The East Lancs Nordic is a type 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. ...

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

East Lancashire Coachbuilders East Lancashire Coachbuilders Limited was a manufacturer of bus bodies and carriages founded in 1934 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England. The company went into administration for a short while in August 2007, before being bought by Darwen Group a ...

. It is built on tri-axle double-decker

Volvo B7L The Volvo B7L is a fully low floor single-decker bus, double-decker bus and articulated bus chassis with a rear engine mounted vertically on the left of the rear overhang. It was built as a replacement for the Volvo B10L, and the Volvo Olympi ...

chassis, with a length of 12 metres and a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile tha ...

of 95 passengers. The Nordic body design is based on an elongated version of the

East Lancs Vyking The East Lancs Vyking is a type of double-decker bus body built by East Lancashire Coachbuilders. It is the double-deck version of the Spryte. It continued the long line of 'misspelt' names which continued until the Scania OmniDekka. It was ...

body, with the name "Nordic" being derived from the chassis being built by a company from

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

. The bus was later superseded by the

East Lancs Olympus The Optare Olympus (introduced in 2006 as the East Lancs Olympus, and sold as the Darwen Olympus between 2007 and 2008) is a double-decker bus built by Optare. It could be built as a body available on Alexander Dennis Enviro400, Volvo B9TL or ...

tri-axle variant in 2006.

Operations

United Kingdom

First Glasgow were the only operator 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 ...

to purchase Nordics, taking delivery of ten examples in October and November 2002. These Nordics were replaced in 2009 by a batch of

Alexander Dennis Enviro500 The Alexander Dennis Enviro500 (previously known as the TransBus Enviro500) is a three-axle double-decker bus built by Alexander Dennis (formerly by TransBus) in the United Kingdom. It was unveiled in 2002 and is one of the Enviro-series bus m ...

s, and all ten Nordics were sold by First Glasgow, one to Tyrers Coaches and nine to

BrightBus BrightBus was a bus operator in South Yorkshire that traded from 1998 until 2017. History BrightBus was founded in May 1998 by Michael Strafford as an engineering business, performing contract maintenance for other operators. It also specialis ...

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

; however, one vehicle was destroyed by fire shortly after its arrival at BrightBus, and was stripped for spares and scrapped. Following the closure of BrightBus, these have now moved on to other operators: four Nordics passed to the Wellglade Group (two to TM Travel of

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

and two to Notts & Derby), one immediately and three several months later via

Ensignbus Ensignbus is a bus and coach operator and bus dealer based in Purfleet, Essex. History Ensignbus was formed in 1972 by Peter Newman, who remains involved today as chairman and his sons Ross and Steve as directors. Ensignbus commenced with ...

; four were passed on to school bus operator Cambridge Bus & Coach, 3 in the Summer of 2017, and 1 in the summer of 2018. They purchase another one in the summer of 2021

Denmark

The body was also sold outside of the UK, predominantly to operators in Denmark. Arriva Denmark took delivery of fourteen examples - at the time, their only double-deckers - for operations in and around

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

under contract to HT (now HUR); some of these were later converted into open-top vehicles, while one has been destroyed by fire. Additionally, City Trafik of Copenhagen took delivery of 22 Nordics.

Sri Lanka

A total of 19 Nordics were delivered to operators in Sri Lanka, operating under contract to STLB.

Elsewhere

Thirteen of the former Arriva Denmark examples and fifteen of the Sri Lankan vehicles were later purchased by bus dealer

and sold on to the Big Bus Company, who relocated the vehicles to their sightseeing operations in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

and Washington D.C.

Myllennium Nordic

The East Lancs Myllennium Nordic is a type of

body built by

. It is built on tri-axle double-decker

Volvo B9TL The Volvo B9TL is a low-floor double-decker bus built by Volvo from 2002 until 2018. It superseded the Volvo Super Olympian and the Volvo B7TL. The 2-axle version has been superseded by the Volvo B5TL in 2014 and the 3-axle version has been su ...

chassis, with a length of 12 metres and a seating capacity of 102 passengers. The Myllennium Nordic body design is based on an elongated version of the

East Lancs Myllennium Vyking The East Lancs Vyking is a type of double-decker bus body built by East Lancashire Coachbuilders. It is the double-deck version of the Spryte. It continued the long line of 'misspelt' names which continued until the Scania OmniDekka. It was ...

body, with the name "Nordic" being derived from the chassis being built by a company from

. The Myllennium Nordic was introduced in 2005 as the replacement for the East Lancs Nordic; following poor sales, the Myllennium Nordic was later replaced by the introduction of a tri-axle variant of the

Olympus Olympus or Olympos ( grc, Ὄλυμπος, link=no) may refer to: Mountains In antiquity Greece * Mount Olympus in Thessaly, northern Greece, the home of the twelve gods of Olympus in Greek mythology * Mount Olympus (Lesvos), located in Le ...

Operations

United Kingdom

Weavaway Travel of Newbury were the largest customer for the Myllennium Nordic, taking delivery of the first six examples to be built in April and May 2005. Further examples were later purchased Roadliner of

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

and Provence Private Hire of

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman ...

. Although they did not purchase any Myllennium Nordics from new, Sanders Coaches of

North Norfolk North Norfolk is a local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Cromer. The population at the 2011 Census was 101,149. History The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972. It was ...

now operate the majority of Myllennium Nordics built for the UK, having acquired them second-hand with Lucketts Travel of

Fareham Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufac ...

operates two under its 'Mortons' livery after buying them from Sanders Coaches.

Sri Lanka

Six Myllennium Nordics were exported for operations in Sri Lanka under contract to STLB. A seventh Myllennium Nordic caught fire prior to being exported in 2010 and was scrapped.

References

{{Portal, Buses Double-decker buses Low-floor buses Tri-axle buses Nordic Vehicles introduced in 2000