Plaxton Elite on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Plaxton Elite is a coach body unveiled at the Euro Bus Expo at the
The type began service with
Plaxton EliteNational Express news article
National Exhibition Centre
The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) is an exhibition centre located in Marston Green, Solihull, West Midlands, England. It is near junction 6 of the M42 motorway, and is adjacent to Birmingham Airport and Birmingham International railway sta ...
, Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
in November 2008 by the British bus and coach manufacturer Plaxton
Plaxton is an English builder of bus and coach vehicle bodies based in Scarborough. Founded in 1907 by Frederick William Plaxton, it became a subsidiary of Alexander Dennis in May 2007. In 2019, the maker was acquired by Canadian bus manuf ...
. It is primarily targeted at the premium touring market. It went into production in late 2008. The vehicles can easily be identified due to their Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022.
After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, ...
-like curved roof at the front end. Elites on scheduled express routes have a low-level destination board, resulting in a larger front windscreen than most comparable coaches.
Scheduled Express Services
The type began service with National Express
National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...
in early 2010 with seven operating between London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
and Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
. A further 16 vehicles are being procured to operate in Yorkshire, Oxford and Peterborough. In Yorkshire, Elites have replaced Caetano Levante
The Caetano Levante is a coach body built by Salvador Caetano on Mercedes-Benz OC 500 RF, Scania K EB, Volvo B8R, Volvo B9R, Volvo B11R, Volvo B12B and Volvo B13R chassis, exclusively for National Express in the United Kingdom. It was specifi ...
s on the long distance 560 service to London, with the latter having been assigned to the 007 and 022 routes between London and Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it fac ...
. Onboard features on National Express vehicles include power plug sockets. Elites also have wheelchair lifts installed in their doorways, making them only the second type operated by National Express to be completely wheelchair friendly. National Express Elites have destination displays positioned below the windscreen, in order to avoid obscuring the passengers' forward vision. A batch of 15m B13RT entered service with National Express in 2014. 14m Elites entered service on the Oxford-Cambridge X5 in 2015
The 100th Elite was delivered to Howard Snaith Coaches in 2011 built on the Volvo B9R chassis.
Elite ''i''
In 2012, Plaxton introduced a new "interdeck" version of the Elite, named Elite ''i'', in which the passenger cabin extends above the driver's cab to span the full length of the vehicle; in addition there is a small lower saloon. The Elite ''i'' is 15 m long and 3.96 m high, and is built on Volvo B11RT chassis. The first batch of eleven went toStagecoach West Scotland
Stagecoach West Scotland ( gd, Stagecoach an Iar na h-Alba) is an operating region of Stagecoach UK Bus, comprising Western Buses Ltd based in Ayr, Scotland.
Operations
Stagecoach West Scotland operates in west central and southwest Scotlan ...
for Megabus services in December 2012.
See also
*List of buses
Year refers to the first year introduced. A range of years is the period the bus was manufactured.
#
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
...
References
External links
Plaxton Elite
Elite
In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. ...
{{bus-stub