The Alexander ALX500 (later known as the TransBus ALX500) was a low-floor

double-decker bus A double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. Double-deckers are used primarily for commuter transport, but open-top models are used as sightseeing buses for tourists, and there are coaches too for long-distance travel. They app ...

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 ...

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 ...

, Scotland between 1997 and 2002. The Alexander ALX500 was fitted to Dennis Trident 3 and Volvo Super Olympian chassis (they could be distinguished by the design of the engine compartment: with round indicators for Dennis and square indicators for Volvo), and came in lengths of 10.6, 11.3 and 12 metres (35, 37 and 40 foot). The ALX500-bodied buses were sold new to Citybus,

Kowloon Motor Bus The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB) is a bus company operating Bus services in Hong Kong, franchised services in Hong Kong. It is the largest bus company in Hong Kong by fleet size and number of bus routes, with over 4,000 buses ...

, Long Win Bus, New World First Bus and

Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC; ) is a Government of Hong Kong, Hong Kong State-owned enterprise, wholly government-owned railway and land Asset management, asset manager. It was established in 1982 under the Kowloon-Canton Railw ...

in Hong Kong. Due to the climate there, all of them were fitted with

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C (US) or air con (UK), is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior temperature, and in some cases, also controlling the humidity of internal air. Air c ...

systems, and as a result lacked a rear window on the lower deck. The extra length of the buses mean the seating capacities were near the 100 mark for the 12.0 metre variant.World News ''Buses Worldwide'' issue 214 July 2019 page 44 HK TC Tung Chung Long Win Bus S64 Airbus

HK TC Tung Chung Long Win Bus S64 Airbus

Alexander built three prototype ALX500 bodies for prototype Trident 3 chassis in 1997, with the first finished in February 1997. Production of the ALX500 body was started later in the same year, with two examples exhibited in Coach & Bus '97 in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

; but there were some minor changes in appearance, for example the exit door was moved rearward (for 12.0 metre variant only). In 1999, a facelifted version of the ALX500, which more resembled the

Alexander ALX400 The Alexander ALX400 (later known as the TransBus ALX400 and the Alexander Dennis ALX400) is a 2-axle double-decker bus body built by Walter Alexander Coachbuilders (later by TransBus International/ Alexander Dennis). It was one of the ALX-s ...

in appearance was introduced, the first of these bodies were fitted to the first batch of Super Olympians for Kowloon Motor Bus and New World First Bus. When TransBus International was formed in 2001, the Alexander ALX500 body replaced the standard height, right hand drive version of the

Duple Metsec Duple Metsec was a bus bodywork builder based in West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England in the United Kingdom. It usually supplied body kits for bus assembly overseas. It was originated from the bus body manufacturing busi ...

DM5000 body (built for the Dennis Trident 3) which was duplicated with the ALX500 design. In late 2002, the ALX500 body was superseded by the TransBus Enviro500. All Alexander ALX500 bodied buses are progressively retired by March 2023.

References

External links

* {{Alexander Dennis ALX500 Double-decker buses Low-floor buses Tri-axle buses Vehicles introduced in 1997