The Scania OmniExpress is a series of semi-integral single-deck coaches, intercity buses and city buses built by Scania in from 2007 until 2017. The OmniExpress 3.40 and OmniExpress 3.60, built to respective heights, are available as coach and intercity buses on the
K EB and
K IB chassis throughout Europe, including Russia, and right-hand drive versions for UK and Ireland. The 3.31-metre high OmniExpress 3.20 is available as an intercity bus, also on both K EB and K IB, in most of Europe, and the OmniExpress 3.20 LE is available as a
low-entry city bus on
K UB chassis in the
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denm ...
.
Like with other integral and semi-integral models from Scania, the OmniExpress has a letter added in front of the chassis designation, which is ''L'' from
Lahti
Lahti (; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lahti is approximately , while the Lahti sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mo ...
. This means that the step-entrance models will have designations LK EB or LK IB depending on which chassis they have, but it does not show the height. The low-entry 3.20 LE has designation LK UB.
History
In the spring of 2007, Scania announced a collaboration with Finnish bus and coach bodywork manufacturer ''Lahden Autokori Oy'' ("Lahti") to build a series of semi-integral coaches known as Scania OmniExpress.
Scania and Lahden Autokori had since 2001 collaborated on the low-entry city bus ''Lahti Scala'',
built on
L94UB and later K UB chassis. A new production plant in
Lahti
Lahti (; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lahti is approximately , while the Lahti sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mo ...
was built for the new product line. From the beginning the OmniExpress was available in two heights; 3.40 and 3.60 metres, replacing Lahden Autokori's own models ''Lahti Falcon'' and ''Lahti Eagle''. A pre-production batch was manufactured for demonstrators and selected customers in Finland and Sweden, with normal production beginning in late 2007.
In April 2011, the 3.31-metre high OmniExpress 3.20, with a floor height of 860 mm, was launched. It replaced the ''Lahti Flyer 520'', and came also as a replacement for the
Scania OmniLine, which had been discontinued since 2009.
In August 2013, the last ''Lahti Scala''s were delivered, which meant that also the very last bus had been built in Lahden Autokori's old production plant in the village of Villähde in
Nastola
Nastola is a former municipality of Finland. It was merged with the city of Lahti on 1 January 2016.
In the province of Southern Finland, Nastola is part of the Päijät-Häme region. The municipality had a population of (30 June 2015) and cover ...
(neighbouring municipality to the city of Lahti). At the same time, the new OmniExpress 3.20 LE to replace the Scala was announced.
A few weeks later, in September, Lahden Autokori declared bankruptcy, which led to uncertainty for future production of Scanias in Finland. All existing orders were produced, and in April 2014 it was announced that Scania would take over the production plant in Lahti with their new subsidiary ''SOE Bus Production Oy'' from 1 May.
Production of the 3.20 LE started shortly after this.
In April 2014, two
CNG
Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in c ...
-powered LK 305 IB4x2NB OmniExpress 3.20 were delivered to
Trelleborg Municipality
Trelleborg Municipality () is the southernmost municipality of Sweden, in Skåne County. Its seat is located in the city Trelleborg.
The present municipality was created in 1967 through the amalgamation of the ''City of Trelleborg'' with five rur ...
for use as school buses. With this, Scania became the first manufacturer to currently offer step-entrance CNG-powered buses in the Nordic countries.
In late 2014, the first OmniExpress were manufactured at ''Scania Production Słupsk S.A.'' in
Słupsk
Słupsk (; ; ) is a city with powiat rights located on the Słupia River in the Pomeranian Voivodeship in northern Poland, in the historical region of Pomerania or more specifically in its part known in contemporary Poland as Central Pomerania ...
, Poland. As of August 2015 only the step-entrance 3.20 model is known to have been built there, while all models are still being produced in Finland.
On 15 October 2015, Scania launched the
Interlink as a successor to the OmniExpress range at the Busworld
Kortrijk
Kortrijk ( , ; or ''Kortrik''; ), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region, Flemish Provinces of Belgium, province of We ...
2015 fair.
