Scania Omni City - Double Decker

Double Decker

In 2005 Scania announced the introduction of the OmniCity double decker in order to complement its OmniDekka citybus sold in the UK. It has a full low floor and is a complete Scania product, unlike the OmniDekka which features a body by East Lancashire Coachbuilders. The early double-deck OmniCity uses the N94UD chassis, the same as the OmniDekka.

A demonstrator was delivered to Travel West Midlands (now National Express West Midlands) and entered service in November 2005. The first order is five buses for Lothian Buses of Edinburgh, Scotland which entered service during August–September 2006 and are in the Airlink livery. Later Lothian Buses ordered a further 10 buses to replace the Tridents on the route, these buses entered service in late 2007. There are also 15 for Transdev London (formerly London United) which entered service in late 2006.

At first, it was in limited production, until the Euro IV version was launched. The reason for this is because the new Euro IV Scania engine is a five-cylinder 9-litre EGR engine as opposed to its Euro III predecessor, which is a six-cylinder 9-litre engine. The chassis designation has also changed to N230UD or N270UD.

Further orders were announced in late 2007, with many Go-Ahead companies buying them, such as Solent Blue Line, Southern Vectis and Wilts & Dorset. Metrobus also cancelled an order for two Scania/Darwen Olympus, for two OmniCities, following the very long delays in production of the Olympus.

Transdev London have also ordered 22 more OmniCities: 9 for new route 482 which goes from Southall to Heathrow Airport terminal 5 and started on 22 March 2008, and the rest to upgrade routes 148 and 267. National Express West Midlands took five more OmniCities in early 2008.

In May 2008, Reading Buses took delivery of 14 ethanol-fuelled OmniCities. These have now been converted to diesel.

In June 2008, Brighton & Hove ordered 13 Scania OmniCity double deckers. These replaced Dennis Trident 2/Plaxton Presidents and Volvo B10BLE/Wright Renowns on Metro route 5. A further 18 vehicles were delivered in July 2009. Selkent for London Buses use this bus as well. A number of OmniCity double deckers run on London Buses, with Metrobus (which received one of them as Scania's 1000th low-floor double-deck bus in 2010), Transdev London and East London Bus Group being the most notable buyers.