Volvo B9TL - United Kingdom

United Kingdom

In tri-axle form, the B9TL made its debut in Britain when Weavaway Travel of Newbury placed an order for 6 B9TL with East Lancs "Myllennium" Nordic bodywork in late 2004 and put them into service in April/May 2005, becoming the first UK operator of the type. Since then, 2 more were sold to Roadliner of Poole and Provence Private Hire of St Albans for school contracts and commercial work.

The 2-axle Volvo B9TL did not make its debut in Britain until the middle of 2006. The first demonstrator, with Wright Eclipse Gemini body, was delivered to London General (part of the Go-Ahead Group) in July 2006 for evaluation, it is used on route 11 along with the current Wright-bodied Volvo B7TL. The first order was secured from Delaine for 2 examples with the new East Lancs Olympus bodywork. The first one, along with an Alexander Dennis Enviro400-bodied version, were unveiled in "Euro Bus Expo" show in November 2006.

Initial sales of the 2-axle version had been slow in Britain, particularly in London, after falling foul with the noise and capacity requirements imposed by Transport for London. Otherwise, the B9TL managed greater success - notably with Lothian Buses ordering 50 examples for delivery in 2007 and then 50 more in 2008 and 75 more in 2009, First with 453 for use in its UK operations (for delivery in 2007-10), and Ulsterbus of Northern Ireland, with 125. The first order from Arriva was 10 buses with East Lancs Visionaire bodywork for The Original Tour, followed by an order for 16 buses with Darwen Olympus bodywork in high specification featuring leather seats for Arriva Yorkshire entering service between January and May 2008. Other notable customers include East Yorkshire Motor Services, Highland Scottish, Yorkshire Coastliner and Flights Hallmark.

In Northern Ireland, Translink purchased 125 Volvo B9TLs, all bodied by Wrightbus.