Very interesting, very disappointing to hear there will be even more Ladas in the fleet - I thought Bus Éireann had learned their lesson from buying Ladas but clearly they haven't fully learned their lesson! There were five offers for the decker coaches, so one has to assume that Volvo and Scania also tendered, and probably MAN (with the Ayats Bravo) and Merc (Setra) as well. All of those options (bar the Ayats) would have been a better choice, especially the Volvo or Scania.

The only good thing is these are likely to be allocated to Broadstone, so at least everyone else won't have to put up with them.

I didn't think they would go for tri-axle single deck coaches either - I presume the coaches are Scania/Irizar i6s - these will have 13 litre engines (the 9 litre is twin axle only to the best of my knowledge) and like the deckers, electronic gearboxes, so at least this shows Bus Éireann is not entirely afraid of the many advances in gearbox technology in recent times.

These are for Expressway/Tours to the best of my knowledge.

Some other great news concerning the citybuses and commuter coach orders:

- Volvo have won the order for the 25 single decks AND the 10 deckers - WOHOO! The SLs have not gone down well in Cork (the VWL and VWD is much preferred) so I am delighted that Capwell used some of their influence and got the chassis they prefer (Capwell is expected to get all of the deckers and some of the single decks). I had suspected they would go back to Volvo, especially as Capwell is to the best of my knowledge very impressed with the VWD (even though Broadstone doesn't like the type!) but it is great to know this is now official. What would be nice is if the deckers get the 310 hp engine (rather than the basic 260 version) - the 260 unit fitted to the VWDs is hardly what you would call slow but at the same time the extra power would be beneficial for Cork's hills - the VWDs are a little slow on hills when fully laden!

Anyone know if these are VWLs and VWDs respectively or did they go for a different body? (I would be very surprised if we don't see VWL193-217 and VWD11-20 in the near future but maybe they did go for ADL bodies as was rumoured!)

Even better news is the fact that they have not decided to order any midibuses - they had tendered for some of these as well.

- Scania got the 25 commuter coaches - this is now official. I am delighted they went for further SCs - these are the best commuter coach they have ordered by far.

Edited 1 time by VWL119 21/06/2011 11:43:10.