Travel West Midlands, a member of National Express Group plc and the UK’s largest regional bus operator outside of London, is taking delivery of 60 new Scania OmniLink buses for service in the central Birmingham area.
Supplied by Scania (Great Britain) Limited, all 60 vehicles will be supported by five year repair and maintenance contracts to be fulfilled by Scania dealer Keltruck, West Bromwich. Keltruck has invested £0.5m in a new four-bay workshop especially to cover these contracts, which have a total value of £2.5m.
With deliveries commencing in October and the order scheduled to be complete by the year end, these vehicles form part of the recently-announced order for 300 Scania passenger carrying vehicles to National Express Group plc members over the coming three years. The Travel West Midlands OmniLink body specification includes 45 seats, provision for 32 standees, closed circuit television and automatic vehicle location systems.
“Our decision to take the vehicles with five year repair and maintenance contracts was based on three key factors and builds on the excellent relationship we already enjoy with Keltruck, both in terms of the service they provide and their bodyshop,” comments NX Bus Division Engineering Director, Jack Henry. “Firstly, we felt the Scania brand supported by a Scania dealer would give us a level of performance we could depend upon which would help in ‘Making Travel Simpler’ for customers. Secondly, the contract gives us a predictable cost of operation. The third consideration was that Keltruck are able to offer evening and night-time servicing to fit in with our non-operating times, which gives us a considerable advantage in terms of reduced downtime.”
