The Volvo Olympian was a rear-engined 2-axle and 3-axle

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 ...

chassis manufactured by

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

at its Irvine,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

factory. The first was built in 1992 and entered production in March 1993, replacing the

Leyland Olympian The Leyland Olympian was a 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1980 and 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production. Construction The Olympian had the same chassis and running gear as ...

History

The design was based on its predecessor, the

, but the chassis was modified such that only the chassis design and layout remained, with even the grade of steel for the chassis members being changed, Volvo's standard electrical system was used, as well as standard Volvo steering/"Z cam" braking systems. The early Volvo Olympians were offered with

Cummins Cummins Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes engines, filtration, and power generation products. Cummins also services engines and related equipment, including fuel systems, controls, air ...

L10 or Volvo TD102KF engine, coupled to

Voith The Voith Group is a German manufacturer of machines for the pulp and paper industry, technical equipment for hydropower plants and drive and braking systems. The family-owned company, which operates worldwide and has its headquarters in Heid ...

DIWA or ZF Ecomat gearbox. From late 1996, only the 9.6-litre Volvo D10A-245 Euro II engine with electronic diesel control was offered. It was available with Alexander R-type, Northern Counties Palatine/Palatine 2 and East Lancs E Type/ Pyoneer bodywork. The Volvo Olympian remained as popular as the

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 ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. A large number of Olympians were 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 List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

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, bor ...

; most of them being air-conditioned.

Orders

United Kingdom

The Volvo Olympian, like its Leyland predecessor, was very popular in the

; most of the UK versions had two rather than three axles. London United, Metroline, Stagecoach London, London Central,

London General London General is a bus company operating in Greater London. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group and operates services under contract to Transport for London. The company is named after the London General Omnibus Company, the principal ...

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 ...

, MTL London, Harris Bus and First CentreWest had received 687 Volvo Olympians between 1994 and 1999. Because of a low-floor rule that had to be complied with by 2006, these buses were not in service for long. In 2008, the Low Emission Zone finally ousted the remaining Volvo Olympians in London. Metroline quit Volvo Olympians service in June 2008, displaced by Alexander Dennis Enviro200Darts. Some of them went to Ensignbus for rail replacement work. In April 2000,

Singapore Bus Services SBS Transit Limited (SBST or just SBS) () is a multi-modal public transport operator in Singapore operating bus and rail services. With a majority of its shares owned by Singaporean multinational transport conglomerate ComfortDelGro Corporatio ...

had sent two Volvo Olympians, one to Nottingham and one to Metroline. Metroline replaced the tropical windows and the doors with British standard products and reregistered it. It was the first to be sent to Ensignbus in September 2005. Many other operators outside

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 ...

received Volvo Olympians, the main operator being

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Lothian Regional Transport were among major operators in

, ordering with Alexander R-type bodies, 68 of these being Alexander Royales, while Kelvin Central Buses and Strathclyde Buses also took on Olympians with Royale bodies.

Ireland

Go North East bus 3812 Volvo Olympian N Counties Palatine II S812 FVK Yellow Bus livery in Newcastle 9 May 2009 1

Dublin Bus Dublin Bus ( ga, Bus Átha Cliath) is a State-owned bus operator providing services in Dublin. By far the largest bus operator in the city, it carried 138 million passengers in 2019. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann. ...

had continued their Olympian orders with the RA batch on the Leyland chassis being ordered first (RA176 - RA325), with 150 buses being ordered between 1994 and 1996. From January 1997, Dublin Bus ordered a further 315 Volvo Olympians, which were designated as RV. During that period, new liveries were introduced, such as CitySwift and the switch of the core livery from two-tone green and orange to white, blue and orange. All Volvo Olympians were withdrawn by 2012.