Operators
Norway

The first OmniExpress to arrive in Norway, a 3.60, came as a demonstrator in November 2007 in the livery of
NOR-WAY Bussekspress. It was tested on several of the NOR-WAY lines across the country, but ended up as a school coach in
Bardu Municipality
Bardu ( and ) is a municipality in Troms county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Setermoen, the largest urban area in the municipality.
The municipality is the 18th largest by area out of the 357 municip ...
in 2009. In the first years, the OmniExpress more or less took over the market share that the
Irizar Century
The Irizar Century is a coach body manufactured by Irizar on Iveco, MAN, Mercedes-Benz, Scania and Volvo chassis.
It has many different bodystyles and are usually identified via the OBRA number on information plate next to the door.
The Centur ...
had, and most customers were those that had preferred Scania for a while, including
Jotunheimen og Valdresruten Bilselskap, Firda Billag,
Fjord1
Fjord1 AS is a Norway, Norwegian transport conglomerate, one of the largest in the Norway, Norwegian transport sector. Formed in 2001, company headquarters are in Florø, with the headquarters of the ferry division in Molde (town), Molde. It opera ...
and some subsidiaries of
Nettbuss
Vy Buss, formerly branded as Nettbuss, is the largest bus company in Norway, owned by Vy. It was established on 10 February 2000 as the continuation of the bus operations from former NSB Biltrafikk. In addition to bus services in major parts o ...
. The first substantial order was a series of 13 OmniExpress 3.40 delivered to
Concordia Bus Norge in July 2009 for fleet renewal of existing
PSO contracts, and in December of the same year,
Nordlandsbuss received 27 OmniExpress 3.40 for a new PSO contract in
Bodø Municipality
Bodø (; , ) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Bodø (town ...
.
Telemark Bilruter became the first Norwegian customer to get the OmniExpress 3.20, receiving one 11.0-metre for school services and two 13.0-metre buses for local routes in November 2011. All three were built on K EB chassis, a rather rare configuration for the 3.20 model.
In August 2013,
Boreal Transport received a total of 61 new OmniExpress for regional routes in
Sør-Trøndelag
Sør-Trøndelag (; ) was a Counties of Norway, county comprising the southern portion of the present-day Trøndelag county in Norway. It bordered the old Nord-Trøndelag () county as well as the counties of Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, and Hedmark. ...
, consisting of 27 12.9-metre two-axle 3.20 and 34 tri-axle 3.40 at 13.7-, 14.2- and 14.9-metre lengths. At the time it was the largest single order of buses both for Scania in Norway and for Lahden Autokori as a manufacturer.
In April 2014, Scania in Norway received an even bigger order, including the first batch of 3.20 LE to Norway. Out of a total order of 89 buses, 36 were OmniExpress. 15 13.0-metre 3.20 LE, four 11.0-metre 3.20, five 12.5-metre 3.40 and twelve 14.9-metre tri-axle 3.40 were delivered to companies ''Setesdal Bilruter'' and ''Agder Buss'' for newyear 2015, for their new PSO contracts in
Aust-Agder
Aust-Agder (, ) was a county (''fylke'') in Norway from 1 January 1919 to 31 December 2019, after it was merged with Vest-Agder to form Agder county. In 2002, there were 102,945 inhabitants, which was 2.2% of Norway's population. Its area was . ...
. In June 2015,
Nobina Norge
Nobina Norge AS is a Norwegian bus company, owned by Nobina, that operates in the counties of Vestland, Akershus and the cities of Oslo and Tromsø.
History
It was established in 1921. Its name was Ingeniør M.O. Schøyens Bilcentraler AS, br ...
received 36 CNG-powered 3.20 LE (18 two-axle 13.0-metre and 18 tri-axle 14.8-metre) for local routes in
Ski
Skis are runners, attached to the user's feet, designed to glide over snow. Typically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partially secured heel. For climbing slopes, ski skins c ...
, being the first ever delivery of CNG-powered Scania buses in Norway.
As of August 2015, just over 400 OmniExpress of various heights, lengths and configurations have been delivered to Norwegian customers.
Italy
In 2009 Scania gifted an OmniExpress prototype to
DolomitiBus.
References
*
External links
*
OmniExpress product pageScania
{{Scania AB, state=collapsed
OmniExpress
Coaches (bus)
Low-entry buses
Vehicles introduced in 2007