Plaxton President

This is a London Bus City mod.

The Plaxton President is a low floor double-decker bus body built at Northern Counties plant in Wigan, England and branded as a Plaxton product for its main production run. It was unveiled in 1997 and built between 1999 and 2005. When it became part of TransBus International, the body was sold under the TransBus name; strangely never got branded as the Alexander Dennis President after ADL bought Transbus. The President was built on the Dennis/TransBus Trident, the DAF DB250 and the Volvo B7TL chassis. It can be built as either a closed top bus or an open-top bus.

History
Outside London the Presidents are less common, however some operators have built up substantial numbers of them. Lothian Buses were the largest operator of Presidents outside London with approximately 200 purchased from June 1999 to June 2004. Apart from seven examples on Volvo B7TL chassis Lothian's examples are all Dennis Tridents including some high capacity 11m examples. Since 2010 Lothian began withdrawing their earliest model Presidents from frontline service. Some have received an open top conversion for Lothian's sightseeing subsidiaries and others have been sold on for further service with various other bus operators. National Express West Midlands, formerly Travel West Midlands, are the second largest operator of Presidents outside London with 102 examples new from Autumn 1999 to Summer 2000 all of which have Volvo B7TL chassis and were internally refurbished in 2007-08.

Go-Ahead Group companies outside London also have Presidents in substantial numbers. Brighton & Hove have the largest allocation with 36 on Dennis Trident 2 chassis purchased in March/April 2001. This was followed by Go North East who took 15 in November 2001 again on Dennis Trident chassis although 8 of these transferred to Go-Ahead's Oxford Bus Company subsidiary in 2006. Finally Southern Vectis purchased 7 Presidents on Volvo B7TL chassis in September/October 2002, albeit before they were taken over by Go-Ahead.

Stagecoach took over 40 low-height Presidents on Dennis Trident 2 chassis in the early/mid 2000s. These were originally allocated to the Cambus, Manchester and Oxfordshire subsidiaries - although they've since been transferred to other subsidiaries within Stagecoach. They were originally intended to have had Alexander ALX400 bodies - Stagecoach's standard double deck body, but were switched to Presidents due to quicker build times.

East Yorkshire Motor Services are another fairly major President fleet with 36 examples on Volvo B7TL chassis. 30 of these were for the main East Yorkshire fleet with the other 6 for their Finglands subsidiary in Manchester.

Smaller orders include Arriva which purchased 20 on Volvo B7TL chassis for its Arriva Yorkshire subsidiary, the Blazefield Group who took 19, 16 for Burnley & Pendle and three for Yorkshire Coastliner, and independent based operators like Pete's Travel, Mayne Coaches, Blue Bus and Coach Services, Hedingham Omnibuses, North Birmingham Busways and Liverpool Motor Services, all of these companies have since been taken over by larger groups within the British bus industry.

Stats

 * Horsepower:115 bhp
 * Top Speed: 100 mph
 * Mass: 16,464 lbs
 * Durability: Very High

Available Colours

 * Metroline (route 52 day, route 82 night)
 * Sovereign (route 183 day, route 114 night)
 * Metroline TFL (route 43 day, route 134 night)
 * Arriva Felix (route 29 day, route N29 night)
 * First Captial (route 61 day, route 185 night)
 * London Easylink (route 185)
 * First Capital Surf 50th anniversary 1952-2002 (route 27)