Las vegas Double deckers?

[circusboy90210]

Circusboy is on the moveAnyone know who makes the Las Vegas Double Decker's ?I finally got a truck and a travel Trailer, I plan to take the components from trailer and put them in a bus. ;-)

[Busted Knuckle]

Those new Megabus Double deckers are a new model Van Drool Hool! Before that there were some Neoplan double deckers around Vegas! FWIW   BK 

[Kristinsgrandpa]

I don't know the height of the Las Vegas double deckers, but I would check the height before I buy.

Over legal, might limit your travels. Height limitations vary from state to state.

  There are more low bridges/underpasses on the east side of the river (Miss.) than on the west side. Check a truckers atlas for low clearances.

Ed

[cody]

Ed is right on the height issue, we're sitting at 12ft 6in and it only took us one ride to find an overpass in Indiana that was too low, the truckers atlas is a good investment.

[TomC]

Those double deckers in Las Vegas are made by www.alexander-dennis.com model Enviro 500 with Cummins ISM engines in them.  Very nice buses, but are 14ft tall.  Good Luck, TomC

[Jeremy]

I don't know the buses in question, but if they are the type TomC mentions they are a very different animal to the Van Hools and Neoplans mentioned earlier - the A-Ds are buses (ie. transits) rather than coaches, which means they have ample standing headroom on both decks (good for a conversion), but are not really designed for long-distance high-speed travel.

I see from Alexander-Dennis's website that they have this week taken over Plaxton, who built my bus. Co-incidentally I also mentioned Dennis recently as an exmple of a manufacturer who used off-the-shelf rather than propreitary parts. Obviously they are part of a larger group now as well, so I dare say that policy is history.

Jeremy

[Busted Knuckle]

Smack me silly & paint me purple, but I thought he was talking about the NEW Double Deckers that MEGABUS (coach usa/stagecoach group) have just invested 10 million in! My latest copy (Sept. 15th) of Bus & Motorcoach News has a picture of the driver of one wheeling a lady down the W/C ramp @ the back door! And it tells about them being Brand new Van Hools designed specifically for MEGABUS.COM and that the first ones were put in service in Las Vegas! I'm sorry I didn't realize he was talking about toy buses transits!   BK 

[TomC]

Well BK- Megabus's VanHool double deckers are impressive.  It's just I only know of the Alexander-Dennis buses used in transit service there. 
Since the VanHools are used for Chicago service, they must not be over 13'6" since there are so many low bridges in Chicago.  Would make a neat conversion.  Good Luck, TomC

[Dave B]

Here is a picture of one of the double deckers that I took the last time I was in LV:

[Jeremy]

Here is a picture of one of the double deckers that I took the last time I was in LV:

Yes, that's a standard British double decker - our towns are full of those and you can buy old ones for next to nothing. New Age Traveller types are often to be found living in them, and you also often see them used by companies as promotional vehicles at events. The BBC has at least one which it uses as a mobile broadcasting studio - that one tows a big trailer that then connects at right-angles to the bus when parked up to give more space inside. I wouldn't want one as a motorhome however - just too slow.

As it happens I was looking at a couple of those Megabuses on the motorway at the weekend - it's a new service (or at least, a new branding) here - I hadn't realised they were in the States too. Stagecoach who run them are big players in the UK transport industry now as they own train companies as well as buses. Someone may correct me, but I believe they got involved in the American market by buying Greyhound, and presumably the American Megabuses are a development of that.

Jeremy

[tekebird]

Jeremy,

Stagecoach got into the US market with the Purchase of COACH USA a few years ago.

out of the CUSA operation srung the MEGABUS concept...where like some airlines they have 4 seats on every bus that are $1.00 fares  This service started in the Chicago area but has now started in SFarea to other western destinations INCL Vegas

thier purchase of greyhound is very recent...and likely a much larger mistake than the CUSA purchase.

think it is going to be very hard to erase the image greyhound has of being the mode of transportation of the dreages of society here in the US.

[m-werx]

Jeremy you say you can buy the old bus for cheap, where do we look & what price do thay go for, thanks Darren.

[Jeremy]

Jeremy you say you can buy the old bus for cheap, where do we look & what price do thay go for, thanks Darren.

A couple of British sites for used buses are:

http://www.busbiz-online.co.uk/
http://www.usedcoachsales.co.uk
There is also UK eBay of course - often some very cheap buses on there.

On the second of those sites, where it's easiest to compare different buses, you will see that old 70-seat double deckers (mid 1970s) are the cheapest thing on the site - cheaper even than 16 seat minibuses. I notice there's also a cheap (or at least, very good value) already-converted Neoplan Cityliner (same as Sean's) - seeing opportunities like that after you've already bought a bus can be very depressing.

Jeremy

[TomC]

Jeremy- Nice looking buses-but all the pictures are backwards (LOL).  Are you seeing more of left side drive buses from the Chunnel?  Good Luck, TomC

[Jeremy]

You don't particularly see a lot of foreign buses where I am because I'm not in an area where tourists visit, and I am a long way from the channel ports / tunnel as well. The Chunnel has been open for almost 15 years now, but I suspect that most coaches still travel by ferry as it gives the opportunity for the passengers to walk about and spend money.

As an aside, I know there are now specialist British and foreign coach operators dealing with 'just' immigrants travelling from Eastern Europe and the UK - that traffic is entirely new, as a result of Poland etc joining the EU.

Jeremy