diesel and natural gas engines and related technologies, including fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration, emission solutions and electrical power generation systems...
ISMe335 Euro III engine (later Cummins ISLe340 Euro IV engine which uses
AdBlueAdBlue is the registered trademark for AUS32 and is used in a process called selective catalytic reduction to reduce emissions of oxides of nitrogen from the exhaust of diesel vehicles. As the name AUS32 would suggest, it is a 32.5% solution of high-purity urea in demineralised water that is...
to reduce emission of nitrogen oxides through
selective catalytic reductionSelective catalytic reduction is a means of converting nitrogen oxides, also referred to as with the aid of a catalyst into diatomic nitrogen, , and water, . A gaseous reductant, typically anhydrous ammonia, aqueous ammonia or urea, is added to a stream of flue or exhaust gas and is absorbed...
process), or ISM-330 engine for the buses delivered to
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
, and coupled to
VoithThe Voith AG which is headquartered in Germany, is a family-run corporation in the mechanical engineering sector with worldwide operations....
DIWA864.3E 4-speed or
ZFZF Friedrichshafen AG, also known as ZF Group, and commonly abbreviated to ZF, is a German public company headquarted in Friedrichshafen, in the German south-west region of Baden-Württemberg....
5HP602 5-speed gearbox. Later Voith DIWA864.5 4-speed gearbox, ZF 6HP602 6-speed gearbox and
AllisonAllison Transmission a manufacturer of commercial duty automatic transmissions and hybrid propulsion systems. Allison products are specified by over 250 of the world’s leading vehicle manufacturers and are used in many market sectors including bus, refuse, fire, construction, distribution, military...
B500R 6-speed gearbox became available and now they are the standard configurations.
Initially only the 12-metre (40 ft)-long version of the Enviro500 was built, but in 2007 Alexander Dennis announced the production of the 12.8-metre-long version, and an 11.3-metre-long variant followed in 2008.
Later Alexander Dennis developed the hybrid electric version of Enviro500, known as the
Enviro500H, with GM-Allison's parallel hybrid drive system, it was unveiled in late 2008.
The Enviro500 bodywork is also available with
Volvo B9TLThe Volvo B9TL is a low-floor double-decker bus built by Volvo Buses since 2002. It superseded the older Volvo B10TL and the Volvo B7TL.-Chassis:...
chassis.
External appearance
The body of the Enviro500 was based on the original style of the single-deck Enviro300, and the upper-deck frontal design was similar to the design used on the
Plaxton PresidentThe Plaxton President was a double-decker bus body built at Northern Counties plant in Wigan, England and branded as a Plaxton product for its main production run. It was unveiled in 1997 and built between 1999 and 2005. When Plaxton became part of TransBus International, the body was sold under...
body.
The vehicle exceeded some design limitations in Hong Kong, prompting the local Transport Department to make some exclusions in order to make the buses available to
KMBThe Kowloon Motor Bus Company Limited , a company of the Transport International Holdings Limited, is the largest franchised bus operators in Hong Kong, and one of the largest privately owned public bus operators in the world...
on time.
- The width of the bus is 2550 mm (100.3 inches), exceeded the limit of 2500 mm (98.4 inches). The width of 2550 mm, approved by the EU, became the current standard.
- A fixed glass replaced the emergency door at the rear of the upper deck, but with more hammers available for emergency.
- The front indicators are the smallest of all current models of KMB
The Kowloon Motor Bus Company Limited , a company of the Transport International Holdings Limited, is the largest franchised bus operators in Hong Kong, and one of the largest privately owned public bus operators in the world...
.
The facelifted version of Enviro500 body, first built in late 2003, have revised frontal and rear designs.
Hong Kong
Kowloon Motor Bus
The Enviro500 is the first model of second-generation low-floor buses for
Kowloon Motor BusThe Kowloon Motor Bus Company Limited , a company of the Transport International Holdings Limited, is the largest franchised bus operators in Hong Kong, and one of the largest privately owned public bus operators in the world...
, with straight staircase and
plug doorA plug door is a door designed to hold higher pressure on the side it opens into - the shape of the plug door prevents it from being opened when there's a difference in pressure across the door....
(only at the exit) fitted. All KMB's Enviro500 buses had a bronze band added to the champagne
liveryA livery is a uniform or other insignia or symbol worn in a non-military context on a person or object to denote a relationship with a person or corporate body, often by using elements of the heraldry relating to that person or body, or a personal emblem, and normally given by them. It derives...
to differentiate them from the first-generation low-floor buses.
