In addition to their dedicated local bus service fleet, Nottingham County Council have taken delivery of two new Mellor Strata. The new bus is carefully engineered to run on narrow streets and rural routes without compromising on passenger numbers whilst delivering reduced running costs. The specification includes Ventura rapid sliding entrance door, Mobitec display equipment to front, side and rear, an Eberspacher D5 Water Climate System and provides seating for 21 passengers or can be configured to seat 18 with 1 wheelchair.

The four Orion Plus were purchased to replace their VW LT 45 Mellor vehicles, the flexible, reliable and economical Orion’s will serve a dual role on local bus routes and to transport people to day centers. Based on the Fiat Ducato Maxi, the Orion’s seat 16 or are configurable to seat 9 with 3 wheelchairs. These ultra- flat low floor vehicles include 2 x manual rear doors, rapid side sliding electric front entry door, front ramp and 2.5m long fold out ramp to rear, front display equipment, Eberspacher 4Kw Diesel Air Climate System plus Cant rail and bodyside mounted tracking.

Andy Frogg, Nottingham County Council’s Fleet Operations Manager commented:

“The Strata vehicles have been accepted well by all of the drivers and customers using the local bus service, they are a lot better suited to dedicated local bus than the previous vehicles. It is nice to see them out every day and the first choice for the drivers and at present they are covering around 1000 miles per week and averaging just over 20 MPG.”

The Orion’s are being used to replace the old high floor tail lift vehicles and all passengers appreciate the versatility of the low floor, we now have 35 of these vehicles and are proving beneficial to our service.