Euro Bus Expo 2010 – A laymans look into the future trends in Coach Travel
November 4, 2010 by Rowena
Filed under Coach Operators, General News, Operator News
On Tuesday 2nd November 2010, I was fortunate enough to attend the Euro Bus Expo at the NEC in Birmingham. This show is held every 2 years and showcases the latest thinking in the Bus and Coach world. The organising of the event is jointly handled by Expo Management Limited and the Confederation of Passenger Transport. Despite the economic downturn the show was a complete sell out with every single stand occupied. The Bus and Coach sector accounts for 6 billion passenger journeys in the UK every year, over 4 times greater than that of its nearest rival the Train! Both Bus and Coach travel remain a very safe form of passenger transport and also one of the greenest. For this article I have focused all my attention on what lies ahead for the Coach industry and its loyal passengers.
The underlying theme for Coach travellers in the years ahead seems to be increased comfort and greener journeys. As you are probably already aware a Coach holiday is twice as green in terms of carbon dioxide emissions than an equivalent holiday by rail, 4 times greener than a holiday taken by car and a staggering 6 times greener than the equivalent holiday taken by air!
Every year in Britain nearly 7 million people take a holiday by Coach and I hope that those of you reading this article, will be as excited as I was when you see the pictures of some of the truly impressive new vehicles that will be spearheading the campaign by Britain’s best Coach Operators, to persuade more people to consider taking a Coach holiday in the future and thereby helping to significantly reduce this countries carbon dioxide emissions as well as by reducing congestion on the already overcrowded roads, by leaving their car at home.
Anyway without further a do here is a varied selection of photos from the show itself:
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- Scania OmniExpress Coach
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- Irizar 2 Axle Touring Coach
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- Mercedes Tourino
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- Setra 416GT-HD Coach of the Year 2009 & 2010. Shearings current vehicle of choice.
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- Setra S431DT This incredible vehicle is customised for taking Pop Groups on their European tours.
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- VDL Bova Futura
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- Sharpes of Nottingham Van Hool TD927 Astromega – This was my personal favourite! An incredible 15 metre long, 83 seater, double decker luxury touring coach.
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- Same coach from the near side, and another new one.
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- Same vehicle from the rear.
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- Interior shot of the upper deck of same vehicle. Great legroom despite 83 seats!!
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- Same coach rear of upper deck interior shot. Each seat finished in real leather with embroidered seat number on each seat
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- Parrys International T917 Astron. ‘Diamond Class’ 40 seater touring coach featuring individual touch screen monitors, bistro lounge plus 2 seperate washrooms and toilets one for men and one for women. ” Breathtaking !!”
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- Interior shot of Parrys Diamond Class Tourer. Sheer class!!
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- Plaxton Panther on Volvo Chassis – a strong favourite of many Coach Operators
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- The stunning new Plaxton Elite on a Twin Axle Volvo Chassis
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- Plaxton Elite entrance door. Wide and very easy to board
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- Van Hool T916 Acron
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- Van Hool T917 Altano
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- 75th Anniversary Neoplan 12 meter Tourliner on a MAN powered Chassis
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- 75th Anniversary Neoplan Tourliner on a 13.8 meter MAN triaxle Chassis
Sincere thanks to the CPT for their kind hospitality, as well as their invaluable advice given to one of the Coach operators that attended the show with me.
John Flin
Managing Director
Coachholidays.com
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