The Alexander ALX500 (later known as the TransBus ALX500) was a

low-floor Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...

double-decker bus A double-decker bus or double-deck bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. They are used for mass transport in the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, Europe, Asia and also in cities such as Sydney; the best-known example is the ...

body built by

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a ...

, Scotland between 1997 and 2002. The ALX500 was fitted to

Dennis Trident 3 Dennis Trident 3 (marketed as 3-axle Dennis Trident), is the first low floor tri-axle double-decker bus chassis built by Dennis in the United Kingdom, with a large number purchased by bus companies in Hong Kong, Singapore, the United State ...

and

Volvo Super Olympian The Volvo Super Olympian was a low-floor double-decker bus manufactured by Volvo. It replaced the 3-axle version of Volvo Olympian. The chassis had the designated manufacturer code B10TL. History The Volvo Super Olympian was unveiled in 1998, wi ...

chassis (they could be distinguished by the design of the engine compartment: with round indicators for Dennis and square indicators for Volvo), and came in lengths of 10.6, 11.3 and 12 meters (35, 37 and 40 foot). The ALX500-bodied buses were sold new to Citybus,

Kowloon Motor Bus The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB) is a bus company operating franchised services in Hong Kong. It is the largest bus company in Hong Kong by fleet size and number of bus routes. It is a subsidiary of Transport International. ...

Long Win Bus Long Win Bus Company Limited (LWB; ) is a bus company operating franchised services in Hong Kong. It provides bus service between Hong Kong International Airport, North Lantau New Town and the New Territories. It is a subsidiary of Transport In ...

New World First Bus New World First Bus Services Limited (NWFB) is the third-largest bus operator in Hong Kong. Established by NWS Holdings and FirstGroup in September 1998, it took over 88 China Motor Bus services in Hong Kong Island. Since 2020 it has been a s ...

and

Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC; ) is a Hong Kong wholly government-owned railway and land asset manager. It was established in 1982 under the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation Ordinance for the purposes of operating the Kowloon– ...

in Hong Kong. Due to the climate there, all of them were fitted with

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

systems, and as a result lacked a rear window on the lower deck. The extra length of the buses meant the seating capacities were near the 100 mark for the 12.0 metre variant.World News ''Buses Worldwide'' issue 214 July 2019 page 44 Alexander built three prototype ALX500 bodies for prototype Trident 3 chassis in 1997, with the first finished in February 1997. Production of the ALX500 body was started later in the same year, with two examples exhibited in Coach & Bus '97 in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

; but there were some minor changes in appearance, for example the exit door was moved rearward (for 12.0m variant only). In 1999, a facelifted version of the ALX500, which more resembled the ALX400 in appearance was introduced, the first of these bodies were fitted to the first batch of Super Olympians for Kowloon Motor Bus and New World First Bus. When Transbus International was formed in 2001, the ALX500 body replaced the standard height, right hand drive version of the

Duple Metsec Duple Metsec was a bus bodywork builder based in West Midlands of England in the United Kingdom. It usually supplied body kits for bus assembly overseas. It was originated from the bus body manufacturing business of Metal Sections, know ...

DM5000 body (built for the Dennis Trident 3) which was duplicated with the ALX500 design. In late 2002, the ALX500 body was superseded by the TransBus Enviro500.

References

External links

* {{Alexander Dennis Alexander Dennis buses Double-decker buses Low-floor buses Tri-axle buses Vehicles introduced in 1997