The 30ft midibus will run on MARTA’s circulator and connector routes and is expected to be in service for over 20 hours per day, seven days a week. Alexander Dennis and MARTA collaborated closely in the preparation of this joint trial and the manufacturer built the Enviro200 to the agency’s specification to enable its performance to be fully verified.
While there are a handful of 30ft buses in MARTA’s current fleet, it mainly consists of more than 600 40ft heavy-duty transit buses, and the agency needs a future fleet of more smaller buses.
The Alexander Dennis Enviro200 is manufactured in Indiana and is fully Buy America compliant and Altoona-tested. The fuel efficient, lightweight construction is the world’s favourite midibus with close to 20,000 produced globally, and is already in service with many US transit agencies from Charleston, South Carolina to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Omaha, Nebraska and Manchester, New Hampshire.
During the six-month trial, MARTA will benefit from comprehensive manufacturer support through the Alexander Dennis aftermarket organisation as well as the wider NFI Group. NFI acquired Alexander Dennis in May 2019 to form a global independent bus and coach manufacturer that supports 105,000 vehicles and leads the North American transit bus market.
Ollie Nielsen, Sales Director Eastern Region at Alexander Dennis Inc., comments: “We have worked with MARTA in the past on double decker verification and ridership acceptance, and we are delighted to continue this strong collaboration with this comprehensive trial of our Enviro200 midibus. The Enviro200 is a robust yet efficient and maneuverable solution for transit services that comes with the reassurance of 12-year Altoona testing and the full support of the market-leading NFI Group.”