When TransBus announced the development of the Enviro500, KMB became the launch customer by switching the last 20 of an order of 100 Dennis Trident 3 to the Enviro500 in 2002. Later in the same year, KMB placed a second order for a further 100 of the vehicles. The first Enviro500 arrived in Hong Kong on 12 November 2002 and was registered in January 2003. The remaining 119 buses entered service between March 2003 and November 2003.
In 2003 KMB placed the third order for 65 Enviro500s, quickly followed by a further 50. The bodywork of these buses received a number of minor modifications. The first 112 buses entered service between November 2003 and June 2005, and the remaining three buses were registered by its subsidiary
Long Win BusLong Win Bus Company Limited provides bus service to northern Lantau Island and the Hong Kong International Airport...
.
Due to the commencement of the
KCR West RailThe is one of the MTR lines in Hong Kong. It starts at Hung Hom Station in Yau Tsim Mong and ends at Tuen Mun Station in Tuen Mun...
in late 2003 and
KCR Ma On Shan RailThe is a branch line of the in Hong Kong. Originally, the railway was operated by Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation...
in late 2004, Transport Department of Hong Kong requested KMB to reduce its fleet size, so the registration of these four batches of KMB Enviro500 were delayed and some of them were stored for a long time before entering service.
In 2005, KMB placed a further order for 25 more vehicles with modified bodywork and new Alexander Dennis badge, 24 of them (five had their electronic route destination displays supplied by Gorba instead of Hanover) entered service in early 2006. The last one, a Euro IV-engined prototype, with fleet number ATEU1 (originally ATE257), has entered service on 24 May 2006. In 2009, it reemerged as a Euro V-engined bus.
In late 2005, KMB ordered 15 more buses which entered service in August 2006.
A further batch of nine buses with Euro IV engines had been ordered for delivery in 2009. One of them was fitted with luggage rack after body assembly and entered service in July 2009. The rest of them entered service in August 2009.
Long Win Bus
Long Win BusLong Win Bus Company Limited provides bus service to northern Lantau Island and the Hong Kong International Airport...
registered three Enviro500 buses, which were acquired from KMB, in August 2005 (with fleet number 801-803) to cope with the increased demand for bus services after the opening of
Hong Kong DisneylandHong Kong Disneyland is the first theme park inside the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and is owned and managed by the Hong Kong International Theme Parks, an incorporated company jointly owned by The Walt Disney Company and the Government of Hong Kong....
.
In late 2005, Long Win Bus ordered five more buses which had luggage racks fitted when new. The first four buses (804-807) entered service in June/July 2006. The last one (fleet number 601), which was fitted with coach seats, entered service in July 2006.
A further batch of seven buses with Euro IV engines had been ordered for delivery in 2009. The first six buses entered service in mid-late 2009. The last one, which was fitted with coach seats, entered service in October 2009.
Citybus
CitybusCitybus Limited is one of the three major bus operators in Hong Kong. It provides both franchised and non-franchised bus service. The franchised route network serves mainly Hong Kong Island, cross-harbour routes , Ocean Park, North Lantau and Hong Kong International Airport...
ordered 10 Enviro500s with Euro IV engine and luggage racks, soon after its sister company New World First Bus's order. The first batch of chassis arrived Hong Kong in the third quarter of 2007 for body assembly in NWFB depot at Chong Fu Road. They entered service in December 2007/January 2008.
A further batch of 18 buses with Euro IV engines had been ordered for delivery in 2009. Twelve of the batch entered service in mid-2009.
MTR
Kowloon-Canton Railway CorporationThe Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation was established in 1982 under the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation Ordinance for the purposes of operating the Kowloon-Canton Railway , and to construct and operate other new railways...
originally ordered 9 12-metre long Euro IV-engined Enviro500 buses in early 2007 for its
Feeder BusThe MTR Corporation is a Hong Kong railway company which also operates the MTR Bus and MTR Feeder Bus routes in order to complement its rail systems. Currently, MTRC operates 20 feeder bus routes.-Operation:MTRC provides feeder bus services for the convenience of passengers using MTR rail networks...
service. The first completed bus arrived Hong Kong on November 24, 2007, then registered in February 2008 and entered service in March 2008; the rest of them entered service in March/April 2008.
