Rapid supply of B8RLEs meets PSVAR needs for Felixstowe Travel
Two Volvo B8RLE MCV eVoRa low-floor, single-deck buses have joined the Felixstowe Travel fleet to work on rail replacement and school contracts.
“We’ve carried out a lot of rail replacement and school contract work in recent times,” says Felixstowe Travel’s Mick Dabbs. “It’s good business for us, but with legislation changing for operators at the end of March, we had to ensure that we were fully compliant with Public Service Vehicle Accessibility Regulations.
“Having vehicles with the correct specification is so important to us because it opens doors for us as an operator to a different type of contract than our traditional work.
“Volvo had the right type of compliant vehicle stock available on short-lead time and were able to meet our exacting requirements. Volvo retail bus and coach sales manager, Richard Mann, helped us get everything completed in the timeframe and we’re already getting compliments from our clients on our new Volvo buses.”
The two new B8RLE buses are 12.1m in length and have 46 passenger seats, 43 of which are high-backed and feature three-point safety belts as standard. The remaining three seats are in the tip-up area. There is also a manual wheelchair ramp at the front of the vehicle to ensure PSVAR compliance. Each vehicle is capable of carrying 95 passengers at full capacity.
The buses are fitted with a Volvo D8K 280hp six-cylinder 7.7 litre Euro VI engine and ZF six-speed gearbox. Volvo has also fitted tachographs to the vehicles at the operator’s request making them useful as dual-purpose vehicles.
Richard Mann adds: “Felixstowe Travel had a requirement for PSVAR-compliant vehicles at short notice. We not only met that requirement, but the vehicles went straight into operation and are already getting really positive feedback from the customers”.
The new buses are on a maintenance contract and serviced by Volvo Truck and Bus East Anglia in Felixstowe as part of the agreement.