21-473: The East Lancs Greenway , or National Greenway , is a type of bus which is rebuilt by East Lancashire Coachbuilders from a Leyland National single-deck bus. The first Greenway appeared in late 1991. It was conceived by London & Country , which at the time was part of the Drawlane Group, which owned East Lancs . L&C began a co-operative venture with East Lancs. The idea was to give some of
42-571: A result, the East Lancs name - disappearing in favour of Optare. Production of all the original East Lancs bodies by Optare ceased by 2011, and the premises in Blackburn closed on 31 March 2012. East Lancs has had many different styles of bodywork. They had a tradition of using cacography , mostly replacing a letter i with a letter y, which continued until the Esteem and Olympus series. In
63-497: A shallow, plain bumper. The second (and more common) had a two-piece "barrel" curved windscreen with level top, a slatted grille matching the height of the headlights, indicators in the headlight surrounds, and a noticeably chunkier bumper. Both windscreen styles had quarterlights. Two distinct designs of rear end were also fitted. The more common was like the EL2000 rear end, having a high-set rear window. The alternative style, used on
84-472: The Cowie Group , with all orders by British Bus companies for buses bodied by East Lancashire Coachbuilders subsequently cancelled at short notice by Cowie. The company avoided entering administration with both the intervention of Blackburn Member of Parliament Jack Straw as well as chassis manufacturer Dennis Specialist Vehicles supplying ten of their bus chassis for bodying, with payment for buying
105-585: The Leyland Nationals , of which London & Country still had quite a few, a mid-life rebuild. The engineering work was carried out by London & Country at Reigate , then the buses were sent to Blackburn for the replacement bodywork. Soon East Lancs made the project widespread. Many operators were in the same situation as London & Country. Since the Leyland National had an advanced integral structure which generally remained sound, it
126-561: The 1960s and 1980s, eventually being sold to the Drawlane Transport Group (later renamed British Bus ) in 1988. By 1994, the company had expanded into new premises on the Whitebirk Industrial Estate and commenced a programme of development that resulted in a range of single and double deck buses, which was the primary source of income for the company. In August 1996, British Bus was purchased by
147-715: The Darwen Group was based, however it was confirmed in November 2007 that East Lancs would stay in Blackburn with a move to a new manufacturing site on the Walker Business Park. In 2008, Jamesstan Investments, an investment company controlled by the Darwen Group, purchased another bus manufacturer, Optare . Later, in June 2008, a £15.95 million reverse takeover was performed, with the Darwen name - and as
168-585: The Esteem/Olympus body but with MAN's own Lion's City design front and rear. A double decker based on the Kinetec was built called the Kinetec+ ; however, it was a one-off order, and Kinetec buses were phased out with the new acquisition by Darwen Group in 2008. These buses are the last surviving variants of the original low floor series which became part of their own series. The Scania product range used
189-640: The London vehicles, had a rear window at approximately the same height as the original, and a space in the bumper for registration plates. Some had the rear route number box under the window, some had an internal box inside the window. Although commonly known as just the Greenway, the first example appeared for promotional purposes with National Greenway branding. [REDACTED] Media related to East Lancs Greenway at Wikimedia Commons East Lancashire Coachbuilders East Lancashire Coachbuilders Limited
210-597: The Myllennium styling but with Scania own front styling. Whereas the Esteem products used an original front, which developed into a new body entirely. The Scania products were launched in 2004; however, the OmniTown was not as well received as the company hoped and was discontinued after Darwen took over ownership. Both the Esteem and the Olympus (its double decker variant) were launched in 2006. An open top version of
231-473: The Olympus, named East Lancs Visionaire was launched in summer 2007 with Arriva 's The Original Tour . Production of these buses continued under Darwen ownership. British City Bus was the parent company that owned East Lancashire Coachbuilders. The company was dissolved after Darwen Group rescued East Lancs from administration in 2007. East Lancs Overseas was a subsidiary of East Lancashire Coachbuilders in charge of taking orders and exporting buses. It
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#1732786921596252-405: The certification of East Lancs double-decker bodies on Scania chassis intended for London as a result of failing the tilt test ; a package of 17 redundancies followed in November 2006 as a result of overall low turnover. After the purchase, the Darwen Group rebranded the company as Darwen East Lancs. Speculation was raised that bus building could potentially move to Newcastle upon Tyne , where
273-469: The chassis deferred until the buses were bodied and sold to operators. On 17 August 2007, East Lancashire Coachbuilders went into administration, however it would bought out from administration by the Darwen Group the next day. It was claimed by ELCB's sales director John Horn that entering administration was a direct consequence of a changeover to building on Euro IV chassis, as well as a delay in
294-575: The early 1990s, East Lancs developed buses for the low floor market with the style of the body being based on the former East Lancs Pyoneer. In 1999, the buses received a front and interior overhaul with the style of the body being based on the new East Lancs Myllennium that was launched for the Millennium Dome routes. The Kinetec was launched at the Euro Bus Expo 2006. They are designed as low-floor bodies for MAN chassis. They have
315-537: The extensive nature of the rebuilding, vehicles were eligible to retain their original identity, and some did so. However, many operators chose to apply "cherished" registrations (mostly Northern Irish), being reluctant to make it too obvious that what might appear to be a brand new bus, could in fact be anything from nine to 21 years old. The Greenway necessarily retained the basic shape of the Leyland National. The new side windows were of distinctive shape, with square top corners and rounded bottom corners. Plainer panelling
336-428: The incoming vehicles made little or no difference to the finished product, since each vehicle was stripped down to the barest rolling shell, which was repanelled and given new windows, front and rear ends, and a complete new interior. The engine was replaced by a horizontally mounted, reconditioned Gardner 6HLXB engine, which was no longer available in new buses as it was non-compliant with new Euro-regulations. Despite
357-647: Was a manufacturer of bus bodies and carriages founded in 1934 in Blackburn , Lancashire , England . The company went into administration for a short while in August 2007, before being bought by Darwen Group and performed a reverse takeover with Optare when its parent purchased the company in 2008 and its site and business was later closed in 2012. East Lancashire Coachbuilders was first founded by Walter Smith at Brookhouse Mill in Blackburn in 1934. The company would change hands multiple times after Smith's death between
378-520: Was decided that rebuilding was a cost-effective option for them. The project lasted about four years, with the last of the 176 Greenways entering service early in 1996. Another major customer was London General , for the Red Arrow network in Central London . Many different types of National were included in the rebuilding programme: However, apart from the length, these differences between
399-425: Was dissolved after Darwen Group rescued East Lancs from administration in 2007. Darwen North West was a vehicle repair business in Blackburn, England , offering coach refurbishment, repair, maintenance, and conversion services. It was originally a subsidiary of the bus manufacturer, called North West Bus & Coach Repairs which was renamed to Darwen North West after the acquisition of assets by Darwen Group. It
420-467: Was later dissolved in 2013. British Bus British Bus was a bus group in the United Kingdom. It was sold to the Cowie Group in August 1996. British Bus was founded in November 1992 when the Drawlane Transport Group split its bus interests from its National Express in the lead up to the stock market listing of the latter. British Bus' owner had proposed floating the company on
441-476: Was used than on the original National. Most examples were fitted with new doors, with two instead of four leaves. On the roof, the National's familiar "pod", which had housed heating and ventilation equipment, was discarded. Two distinct designs of front end were fitted. The first had two-piece flat windscreens which met at a slight point in the centre, EL2000 -style headlights with separate indicators above, and
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