Due to a railway merger between
MTRMTR, or Mass Transit Railway, is the rapid transit railway system in Hong Kong. The MTR first began service in 1979 and officially merged with the Kowloon Canton Railway on 2 December 2007, still bearing the same name in English. The network includes 211.6 km of rail with 150 stations,...
and
KCRThe Kowloon-Canton Railway refers to a railway network in Hong Kong which is now combined with the MTR railway system, comprising rapid transit services, a light rail system and feeder bus routes within Hong Kong, and intercity passenger and freight train services to the rest of China...
in late-2007, they are now operated by
MTR CorporationMTR Corporation Limited is a company listed on the Hong Kong Exchange and included in the Hang Seng Index. MTR is the company that owns and runs the MTR metro system...
for running MTR Feeder Bus (previously known as KCR Feeder Bus) routes.
A further batch of 15 buses with Euro IV engines had been ordered for delivery in 2009, they were first registered in April-August 2009.
New World First Bus
New World First BusNew World First Bus Services Limited , abbreviated as First Bus and "NWFB", was established in 1998, taking over China Motor Bus's franchise on 1 September 1998 to provide bus services on Hong Kong Island together with Citybus...
ordered 18 Enviro500 buses with Euro IV engine in early 2007. 17 buses entered service in early/mid-2008, another one (fleet number 5504) was shipped to Australia in March 2008, after body assembly, for demonstration in several cities between April and May 2008, it finally entered service in June 2008.
A further batch of twenty 11.3m-long buses with Euro IV engines had been ordered for delivery in 2009. They entered service in July-October 2009.
CLP Group
CLP Group ordered 5 Enviro500 buses with Euro IV engines for its staff shuttle bus service in 2008. The specification is similar with Citybus's Enviro500, but without wheelchair place and standees. They entered service in June 2009.
North America
In 2004, Alexander Dennis started to explore the
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
n market for its Enviro500. The American version of Enviro500 have modified bodies and redesigned fuel tanks, which enable the straight staircase to be moved forward. Alexander Dennis built two left hand drive Enviro500 (one 12m-long bus and one 12.8m-long bus) for demonstration in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
In late 2008, Alexander Dennis announced the assembly of the American version of Enviro500 by
ElDorado NationalElDorado National is a bus manufacturer owned by Thor Industries. Heavy-duty buses are built in Riverside, California, and cutaway buses and mobility vans are built in Salina, Kansas.-Products:* Aerotech and similar lines of cutaway buses...
of the United States.
Bus operators which had evaluated the Enviro500 include Community Transit of
Snohomish County, WashingtonSnohomish County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. It is named after the Snohomish tribe. Since 2000, the county's population has grown from 606,024 to 704,300 residents , making it one of the fastest-growing in the state, ranking third in overall population after King and...
(December 2005),
UnitransUnitrans is the name for the transit system which operates in Davis, California. It takes its name from an abbreviation of the words "University Transport". Excepting several managerial and maintenance positions, Unitrans is managed and operated entirely by students of the University of...
of
DavisDavis is a city in Yolo County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to estimates published by the US Census Bureau, the city had a total population of 62,724 in 2007 . It is the largest city in Yolo...
(January 2006, two weeks),
OC TranspoOC Transpo is the urban transit service of the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. OC Transpo routes also provides service to the downtown core of the nearby city of Gatineau, Quebec, especially during rush hour...
of
OttawaOttawa is the capital of Canada and a municipality within the Province of Ontario. Located in the Ottawa Valley in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario, the city lies on the southern banks of the Ottawa River, a major waterway forming the local boundary between the Provinces of Ontario and...
(June 28 to July 12, 2006 and February 2007) and the
San Francisco Municipal RailwayThe San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served with an operating budget of about $700 million...
of San Francisco (November 2007 to January 2008).
Canada
BC TransitBC Transit is a provincial crown agency responsible for coordinating the delivery of public transportation within British Columbia, Canada, outside of Metro Vancouver...
ordered nine Enviro500 which were allocated to
Victoria, British ColumbiaVictoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada. Located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, Victoria is a major tourism destination seeing more than 3.65 million visitors a year who inject more than one billion dollars into the local economy. Victoria is a cruise ship port where...
and entered service in early 2005. Two of them had taken part in a promotional show in USA, which was organized by Alexander Dennis in January 2005, before entering service. These were followed by another 26 which entered service in 2008, sixteen of them were allocated to Victoria and the other ten were allocated to
KelownaKelowna is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. Its name derives from a native term for "grizzly bear"...
. In 2009, BC Transit received one Enviro500H for evaluation.
GO TransitGO Transit is an interregional public transit system in Southern Ontario, Canada, currently operated by the provincial crown agency Metrolinx. It primarily serves the conurbation referred to by Metrolinx as the "Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area" with operations extending to several communities...
, Toronto's regional transit authority, has purchased twelve 12.8-metre version of Enviro500s in a C$10.835 million deal and they were implemented in early 2008. Ten extra units entered service in early 2009.