Hong Kong

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 ordered 531 Volvo Olympian 11m, 338 Volvo Olympian 12m and 30 Volvo Olympian non-aircon buses between 1994 and 1999. Long Win sold 10 12-metre Volvo Olympians to KMB in 1999. Due to the modernisation of the fleet, all Volvo Olympians have been withdrawn or converted to training buses, but they were withdrawn in November 2017. Citybus had ordered 10 Volvo Olympian 10.4m, 2 Volvo Olympian 12m (second hand from China Light & Power), 310 Volvo Olympian 12m and 142 Volvo Olympian 11m (two second-hand from China Motor Bus) between 1994 and 1998. Due to the modernisation of the fleet, most of the buses were either withdrawn, sold or converted to training buses. These were withdrawn in March 2019. China Motor Bus ordered 64 Volvo Olympians between 1996 and 1998. 62 were sold to New World First Bus in 1998 and 5 of them were converted to open-top for Rickshaw Sightseeing Bus. New World First Bus received 2 12-metre Volvo Olympians from HACTL in 1999 and 10 from Citybus in 2014. All buses were withdrawn as they aged 16 – 17 years and the last batch of buses were withdrawn in October 2015. NWFB transferred two second-hand buses to Citybus for private hire fleet, these were withdrawn again by March 2019.

Singapore

In 1993,

had ordered 100 Volvo Olympian 2-Axle and 201 Volvo Olympian 3-Axle to replace the then retiring earlier batches of

Leyland Atlantean The Leyland Atlantean is a predominantly double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland Motors between 1958 and 1986. Only 17 Atlantean chassis were bodied as single deck from new. It pioneered the design of rear-engined, front entranc ...

s with Walter Alexander Royale bodywork. These Volvo Olympians were delivered between June 1994 and June 1995. The Volvo Olympian 2-Axle are the last non-air conditioned buses to be brought in by

and also the last non air-conditioned buses in Singapore. Due to the additional weight of the air-compressor which necessitated a third axle, they were unable to be retrofitted with air-conditioning. In late 2003, most of these buses were redeployed to industrial routes to replace the then outgoing Leyland Olympian 2-Axles. Half of this batch had their lifespan extended by 2 years due to insufficient deliveries of new buses. All units were retired between June 2011 and September 2013, and the non-airconditioned bus fare structure was abolished shortly after. The first batch of Volvo Olympian 3-Axle were largely similar in appearance to the Leyland Olympian 3-Axle, except for some minor technical differences. To maximise capacity, all buses except one were retrofitted with a standee area on the offside by removing 4 pairs of seats in the early 2000s. In 2011, most of these buses were given a 2 year lifespan extension, with some units receiving an additional six months to 1 year extension owing to insufficient deliveries of replacements. All units of this batch were retired between March 2012 and June 2015. In 1996, SBS ordered a second batch of 200 Volvo Olympian 3-Axle to replace some of the then-retiring Mercedes-Benz O305 and

. These buses were delivered between August 1996 and February 1998. To maximise capacity, all buses had 4 pairs of seats removed on the offside to create a standee area in the early 2000s. In 2014, most of these buses in this batch were given a lifespan extension of 2 years due to insufficient deliveries of new buses. All units were retired between August 2013 and October 2016. These buses were also the last double deck buses in Singapore to use plastic destination signages. In 1998, SBS ordered the last batch of 70 Volvo Olympian 3-Axle with Walter Alexander Royale bodywork, which were delivered with the standee area pre-installed. Registered between March 1999 and December 2000, all units were retrofitted with LECIP electronic destination signages (EDS) in the early 2010s. Unlike the earlier batches, none of these buses received a lifespan extension of 2 years owing to a large influx of replacements. All units of this batch were retired between March 2016 and December 2017.

End of production

Production of Volvo Olympian ended in 2000 and concluded a run of over 10,000 Leyland/Volvo Olympian chassis. The last built were for

Yorkshire Coastliner Transdev York & Country (also known as Yorkshire Coastliner) operates both local and regional bus services in North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, England. It is a subsidiary of Transdev Blazefield, which operates bus services across Greater Man ...

and had

Alexander Royale Walter Alexander CoachbuildersCompanies House extract company no SC0261 ...

bodies. The chassis had two

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. ...

successors: the 2-axle

Volvo B7TL The Volvo B7TL is a low-floor double-decker bus chassis which was launched in 1999 and replaced the 2-axle version of the Volvo Olympian (its 3-axle version was replaced by the Volvo Super Olympian). It was built as the British bus operators ...

and the 3-axle Volvo Super Olympian. It was intended that the Volvo B7L replace the Olympian, however, very few Dual Axle, Double deck B7Ls were produced, with the B7TL chassis carrying out the B7Ls intended role.

References

External links

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Flickr gallery
{{Volvo Buses, state=collapsed Tri-axle buses Double-decker buses Open-top buses Vehicles introduced in 1992 Olympian Bus chassis