COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

A new fleet of British-built buses are set to hit the city's streets in a £100million deal.


Centro chairman and city councillor John McNicholas, city council leader Ann Lucas
and Peter Power, managing director of National Express Coventry

National Express has ordered 600 double deck and smaller midi buses from Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL), which employs 2,000 workers at factories in Scarborough, Surrey and Falkirk.

Each will be equipped with the latest customer comfort technology, environmentally friendly low emissions engines as well as state-of the-art high definition CCTV.

The company runs 1,600 buses on its routes across the West Midlands, meaning more a third will be replaced with new ones - equivalent to three every day over the next five years.

A spokesman told us a large proportion of them would be on Coventry routes.

Peter Power, managing director of National Express Coventry, said every vehicle ordered would secure a British worker’s job for a year.

And city council leader Ann Lucas urged other companies to buy British.

"This is an example of what a great British company should be doing," she added.

"Supporting British manufacturing, securing jobs and signing deals that give British companies security is vital to our economic growth. I urge other companies to follow National Express Coventry’s lead."

Colin Robertson, chief executive of ADL, added: "Long term contracts of this nature underpin manufacturing programmes and contribute to job security.

"They make so much sense, giving all parties a clear profile of expectations and financials. My instinct is that we will see more partnerships like this in the years ahead."

In July last year Centro announced a major overhaul of the region's bus network with the introduction of London-style payment cards, real-time passenger information, new bus shelters, more talking buses telling passengers the next stop, passenger panels to give them more of a say on services and colour-coded routes to make buses easily identifiable.