(06 Jun 2015, 7:10 pm)Dan wrote You'll find that most companies in this industry now favour light-weight vehicles opposed to heavy-weight vehicles - it's not a case of "Go North East turning into Arriva" or anything like that.
I think the reason why a large number of bus operators are ordering single-deckers from Wrightbus is because Euro 5 is still offered. Euro 6 offers a greater fuel efficiency, which, when paired with a lighter weight, offers significant fuel savings. However, in the present climate, the operators struggle to reap the rewards from Euro 6 because the initial cost is so much greater than its Euro 5 equivalent. When manufacturers no longer offer Euro 5 products (ADL recently suggested that they were looking to wholly move over to Euro 6 soon), Euro 6 will be less of a novelty and I think this is when new buses will reduce in price, giving operators more of a choice between light-weight and heavy-weight.
As it stands, operators don't have much of a choice for heavy-weight products anyway. The Volvo B8RLE and Mercedes Citaro are some of the only heavy-weight vehicles available, and I think we're still waiting on a Wrights-bodied demonstrator vehicle of the former, with a MCV body presently being the only option available?
Lets not forget the Scania N250UD E400MMC which is a euro 6 decker.