The Alexander Ultra was a

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. ...

single-deck 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 essent ...

body built on the

Volvo B10L The Volvo B10L was a rear-engined, low-floor single-decker bus, single-decker public bus chassis built by Volvo Buses, Volvo between c. 1993 and c. 2005. An articulated bus, articulated version of the B10L, known as the B10LA, was also produced. ...

chassis by

Walter Alexander Coachbuilders Walter Alexander CoachbuildersCompanies House extract company no SC026 ...

from 1995 to 1998. It was the

right-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 ...

equivalent of the and was built on license from

Volvo Buses The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...

Development

Developed in conjunction with Volvo Buses, the Alexander Ultra was developed on the B10L chassis with the aim to be the first low-floor Volvo bus to be sold in the United Kingdom. Alexander employed the use of Volvo subsidiary 'System 2000' frame, using a combination of

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

and

extrusion Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross section (geometry), cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a Die (manufacturing), die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing pro ...

s secured with positively

bolted joint A bolted joint is one of the most common elements in construction and machine design. It consists of a male threaded fastener (e. g., a Bolt (fastener), bolt) that captures and joins other parts, secured with a matching female screw thread. Ther ...

s. The Säffle frame differs from other Alexander products of the time, such as the

Alexander PS type The Alexander PS-type was a step-entrance single-deck bus body built by Walter Alexander Coachbuilders in Falkirk, Scotland and was produced from 1988 to the late 1990s on the Dennis Lance, Mercedes-Benz O405, Scania N113 and Volvo B10M c ...

, with the low-floor B10L chassis requiring the body of the bus to be an integral part of the vehicle, in contrast to older chassis supporting

body-on-frame Body-on-frame is a traditional motor vehicle construction method whereby a separate coachwork, body or coach is mounted on a strong and relatively rigid vehicle frame or chassis that carries the powertrain (the engine and drivetrain) and to wh ...

construction. Internally, the Ultra had a gangway between the front wheels and a flat floor throughout most of the bus, with seats in the passenger compartment suspended from the ceiling via the grab handles. Double-glazed windows were also offered. Four pre-production demonstrators were produced, the first of which was bodied by Säffle and delivered to

Mainline Buses South Yorkshire Transport (SYT) was a bus operator that provided services around South Yorkshire and outlying areas. The company was formed as an 'arms-length' successor of the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) in 1986, whi ...

in April 1994. Subsequent Ultras were built on license to Alexander at their

Mallusk Grange of Mallusk, or Mallusk, is a village and townland (of 933 acres) in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Mallusk is within the urban area of Newtownabbey, and it is also within the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area. It is situated i ...

plant in

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

, Northern Ireland.

Operators

The Alexander Ultra ultimately did not sell well, however it received significant orders from a handful of operators in the UK and Ireland. The biggest customer of the Ultra were the

Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company The Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo) is a government-owned body which was established in 1967 to take over the railway and bus services of the Ulster Transport Authority (UTA), namely, Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) and Ulst ...

, who in what was the UK's biggest low floor bus order at the time, ordered 60 Ultras in July 1995, 50 of which were delivered to Citybus and the remaining 10 delivered to

Ulsterbus Ulsterbus is a public transport operator in Northern Ireland and operates bus services outside Belfast. It is part of Translink (Northern Ireland), Translink, the brand name for the subsidiary operating companies of the Northern Ireland Transpor ...

for services in

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

. Two pre-production demonstrator examples were also acquired.

Travel West Midlands National Express West Midlands (NXWM) is bus operator in the West Midlands of England. It is a subsidiary of Mobico Group (formerly National Express Group) and is the largest bus operator in the region, as well as one of the single largest in B ...

was the second biggest customer for the Ultra, taking delivery of 14 of the type in 1997 for use on route 529 serving

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...

and

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

via

Willenhall Willenhall is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, Walsall district, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England, with a population taken at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census of 49,587. It is ...

. These Ultras were fuelled by

compressed natural gas 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 ...

in a partnership supported by the

Energy Saving Trust Energy Saving Trust is a British organization devoted to promoting energy efficiency, energy conservation, and the sustainable use of energy, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions and helping to prevent man-made climate change. It was founde ...

between TWM, Volvo Bus and

British Gas British Gas (trading as Scottish Gas in Scotland) is an energy and home services provider in the United Kingdom. It is the trading name of British Gas Services Limited and British Gas New Heating Limited, both subsidiaries of Centrica. Serving ...

, who constructed CNG refuelling points at TWM's Walsall garage for the buses. The other operators of the Alexander Ultra were

First Northampton First Northampton was a bus company in Northampton. It was a subsidiary of FirstGroup and part of the First Midlands division. It ceased operating on 14 September 2013. Timeline of

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

, who purchased 6 Ultras with grant funding from Greater Manchester PTE, and

Dublin Bus Dublin Bus () is an Irish State-owned enterprise, state-owned bus operator providing services in Dublin. By far the largest bus operator in the city, it carried 145 million passengers in 2023. It is a subsidiary of CIÉ, Córas Iompair Éireann ...

, who took delivery of five diesel Ultras as well as one dual-door CNG Ultra, the latter of which was quickly disposed of by the operator. Production of the Ultra ceased in 1998, with Alexander moving on to develop the

Alexander ALX300 The Alexander ALX300 (later known as the TransBus ALX300 and the Alexander Dennis ALX300) was a low-floor bus body manufactured by Alexander and later Alexander Dennis in Falkirk, Scotland. It was launched in 1997 as a replacement for the St ...

body, which was available on the

Volvo B10BLE The Volvo B10BLE is a rear-engined low-entry single-decker bus chassis manufactured by Volvo in Sweden between 1993 and 2004. The first prototypes were built in 1992, but mass production started in 1993, only a year after the high-floor B10B. I ...

chassis.

References

External links

{{Walter Alexander bodies

Ultra Ultra may refer to: Science and technology * Ultra (cryptography), the codename for cryptographic intelligence obtained from signal traffic in World War II * Adobe Ultra, a vector-keying application * Sun Ultra series, a brand of computer work ...

Alexander Ultra Single-deck buses Low-floor buses Vehicles introduced in 1994

Development

Operators

See also

References

External links