The Alexander ALX200 was a

single-decker bus A single-decker bus or rigid 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 is essen ...

body built by

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

of 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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It was created for

low-floor bus A low-floor bus is a bus or trolleybus that has no steps between the ground and the floor of the bus at one or more entrances, and low floor for part or all of the passenger cabin. A bus with a partial low floor may also be referred to as a l ...

chassis produced from the late 1990s and was launched in spring 1996 as a low-floor replacement of the

Alexander Dash The Alexander Dash is a step-entrance midibus body built by Walter Alexander Coachbuilders of Scotland from 1991 to 1997. Unveiled by Alexander at the 1991 Coach and Bus exhibition in Birmingham, it was one of the variants of Alexander's AM-t ...

. It was marketed in Alexander's 'ALX' series to fill in the gap between the ALX100

minibus A minibus, microbus, or minicoach is a passenger-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, the word "minibus" is us ...

and the ALX300

full-size Full-size car—also known as large car—is a vehicle size class which originated in the United States and is used for cars larger than mid-size cars. It is the largest size class for cars. In the United Kingdom, this class is referred to as ...

single-decker A single-decker bus or rigid 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 is essen ...

Design

As compared to the

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 ...

, the ALX200 has a more rounded appearance. The styling is completely different from the

body, with a rounded roof dome and deep double-curvature windscreen with plastic mouldings under the

windscreen The windshield (American English and Canadian English) or windscreen (Commonwealth English) of an aircraft, car, bus, motorbike, truck, train, boat or streetcar is the front window, which provides visibility while protecting occupants from t ...

to make it look deeper, and large circular

headlight A headlamp is a lamp attached to the front of a vehicle to illuminate the road ahead. Headlamps are also often called headlights, but in the most precise usage, ''headlamp'' is the term for the device itself and ''headlight'' is the term for t ...

s and circular front indicators, it also has a separately mounted destination box. The body was primarily built on

Dennis Dart SLF The Dennis Dart is a rear-engined single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis of Guildford, England, in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a high-floor design, in 1996 the low-floor second generation Denn ...

and

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 the ...

. It was given a mild front end refresh during 2001. With the formation of

TransBus International Alexander Dennis is a British bus manufacturing company based in Larbert, Scotland. The largest bus and coach manufacturer in the United Kingdom, with a 50% market share in 2019, it has manufacturing plants and partnerships in Canada, China, ...

, the ALX200 was phased out in favour of the more successful

Plaxton Pointer The Plaxton Pointer (originally known as the Reeve Burgess Pointer, and later as the TransBus Pointer and Alexander Dennis Pointer) is a single-deck midibus body that was manufactured between 1991 and 2006, predominantly on the Dennis Dart chas ...

in 2001 when production of the Pointer was moved from

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

, where Walter Alexander was based.

Operators

Paignton Garage Stagecoach 34014 R114VPU 47105 WA04TXW

Operators of the Alexander ALX200 in the United Kingdom mainly included

Stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

, whose orders included 90 ALX200s built on the Volvo B6LE chassis, the

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Arriva Arriva Ltd. is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. The company was originally established on 24 October 1938 as T Cowie Ltd. Initially focused on the sale of motorcycles, it relaunched shortl ...

and Newport Transport, who operated ALX200s on 8.8m Dart SLF chassis. The ALX200 on Dennis Dart SLF chassis was purchased by some

Cowie Group Arriva Ltd. is a British multinational corporation, multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. The company was originally established on 24 October 1938 as T Cowie Ltd. Initially focused on the sale of motorcy ...

companies, with Yorkshire Buses taking delivery of 30 of the type in April 1997 for services in

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder, West Yorkshire, River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, ...

, replacing the operator's last

Leyland National The Leyland National is an integrally constructed British step-floor single-decker bus manufactured in large quantities between 1972 and 1985. It was developed as a joint project between two UK nationalised industries – the National Bus Com ...

Grey-Green Grey-Green was a bus and coach operator in England. It was based in Stamford Hill and operated in London and the East of England. History Grey-Green can trace its origins back over a century to the foundation of George Ewer's horse carriage b ...

also took delivery of seventeen of the type, while Clydeside 2000 took delivery of ten ALX200s between May and June 1997. In London, the Alexander ALX200 on Dennis Dart SLF chassis proved most popular with

Stagecoach London Stagecoach London is a major bus operator in Greater London. It is a subsidiary of Stagecoach and operates services under contract to Transport for London mostly in East and South East London, as well as some services running into Central Londo ...

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

and

Selkent South East London & Kent Bus Company Limited, trading as Stagecoach London, is a bus company operating in central and south London and some parts of north-west Kent. The Selkent brand is a subsidiary of Stagecoach London and operates services und ...

operations, who were both the largest customers for the ALX200 throughout its production run. A total of 216 were delivered between 1997 and 2001, with thirteen of these used for a contract route connecting

Liverpool Street station Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a major central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It i ...

and

London City Airport London City Airport is an international airport in London, England. It is located in the Royal Docks in the London Borough of Newham, Borough of Newham, about east of the City of London and east of Canary Wharf. These are the two centres ...

Arriva London Arriva London is a bus operator operating primarily in Greater London and partially in Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus and operates services for London Buses under contract to Transport for London. Oper ...

, meanwhile, took delivery of 38 ALX200 bodied Dart SLFs between 1998 and 2000, acquiring a further nineteen that were originally new to Arriva East Herts & Essex in May 2000, while elsewhere, Connex took delivery of 18 between 2000 and 2001, Epsom Coaches took delivery of 14 between 1999 and 2001, Armchair Passenger Transport took delivery of 13 in May 1999, and Metrobus took delivery of three in July 1999.

Exports

The ALX200 was also popular as an export product. Citybus of

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

purchased ten ALX200-bodied Volvo B6LE buses in 1997 for use on route 260 serving

Stanley Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...

and Central, which were withdrawn and returned to the UK two years later due to structural defects, while 50 Alexander ALX200s were bodied on

left hand drive Left-hand traffic (LHT) and right-hand traffic (RHT) are the practices, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side or to the right side of the road, respectively. They are fundamental to traffic flow, and are sometimes called the ' ...

Dennis Dart SLF chassis for use by Arriva Netherlands in 2000. A small number of ALX200s were built by

Thomas Built Buses Thomas Built Buses, Inc. (commonly known as Thomas) is an American bus manufacturer. Best known for its production of the first ever rear engine Type C school bus, Thomas produces other bus designs for a variety of usages. Currently, its productio ...

from 1999 to 2003 under license as the 'SLF 200' for use in the United States; these buses were fitted with Cummins ISB and Mercedes-Benz engines.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander Alx200 ALX200 Low-floor buses Midibuses Vehicles introduced in 1996

Design

Operators

Exports

See also

References

External links