A pair of Optare Tempos recently acquired by Konectbus Limited are operating on a new service linking a large new housing development on the west of Norwich with the city centre.

The Dereham company, which is one of the largest operators of Tempos with nine now in its 33-strong fleet, says that the model is ideally suited to its new high-frequency route 5. The service is fully commercially operated and runs every 20 minutes Monday to Saturday with a half hour frequency on Sundays. It links the Queen’s Hills housing development and nearby Longwater Retail Park with the city centre along the Dereham Road.

“Our Tempos are 42-seaters with a total capacity of 72 with standees, so are able to cope easily with peak demand,” says Konectbus director Julian Patterson. “They’re also a very passenger-friendly bus with good access, a light and airy feel to the interior, and a comfortable ride. The provision of high quality, reliable public transport is the way to get people out of their cars and onto the bus and we feel our Tempos help to provide this.

“Our experience with Tempo has been very good since we took our first into service almost two years ago. Some of these have now clocked-up in excess of 100,000 miles with no major problems. Tempo is now the standard heavy-duty, single-deck model in our fleet, bringing numerous benefits.

“Not least is that our fitters are now very familiar with the model and we have developed a good rapport with the team at Unitec that enables us to resolve any problems quickly and effectively. Parts are readily available through Unitec and we use their on-line parts search system to quickly identify parts and their correct numbers before we place an order.

“Our drivers like them too, finding them light and easy to drive, with good visibility, plenty of power, a smooth transmission, and a spacious and comfortable driving compartment.”

All nine Tempos are 12 metres long with Mercedes-Benz 906La engines. The first seven to go into service have Allison T310R automatic transmissions and the most recent pair have ZF6HP500 gearboxes with integral retarder.

Like all buses in the Konectbus fleet, the Tempos are fitted with GPS to allow the traffic office to determine their location at any given time. They also have Mobitec LED destination equipment fitted to the front, nearside and rear. Seats are Esteban VO with integral grab handles and trimmed in a colourful blue and yellow moquette, which Konectbus uses as standard, with seat covers being interchangeable for quick repair.

In just eight years Konectbus has really made its presence felt on the public transport scene in Norwich and Breckland. It has developed an extensive network of rural and urban services, both commercially run and with local authority support, centred on the towns of Dereham, Swaffham and Watton, along with the City of Norwich, where two park and ride services are operated. The company is a well-established user of Optare products, with 27 in its fleet including Excels, Deltas, Solos and Tempos.

For further information please contact:
Martin Hayes, Communications Advisor, +44 (0) 207 494 8050