Alexander Dash
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The Alexander Dash is a step-entrance
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 ...
body built by
Walter Alexander Coachbuilders Walter Alexander CoachbuildersCompanies House extract company no SC0261 ...
of Scotland from 1991 to 1997. Unveiled by Alexander at the 1991 Coach and Bus exhibition in
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. ...
, it was one of the variants of Alexander's AM-type body, also using components from the
Alexander PS type 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 was usually combined with the
Dennis Dart The Dennis Dart is a rear-engined single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis Specialist Vehicles of Guildford, England in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a high-floor design, In 1996 the low-floor seco ...
and
Volvo B6 The Volvo B6 was a engined midibus chassis manufactured by Volvo between 1991 and 1999. It was also available as the low-entry Volvo B6LE. History In the United Kingdom, the B6 competed in the midibus market with the Dennis Dart, and with th ...
step-entrance
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. The body was mainly built for the United Kingdom bus market, with Alexander primarily marketing the Dash towards smaller independent bus operators, although one example with a Volvo B6R chassis and air-conditioning was shipped 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 Delta i ...
in January 1995 for use by Citybus as a demonstrator; this was later returned to the United Kingdom, where it entered service with Stagecoach Devon. Early Dashes were delivered with V-shaped windscreens, single headlights and a square vented grille. In 1995, the Alexander Dash received a frontal facelift. The facelift, aimed at improving accessibility, also featured a longer front grille with badging in the shape of a
saltire A saltire, also called Saint Andrew's Cross or the crux decussata, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross, like the shape of the letter X in Roman type. The word comes from the Middle French ''sautoir'', Medieval Latin ''saltatori ...
, twin headlights and foglamps beside the grille, and a horizontal windscreen with an option for a heated windscreen.
Yorkshire Rider Yorkshire Rider was a bus company in West Yorkshire, England. History To comply with the Transport Act 1985, the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive transferred its bus operations to an arms length company named Yorkshire Rider on 26 ...
, under the ownership of the
Badgerline Badgerline was a bus operator in and around Bristol from 1985 until 2003. Its headquarters were in Weston-super-Mare. Initially a part of the Bristol Omnibus Company, it was privatised in September 1986 and sold to Badgerline Holdings in a manag ...
Group, took delivery of the first 50 facelifted Dashes on Dennis Dart chassis in early 1995. The only London bus operators to take delivery of the Dash were Capital Citybus and Stagecoach Holdings' London subsidiaries, the latter being bodied on the Dennis Dart chassis. The first 27 pre-facelift Dashes were delivered to East London for services in
Barking Barking may refer to: Places * Barking, London, a town in East London, England ** London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, a local government district covering the town of Barking ** Municipal Borough of Barking, a historical local government dist ...
and
Romford Romford is a large town in east London and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Historically, Romfo ...
in November 1995, with another 39 post-facelift examples being delivered to
Selkent Selkent (an acronym of South East London & Kent) is a bus company operating in central and south London and some parts of north-west Kent. It is a subsidiary brand of Stagecoach London and operates services under contract to Transport for Lond ...
for services in
Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...
,
Catford Catford is a district in south east London, England, and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Lewisham. It is southwest of Lewisham itself, mostly in the Rushey Green and Catford South wards. The population of Catford, includ ...
and Plumstead throughout 1996. These had a short service life, being withdrawn between 1998 and 1999 and disposed to other Stagecoach operations. The Dash 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. ...
Alexander ALX200 __NOTOC__ The Alexander ALX200 was a single-decker bus body built by Alexander of the United Kingdom. It was created for low-floor bus chassis produced from the late 1990s. It was launched in spring 1996 as a low floor replacement of the Ale ...
in 1996–1997 with a more rounded roof dome and plastic mouldings under the windscreen to make it deeper having made on the
Dennis Dart SLF The Dennis Dart is a rear-engined single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis Specialist Vehicles of Guildford, England in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a high-floor design, In 1996 the low-floor se ...
and the
Volvo B6LE The Volvo B6 was a engined midibus chassis manufactured by Volvo between 1991 and 1999. It was also available as the low-entry Volvo B6LE. History In the United Kingdom, the B6 competed in the midibus market with the Dennis Dart, and with th ...
chassis.


Gallery

File:P122dms.JPG, Facelift Alexander Dash bodied Dennis Dart with
Veolia Transport Veolia Transport (formerly Connex and CGEA Transport) was the international transport services division of the French-based multinational company Veolia until the 2011 merger that gave rise to Veolia Transdev. Veolia Transport traded under the ...
in
Pontypridd () ( colloquially: Ponty) is a town and a community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Geography comprises the electoral wards of , Hawthorn, Pontypridd Town, 'Rhondda', Rhydyfelin Central/Ilan ( Rhydfelen), Trallwng ( Trallwn) and Treforest (). ...
Timeline bus (N210 WBA), Manchester.jpg, Facelift Alexander Dash bodied
Volvo B6 The Volvo B6 was a engined midibus chassis manufactured by Volvo between 1991 and 1999. It was also available as the low-entry Volvo B6LE. History In the United Kingdom, the B6 competed in the midibus market with the Dennis Dart, and with th ...
with Timeline Travel in
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...


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 ...
Competitors (bodywork): *
Duple Dartline The Duple Dartline was a single-decker bus body built on the Dennis Dart chassis by three manufacturers - Duple Coachbuilders of Blackpool, Carlyle Works of Birmingham and Marshall Bus of Cambridge - between 1989 and 1993. Duple The Dartline ...
* East Lancs EL2000 *
East Lancs Flyte The East Lancs Flyte is a type of single-decker bus Coachwork, body built on several different chassis rebodied and original types by East Lancashire Coachbuilders as the replacement for the East Lancs EL2000 from 1996 to 2001. Chassis Chassis ...
* Marshall C37 * Northern Counties Paladin


References


External links

{{Walter Alexander bodies
Dash The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...
Midibuses Step-entrance buses Vehicles introduced in 1991