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
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 ...
, it was one of the variants of Alexander's AM-type body, also using components from the
Alexander PS type, and was usually combined with the
Dennis Dart
The Dennis Dart is a Rear-engine design, rear-engined single-decker bus, single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis Specialist Vehicles, Dennis of Guildford, England, in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a ...
and
Volvo B6 step-entrance single-decker bus chassis.
The body was mainly built for the United Kingdom bus market, with Alexander primarily marketing the Dash towards smaller independent bus operators, although one example with a
Volvo B6R chassis and air-conditioning was shipped to
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 ...
in January 1995 for use by
Citybus as a demonstrator; this was later returned to the United Kingdom, where it entered service with
Stagecoach Devon. Early Dashes were delivered with V-shaped windscreens, single headlights and a square vented grille.
In 1995, the Alexander Dash received a frontal facelift. The facelift, aimed at improving accessibility, also featured a longer front grille with badging in the shape of a
saltire
A saltire, also called Saint Andrew's Cross or the crux decussata, is a Heraldry, heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross. The word comes from the Middle French , Medieval Latin ("stirrup").
From its use as field sign, the saltire cam ...
, twin headlights and foglamps beside the grille, and a horizontal windscreen with an option for a heated windscreen.
Yorkshire Rider, under the ownership of the
Badgerline Group, took delivery of the first 50 facelifted Dashes on Dennis Dart chassis in early 1995. Other deliveries of the facelifted Dash-bodied Dart to Badgerline's successor
FirstBus included six Darts for
First Grampian in early 1996, and six Darts for
First Greater Manchester.
The only London bus operators to take delivery of the Dash were
Capital Citybus and
Stagecoach Holdings' London subsidiaries, the latter being bodied on the Dennis Dart chassis. The first 27 pre-facelift Dashes were delivered to
East London for services in
Barking and
Romford in November 1995, with another 39 post-facelift examples being delivered to
Selkent for services in
Bromley
Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023.
Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...
,
Catford and
Plumstead throughout 1996. These had a short service life, being withdrawn between 1998 and 1999 and disposed to other Stagecoach operations.
The Dash was superseded by the
low floor
Low or LOW or lows, may refer to:
People
* Low (surname) Low is an English language, English and Languages of Scotland, Scottish surname. It is also a common surname found among Overseas Chinese language, Chinese communities around the world. ...
Alexander ALX200 in 1996–1997 with a more rounded roof dome and plastic mouldings under the windscreen to make it deeper having made on the
Dennis Dart SLF and the
Volvo B6LE chassis.
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Gallery
See also
*
Alexander PS type, the Dash's full-size equivalent
*
List of buses
References
External links
{{Walter Alexander bodies
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 ...
Midibuses
Step-entrance buses
Vehicles introduced in 1991