The Caetano City Gold is a series of

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 ...

, single-decker

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

bodywork designs produced by

Salvador Caetano Grupo Salvador Caetano, SGPS, SA or simply Salvador Caetano is a Portuguese holding based in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal that controls some enterprises on vehicle assembly, components and distribution business. It had a turnover of €1.6 billio ...

since 1997. As of 2022, the City Gold has been launched with

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

compressed natural gas Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in cy ...

(CNG),

hydrogen fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...

and full electric powertrains.

Operators

United Kingdom

The City Gold range was launched in

right-hand drive Left-hand traffic (LHT) and right-hand traffic (RHT) are the practices, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side or to the right side of the road, respectively. They are fundamental to traffic flow, and are sometimes referred to ...

markets for the first time in 2012, with the launch of the ''CitySmart''

midibus A midibus is a classification of single-decker minibuses which are generally larger than a traditional minibus but smaller than a full-size single decker and can be anywhere between and long. While used in many parts of the world, the mi ...

on MAN 14.240

-powered chassis in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. With the cessation of production of the

MCV Evolution The MCV Evolution (stylised as ''eVolution''; internal designation: MCV C102) is a low floor and low entry single-decker bus body built by Manufacturing Commercial Vehicles. It was unveiled in 2003 as the successor to the MCV Stirling. The MCV ...

and

Plaxton Centro The Plaxton Centro was a Low-entry bus, low entry single-decker bus bodywork designed by Bluebird Vehicles and manufactured by Plaxton.Alexander Dennis Alexander Dennis is a British bus manufacturing company based in Larbert, Scotland. The largest bus and coach manufacturer in the United Kingdom with a 50% market share in 2019, it has manufacturing plants and partnerships in Canada, China, ...

no longer willing to provide the ADL Enviro200 on MAN chassis, the CitySmart was at this time the only bodywork available for the 14.240, which otherwise would have exited the British market at this point. A single demonstration vehicle was completed in April 2012 and registered by

MAN Truck & Bus MAN Truck & Bus SE (formerly MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG, ) is a subsidiary of Traton, and one of the leading international providers of commercial vehicles. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, MAN Truck & Bus produces vans in the range from 3.0 to 5.5 t ...

at their

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...

dealership. The only operator to subsequently order CitySmarts was

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

-based

New Adventure Travel Adventure Travel (stylised as Adventuretravel; formerly NAT Group and New Adventure Travel) is a bus and coach company in South Wales. It is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro. History Established in 2008 with four buses, Adventure Travel has now g ...

, who purchased the demonstration vehicle as well as nineteen additional brand new vehicles between May 2013 and July 2014. Caetano subsequently launched the

-powered ''EcoCity'' on MAN 18.270 chassis in the United Kingdom in November 2012. A total of 44 EcoCity buses were produced for the British market before the model ceased to be available for this market in August 2017.

Arriva UK Bus Arriva UK Bus is a major bus operator in the United Kingdom based in Sunderland, England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva which runs transport services across Europe, which has been a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn since 2010. Arriva UK Bus operates ...

were the largest customer, primarily for their North East and

North West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

subsidiaries.

Anglian Bus Konectbus is a bus operator based in Dereham in Norfolk, England. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group and forms part of Go East Anglia. History Konectbus was formed in 1999 when the Saham Toney depot of Norfolk Green was purchased from wi ...

, owned by the

Go-Ahead Group The Go-Ahead Group plc is a passenger transport company based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, with operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Singapore, Norway and Germany. Formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange, in 2022 it was purchased ...