OC TranspoOC Transpo is the urban transit service of the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. OC Transpo routes also provides service to the downtown core of the nearby city of Gatineau, Quebec, especially during rush hour...
also purchased 3 Enviro500s for further testings, after two trials in 2006/2007. The first unit arrived in November 2008 and the city of Ottawa currently operates them on a variety of routes. The bus company has ordered 37 more which are to be delivered over the next two years.
United States
Gray Line New YorkGray Line Worldwide operates local sightseeing tours across the world using trolley coaches, double deckers and standard single deck coaches. It also offers charter services, airport transfers and convention services....
, owned by
Coach USACoach USA LLC is a holding company for various American transportation service providers providing scheduled intercity bus service, local and commuter bus transit, city sightseeing, tour, yellow school bus, and charter bus service...
ordered 20 open-top Enviro500 for its sightseeing operations in
New YorkNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
and put them into service in spring 2005, these were the first open-top Enviro500 built (another 12 would later be ordered). Gray Line also received three single-door Enviro500 in summer 2005 for operation in San Francisco.
Citizens Area Transit (now RTC Transit) of
Las VegasLas Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada, the seat of Clark County, and an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, fine dining, and entertainment. Las Vegas, which bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, is famous for the number of...
had its first 50 Enviro500s entered service by October 2005. The service, marketed as "
The DeuceThe Deuce is the name of the double-decker bus line serving Las Vegas operated by RTC Transit. These buses went into service on October 27, 2005. Originally The Deuce meant three things: the bus was double decked, the price was $2 one way, and the route was connected the two primary gaming...
", runs along the Las Vegas Strip. Certain high-traffic routes, such as along Maryland Parkway and Nellis Boulevard, have also used these buses. They offer extra ventilation grilles outside engine compartment to cope with Nevada's dry climate and high temperature. Las Vegas's Enviro500s have the biggest air conditioning system ever created for a transit vehicle, with eight fans fitted on the air conditioning unit. As of October 2006, CAT had firm orders for another 41 of the type worth $29.8 million, these were delivered during late 2007. A further 40 had also been ordered for delivery in 2008, these were 12.8-metre long and a second staircase to speed loading and unloading. All these vehicles were used for fixed-route operations,
not for sightseeing operations.
Les Cars Rouges, a sightseeing company, ordered 16 open-top Enviro500 for sightseeing operations in the USA, delivery of these buses started in early 2007. Eight of the Enviro500 are destined for San Francisco, and the rest of them are destined for Washington D.C.
Community Transit put one Enviro500 into service on August 1, 2007, the bus would be used on commuter routes between Seattle and various points in Snohomish County during its first year in operation. Community Transit has put in an order for 23 buses for delivery in 2010, later followed by another 97 for delivery in 2011/2012.
United Kingdom
In August 2008,
First GlasgowFirst Glasgow is the largest bus company serving the Greater Glasgow area in, Scotland. It forms part of FirstGroup, a company operating transport services across the British Isles and in North America...
ordered a batch of 25 to add to its existing 3-axle
Volvo B7LVolvo B7L is a low floor citybus with a rear engine mounted on the left of the rear overhang, it is built as a replacement of the Volvo B10L. It is used as both a single and double decker chassis largely in Continental Europe....
/
East Lancs NordicThe East Lancs Nordic is a type of double-decker bus body built by East Lancashire Coachbuilders. It is built on tri-axle 12 metre Volvo B7L and later tri-axle Volvo B9TL chassis, and have around 73 seats....
s. They were put into service between April and June 2009.
Enviro500 bodywork on Volvo B9TL chassis
As of early 2009,
Kowloon Motor BusThe Kowloon Motor Bus Company Limited , a company of the Transport International Holdings Limited, is the largest franchised bus operators in Hong Kong, and one of the largest privately owned public bus operators in the world...
and
Long Win BusLong Win Bus Company Limited provides bus service to northern Lantau Island and the Hong Kong International Airport...
in Hong Kong and
Dublin BusDublin Bus is a public transport operator in Ireland. It operates an extensive bus network of 172 radial, cross-city and peripheral routes and 24 night routes in the city of Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area. The company, established in 1987, is a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann which is...
of
IrelandIreland is a country in north-western Europe. The modern sovereign state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned on 3 May 1921. It is a parliamentary democracy and a republic...
are operating buses with this combination. For more details, see
Volvo B9TLThe Volvo B9TL is a low-floor double-decker bus built by Volvo Buses since 2002. It superseded the older Volvo B10TL and the Volvo B7TL.-Chassis:...
.
External links