The Dennis Lance was a

single-decker bus A single-decker bus or single-decker is a bus that has a single deck for passengers. Normally the use of the term ''single-decker'' refers to a standard two- axled rigid bus, in direct contrast to the use of the term double-decker bus, which ...

chassis manufactured by

Dennis Dennis or Denis is a first or last name from the Greco-Roman name Dionysius, via one of the Christian saints named Dionysius. The name came from Dionysus, the Greek god of ecstatic states, particularly those produced by wine, which is someti ...

between 1991 and 2000, replacing the

Dennis Falcon The Dennis Falcon was a rear-engined single-decker bus, double-decker bus and coach chassis manufactured by Dennis between 1981 and 1993. It was mostly built as a single-decker bus, although some express coaches and a small number of double-dec ...

. Its

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. ...

variant, the Dennis Lance SLF (Super Low Floor) was built between 1993 and 1996. Between 1995 and 1998, Dennis also built its double-deck variant, the Dennis Arrow (initially marketed as double-deck Dennis Lance), as the replacement of the

Dennis Dominator The Dennis Dominator was Dennis's first rear-engined double-decker bus chassis, it was launched in 1977. History Dennis had been absent from the bus manufacturing market since the last Lolines were produced in 1967. The Dominator was d ...

History

The Dennis Lance was unveiled at the 1991 Coach & Bus Show. The Dennis Lance was available with a number of bodies, most commonly the

Alexander PS The Alexander PS-type was a step-floor single-decker bus body built by Walter Alexander Coachbuilders in Falkirk, Scotland and was produced from 1988 to the late 1990s predominantly on the Dennis Lance, Mercedes-Benz O405, Scania N113, Volvo ...

and

Plaxton Verde The Plaxton Verde was a step-entrance full-size single-decker bus body built by Plaxton between 1991 and 1997. It was built on a rear-engined chassis, the most popular of which was the Dennis Lance which accounted for over half of the Verdes b ...

also 31 with Northern Counties, were built for

Metroline Metroline is a bus company operating services in Greater London and south Hertfordshire. It is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Corporation and operates services under contract to Transport for London. As at March 2021, the fleet consisted of 1,5 ...

in 1993 for routes

113 113 may refer to: *113 (number), a natural number *AD 113, a year * 113 BC, a year *113 (band), a French hip hop group * 113 (MBTA bus), Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority bus route * 113 (New Jersey bus), Ironbound Garage in Newark and run ...

and

302 __NOTOC__ Year 302 (CCCII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and Valerius or, less frequently, year 1055 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination ...

from Cricklewood garage. It was sold to a number of bus operators 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 ...

, and was also 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 ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. UMW-Dennis of

also built a number of Lance chassis (known as the UMW-Dennis Lance) for the

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

n market. In 1993, the

Dennis Lance SLF was unveiled. Of around 105 Dennis Lance SLF built, the majority had

Wright Pathfinder The Wright Pathfinder is a low entry and low floor single-decker bus body built on Dennis Lance SLF and Scania N113CRL chassis by Wrightbus between 1993 and 1995. History Of the 95 Pathfinders produced, London Regional Transport subsidiaries ...

bodywork, including 38 for

London Buses London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus se ...

for use on the first London routes to be converted to

including London United's route 120 and CentreWest's route 222, being two of five routes to introduce the type to the capital. The Berkhof Excellence 1000 NL bodywork was fitted to 30 dual purpose specialist vehicles for the

British Airports Authority Heathrow Airport Holdings is the United Kingdom-based operator of Heathrow Airport. The company also operated Gatwick Airport, Stansted Airport, Edinburgh Airport and several other UK airports, but was forced by the Competition Commission to se ...

for use on staff shuttle duties at

Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...

, delivered in 1994/95, and also five each for Stagecoach East Kent and Stagecoach Ribble. In

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. ...

had 24 units with

bodywork and they were retired by 2010. In

, Triton Commuter used to operate a fleet of UMW-Dennis Lance with

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 ...

bodywork where previously purchased and used by Naeila Corps before the company was bought over by

Causeway Link Causeway Link (service brands) operated by Handal Indah Sdn Bhd is a public bus operator in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. It operates cross-border services into Singapore via the Johor–Singapore Causeway and Malaysia–Singapore Second Link. They al ...

. Some of the buses continued service with Causeway Link, while others were sold to 707 Travel Group. Transit Link JB also operated a small number of UMW-Dennis Lance with

bodywork. In

Ritchies Coachlines __NOTOC__ Ritchies Transport is a New Zealand private bus operator, owned by KKR. It was established in 1972 and describes itself as "the largest privately owned bus and coach transport operator in New Zealand" with a fleet of over 1500 vehicles s ...

operate a UMW-Dennis Lance with

bodywork. In

, Trans-Island Bus Services ordered 72 units, of which 52 were built by UMW-Dennis. Most were fitted with

bodywork, while the last 2 were fitted with

Volgren Volgren is an Australian bus and coach body manufacturer. History Volvo Buses, VolGrenda Corporation, gren was formed in 1977 by Melbourne bus operator Grenda Corporation in Dandenong, Victoria. Because Grenda held the Volvo Buses dealership i ...

bodywork. 59 units were allocated for public service and 13 units for charter under subsidiary company Bus-Plus Services. All public service buses were scrapped by July 2013, while the charter buses were scrapped by October 2018. Not many survive today, in fact there are only 13 known in preservation within the UK. The double-deck Dennis Arrow was available with

Northern Counties Palatine The Northern Counties Palatine was a step-entrance 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus body built by Northern Counties from 1988 to 1999 in Wigan, England. The Palatine was built mainly on Leyland Olympian and Volvo Olympian chassis, althou ...

and

East Lancs E Type The East Lancs E Type is a type of double-deck bus body built on different chassis by East Lancashire Coachbuilders. Chassis Types bodied include the following: * Dennis Dominator * Dennis Arrow * Leyland Olympian * Scania N113DRB * Volvo B10 ...

/ Pyoneer bodywork. It was sold to just five operators in the

, including

Capital Citybus Capital Citybus was a bus operator in London operating services under contract to London Regional Transport. History Capital Citybus was established on 29 December 1990, with the purchase of the London tendered bus services of Ensignbus by the ...

who bought 54 of the 73 built (the total number also included two purpose-built playbuses), London & Country who took tenDennis Arrow AD Class
Ian's Bus Stop and

Nottingham City Transport Nottingham City TransportCompanies House extract company no 2004 ...

who took four. The Dennis Arrow was superseded by the

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 ...

Dennis Trident 2 The Dennis Trident 2 is a 2-axle low-floor double-decker bus chassis originally manufactured by Dennis, which was unveiled in 1997 and replaced the Dennis Arrow. It was built by TransBus after Dennis was incorporated into the group in 2001, th ...

References

External links

*
Flickr gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dennis Lance

Lance A lance is a spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier ( lancer). In ancient and medieval warfare, it evolved into the leading weapon in cavalry charges, and was unsuited for throwing or for repeated thrusting, unlike si ...

Vehicles introduced in 1991 Bus chassis Low-floor buses Step-entrance buses