, were the only other operator to purchase EcoCity buses; these vehicles were subsequently transferred to fellow Go-Ahead subsidiary

Plymouth Citybus Plymouth CitybusCompanies House extract company no 2004966

. After a hiatus of several years, the City Gold range returned to the United Kingdom in 2020 with the launch of the integral, fully electric ''e.City Gold'' in right-hand drive markets. As of June 2022, 35 examples have been produced, all of which were delivered to

Abellio London Abellio London is a bus company operating services in Greater London. A subsidiary of Abellio, it operates services under contract to Transport for London (TfL). Until September 2018, services were operated in Surrey under the Abellio Sur ...

in summer 2020 for operation on routes C10 and P5 in form. A single

-powered ''H2.City Gold'' vehicle on

Toyota Sora The Toyota Sora is a transit bus with an electric motor powered by hydrogen fuel cells produced by Toyota, developed in cooperation with Hino Motors. The bus uses components originally developed for the Toyota Mirai, a mid-size fuel cell sedan ...

chassis has been produced for the United Kingdom as a demonstration vehicle, although no orders have yet followed;

were among operators to trial this vehicle in 2020.

Mainland Europe

The first vehicles in the City Gold range entered service in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

in 1997; these were constructed on Mercedes-Benz O405N chassis, featuring Mercedes' own front end design. These were followed by examples constructed on

MAN NLxx3F The MAN NLxx3F is a series of low-floor single-decker city bus chassis between 10.5 to 12.0 metres length, offered by MAN since 1998, with internal code ''A22''. They are based on the integral low-floor MAN NLxx3 Lion's City (A21). Available ver ...

chassis, featuring MAN's own front end design. The diesel-powered City Gold on MAN and Mercedes chassis has proven most popular with operators in Barcelona, Lisbon and Porto. In 2010, five -long

articulated An articulated vehicle is a vehicle which has a permanent or semi-permanent pivot joint in its construction, allowing it to turn more sharply. There are many kinds, from heavy equipment to buses, trams and trains. Steam locomotives were someti ...

buses constructed on

Volvo B9LA The Volvo B9L (also known as the Volvo 7500, Volvo 7700 or Volvo 7900 for bus manufacturing, integral models) was a Low-floor, fully low-floor single-decker bus chassis constructed by Volvo Buses from 2005 until 2013, replacing the Volvo B7L and Vo ...

chassis entered service with STCP in

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

. 24 City Golds on diesel-powered

Volvo B7RLE The Volvo B7RLE is a low-entry single-deck bus chassis manufactured by Volvo. It was superseded by the Volvo B8RLE in 2013. Specifications The Volvo B7RLE is similar to its predecessor, the B10BLE. In essence the B7RLE is the front section of t ...

chassis entered service with

Carris Carris (''Companhia Carris de Ferro de Lisboa'') (Lisbon Tramways Company) is a public transportation company in Lisbon, Portugal. Carris operates Lisbon's buses, trams, and funiculars. It does not operate the Lisbon Metro. Carris was founded Sep ...

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

in 2009, followed later that year by a further 20 EcoCity buses on CNG-powered

chassis. Further example of the EcoCity, with facelifted bodywork to match the recently launched electric model, entered service in Lisbon and

between 2018 and 2021. The hydrogen-powered H2.City Gold on

chassis has achieved numerous sales, predominantly in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

as of 2022; examples have entered service in

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...

Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a university city and the second-largest city in Brandenburg, Germany. Situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree, Cottbus is also a major railway junction with exten ...

Düren Düren (; ripuarian: Düre) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, between Aachen and Cologne on the river Rur. History Roman era The area of Düren was part of Gallia Belgica, more specifically the territory of the Eburones, a people ...

and

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

. In

, eight H2.City Golds entered service with

TMB TMB may refer to: Organizations *Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Limited, India *Texas Medical Board * Thai Military Bank * Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona, Spain Places *Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport near Miami, Florida, US, IATA code *Tsing M ...

in 2020 followed by a further seven in 2022.

Hong Kong

In 2009, 30 City Golds were constructed on Scania K230UB diesel chassis and exported to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, entering service with

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. ...

to complement their existing fleet of Caetano-bodied Scania double-decker buses. Of this batch of vehicles, 20 are in length and the remaining ten are in length. These remain the only City Golds to have been constructed on a Scania chassis.

References

{{Reflist Single-deck buses Low-floor buses Vehicles introduced in 1997