I had chance to go on one of the Borismaster clones that ADL are producing around London last week, so thought I'd share my thoughts on them here.
Despite the fact I believe the Borismaster is a vanity project and a complete waste of money, I won't deny they are a well put together bus with some decent and eye catching ideas, I don't believe it is worth the money, but I have only good things to say about it's build quality and general construction. Then again being a Wright product, built to a quality standard rather than a price standard, none of that surprises me since when the outside London double deck market was based on building good quality well put together vehicles, Wright reigned supreme there as well until it became more about lightweight, fuel efficient vehicles with build quality taking a back seat.
So it should be no surprise that with the Enviro 400 City, ADL have chosen not to take on Wright when it comes to build quality and design and again seem to be in a mission to make something that has the impression of the Borismaster, but in a cheaper, lighter, less fuel guzzling package, whilst borrowing some elements from Wright in the process giving what effectively is a Borismaster Lite, dressed up in a package that looks somewhat similar to the original.
The staircase is a complete copy of the Borrimaster
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ph6cfi6ZB8E/Vq0xramtdmI/AAAAAAAADHg/xopCpz64m_0/s1600/SDC10242_1_1.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ph6cfi6ZB8E/Vq0xramtdmI/AAAAAAAADHg/xopCpz64m_0/s1600/SDC10242_1_1.jpg
The Overall shape is clearly very similar
The default Interior colour scheme is identical to that of the Borismaster
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8VgsG0-zXjA/maxresdefault.jpg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8VgsG0-zXjA/maxresdefault.jpg
However that is where the similarities end pretty much. The ceiling and side interior panels in general are almost identical to that which appeared on the first generation of Enviro 400 and not too different from what was used on the ALX400, save for differences at front and the back and around the staircase. It appeared to suffer from the same kind of rattles and issues that have plagued the Enviro 400 platform. Build quality appeared to be OK, but hard to judge on a vehicle that is only a few weeks old, be interesting to see how it performs over a longer period of time
It does lack a second staircase and the back is not as striking as that of a true Borismaster. However to me it felt like it was little different from an Enviro 400 save for a different shape at the front and rear end and a colour scheme and staircase design that was clearly borrowed from the Borismaster. However the cheapness of it means it will sell in London since it is supposed to be lighter and cheaper to run.
Once again Alexander Dennis have done what they do best.


