Reg.No: R1 NEG – new 1997
Operator: Travel West Midlands
Chassis: DAF DB250LF
Engine: DAF RS200 8.66 litre turbocharged 6-cylinder diesel (Euro2)
Gearbox: Fully automatic, with integral retarder
Body: Optare Spectra 72 seats
1990s WEST MIDLANDS LOW-FLOOR DOUBLE-DECKER
Metro-Cammell Weymann ceased manufacturing buses in 1989, and the design rights to the Metrobus were bought jointly by DAF Bus (chassis) and Optare (body). However, the new bus that emerged in 1991 was substantially new. The DAF DB250 chassis was more a development of its SB220, but with an upright transverse engine (as Metrobus) and the rear axle and suspension from the Metroliner Express and Metrobus low-height chassis. While the Optare body had an aluminium frame (as Metrobus), it was based on the structural system that Alusuisse had developed for Hess double-deck bodies. The complete bus was marketed in the UK as the Optare Spectra.
In 1997, DAF designed a new low-floor chassis, the rear of which was similar to the earlier model, but the front was entirely new. Optare developed a new version of the Spectra body to fit the DB250LF chassis. R1 NEG, the first example, was displayed at the Bus & Coach Show in Autumn 1997, although it did not enter service with Travel West Midlands until the following January.
It was Britain’s first low-floor, low-emissions, easy-access double-deck bus. A second example was delivered to Travel Dundee, but was soon reallocated to Birmingham. Twenty ‘production’ vehicles followed, differing in some details, notably by having a slightly taller upper deck. All twenty-two were initially operated on service 50 from Birmingham city centre to the Maypole and Druids Heath. In 2009, the batch was transferred to Wolverhampton and used on various routes, until withdrawal in 2015.
Preservation
National Express West Midlands presented R1 NEG to the Museum in June 2015. It was then in red and white livery. In 2017, it was returned to its original red, white and blue livery, complete with the extensive promotional graphics it had worn when first displayed in 1997.