Optare Olympus

History

The Olympus replaced the OmniDekka on Scania chassis (though was still sold alongside the bus until 2011), which is 10.6 or 11.9 metres in length. On Volvo chassis, it replaced the Myllennium Vyking and the Myllennium Nordic. On Alexander Dennis chassis, it replaced the Myllennium Lolyne.

At the beginning of January 2007, Reading Buses ordered six Olympus with Scania chassis for their Loddon Bridge FastTrack park and ride contract to replace Optare Excels. They entered service in a yellow and blue livery in July 2007.

In London, some bus operators purchased Olympus with Scania chassis. Transdev London and Metroline had these buses operating on routes 148, 7, 90 and 297 respectively. Due to problems with the new Transport for London specified air-conditioning units, some buses failed the tilt test by one degree, and entered service late.

Acquisition by Darwen

The first buses to be delivered under the Darwen name were those ordered by Cardiff Bus (one of which was shown at Coach and Bus live 2007) and Arriva Yorkshire.

Reading Buses has numerous examples bodied by Darwen, in addition to a few built by East Lancs before they went into administration.

Reverse takeover by Optare

Following the reverse takeover of Optare by Darwen Group in June 2008, the Olympus was again renamed, becoming the Optare Olympus. London General ordered the Olympus with Alexander Dennis Enviro400 chassis instead of Scania which Metroline and Transdev London had inherited. These buses have since largely been withdrawn, and moved to other Go Ahead operators such as Bluestar, East Yorkshire and Go North East.

Metrobus have 30 buses on Scania N230UD chassis, which were used on London routes 54 and 75.

In 2009, Optare announced that it had designed its own chassis for the Optare Olympus, with a Mercedes-Benz engine, as per previous products. A single prototype integral Olympus, designated the Olympus O1030, was built; this later became the basis for the new Optare MetroDecker and was subsequently launched in 2014.

Open top variant

Main article: Optare Visionaire

An open-top double-decker bus version of the Olympus, named the Visionaire, was also built. Like the Olympus, it was also built on the same chassis.

Gallery

File:A Johnson's Excelbus in Moor Street, Birmingham, on route X20 to Stratford-on-Avon (Scania N230UD).jpg|Excelbus' Olympus with the Scania N230UD chassis File:Pi11kgf (15060395549).jpg|Mortons Travel's Olympus with the Volvo B9TL chassis File:Doe13 (15178023625).jpg|London General's Olympus with the Enviro400 chassis

References

References

1. "Olympus brochure".
2. "Optare product information".
3. Millar, Alan (2007) ''Bus & Coach Recognition'' : Ian Allan Ltd., {{ISBN. 0-7110-3136-3
4. http://www.optare.com/op_idd.htm {{Webarchive. link. (14 January 2012 Optare Integral Specifications)
5. "Bus Lists on the Web".