Rainbow 5 route to get new buses
01 March, 2008
The Rainbow 5 bus is to be re-launched with the introduction of 25 new buses for the route. A total of 41 new buses will join the trent barton fleet at a cost of £6 million – and two-thirds of them will be on the roads between Nottingham, Long Eaton and Derby by the autumn.
Over the next 12 months one in six trent barton buses are to be renewed in a multi-million pound investment which lowers the average age of the fleet to just five years.
Rainbow 5
25 of the new Volvo Wright buses will relaunch Rainbow 5, one of the most successful bus services of its kind in Britain.
All the buses will be air-conditioned, have leather seats, and are environmentally state-of-the-art in terms of low emissions. As standard, they have double-glazing, and are wheelchair and buggy friendly.
The remaining buses will arrive in the early months of 2009, and will be used to upgrade The Mickleover and Calverton Connection brands.
Commercial Manager Mark Greasley said: “Our first big investment in new buses after the 1987 management buyout was in 1988.
That was £1 million and at the time some of our buses were nearly 25 years old.
”The right thing to do”
“It was a big decision as it was a lot of money for the new company. But it has proved to be the right thing to do, to provide better comfort and more efficient buses for customers.
“It’s a policy that has worked superbly because today we have one of the most modern, fully low floor bus fleets in the UK – years ahead of government targets for low floor accessibility.
“These latest new vehicles from Volvo come with super-green Euro 5 engines, which gives us one of the most environmentally-friendly fleets of buses in the UK.”
By editor@nottinghamng9.co.uk.
