Warwickshire News Mine

The new generation low-floor vehicles have been purpose developed with direct input from service users. They encompass state of the art technology and are fully DDA compliant.

Traditional welfare vehicles have many drawbacks and currently wheelchair users or those with walking difficulties boarding buses have to use a lift at the rear of the vehicle. These can be slow, sometimes difficult and undignified.

The new vehicles can be used everyday, are efficient, safe and simple. Passengers can board from the main door the same way all public transport users travel.

The buses ‘kneel’ smoothly and quickly to just six inches off the ground, and have a very low entry step with additional ramp that enables passengers to be wheeled on from the pavement. This method saves at least two minutes on each pickup meaning more customers can be collected and more routes covered.

The new vehicles are similar to the highly successful models already run by Stagecoach on route 66 in Leamington and Warwick and route 4 in Nuneaton.

They have been adapted for wheelchair use inside and are slightly narrower than conventional buses to allow access to restricted roads. The vehicles are also designed to be as green as possible by using technology that ensures both good fuel economy and clean exhaust emissions.

Optare, Britain’s leading independent bus manufacturer based in Leeds, has produced the buses for Warwickshire County Council. They developed the internal design with the council to ensure a good, practical product, which they are now offering nationally. The complete vehicles are designed and developed in the UK, using mechanical units from Mercedes.

Warwickshire County Council currently operates a fleet of just over 40 wheelchair accessible vehicles with a team of fully trained drivers and escorts, to deliver customers safely to day services across the county.

The council carries around 1,400 customers a week with a wide range of disabilities to various venues including social education centres, homes for elderly people, day centres and transitional care services.

David Curle, Team Manager; Buildings and Transport for Warwickshire County Council said: “We are the first authority in the UK to make this commitment on this scale, giving Warwickshire the largest fleet of purpose built wheelchair accessible buses in the country. We hope to become a national model for other social care providers.

“We have been asking our customers over the last few years about the best way to transport them with a view to the ongoing replacement of the vehicle fleet.

“We trialed the vehicles for nine months with customers, day care staff and drivers, who have all been please with the improvements. Thanks to their input we can now offer a service, which is fast, efficient, cost effective and comfortable.

“Life expectancy of the current fleet is around eight years and the new vehicles should last over ten. We will look to replace the rest of the fleet in phases over the coming years.

Steph Baker, Regional Bus Sales Manager for Optare said: ”We worked very closely with Warwickshire County Council to develop a vehicle that is ideally suited to their needs and which incorporates several features unique to their requirements. These vehicles provide a good example of how we can adapt our standard designs of highly accessible, low floor buses to meet a wide variety of local authority applications from welfare vehicles to mobile IT classrooms, information centres and libraries.”

For more information about accessible transport and social care please visit http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/socialservices For more information about Optare’s range of services please visit http://www.optare.com

Link to WCC