Arriva North West purchases new low floor buses

Nine Mellor Strata low floor buses have been purchased by Arriva North West for deployment on a range of light scheduled bus routes.

Arriva North West has taken delivery of nine Strata low floor buses; five are being used on services in Macclesfield town and the remaining four in Winsford.

“We looked at a wide range of potential vehicles that would be suitable for use on these routes when we were sourcing our buses, but they were more ‘van like’ and offered a lot less capacity,” said Mark Wynne, General Manager for Arriva Winsford. “The Strata provides seating for up to 22, while giving a very good first impression by being much more ‘bus like’ than many others on the market. The passengers really like them too, particularly as they include all the features and benefits that they would expect on a standard sized bus.

“With its Euro 6 engine reducing our carbon footprint and with fuel usage at around 18 mpg, we are definitely achieving savings when compared to our previous vehicles. We believe the Strata to be a state-of-the-art bus which is certainly going down very well with everyone who sees and uses it.”

Featuring the Mercedes Sprinter chassis, each bus has a passenger capacity of 22, having been built to Arriva’s high specification and including interior features such as E-leather trimmed seating, Wi-Fi, USB charging points and CCTV.

“This delivery heralded an important move for Arriva when they decided to select size appropriate, smaller buses for their shorter distance routes where 30-35 seaters had previously been deployed,” added Jane Dransfield, Area Sales Manager for Mellor. “As one of the UK’s leading operators, Arriva expects the highest possible standard of features for their passengers and we were able to satisfy all these requirements, demonstrating that small buses can provide equally as good benefits as their larger counterparts.”

The Strata bus allows for easy operation in narrow city centre streets and country lanes without compromising on passenger capacity. Available in three seating and space configurations, the single step entry floor bus offers reduced running costs of up to 22mpg when compared to larger single deck buses.