Optare Alero buses that are still in service.

[stadler]

Are there any Optare Alero buses still in service? Or is my presumption correct that they are all gone?

This bus was so short lived. I remember there was a brief period when a lot of operators had them and they were fairly common and then they just dissappeared. They seemed to last for about five years and then just dissappeared everywhere.

Handcross District Community Bus had one (YN03 ZWJ) for use on their rural routes in the Handcross and Balcombe areas. Rye District Community Bus had one (YR02 YTG) for use on their 326 in the Rye area. These were the last two that i went on. They both got rid of theirs in the late 2000s around 2007 or 2008 and i have never found one again.

I thought it would have been more popular. I believe the Optare Alero was the first (or at least one of the first) low floor breadvan to be built. These days the low floor Mercedes Benz EVM breadvans have become extremely popular. Maybe it was just too early for its time. Perhaps if the Optare Alero was built today then it would be more popular.

Does anyone know of any Optare Alero buses that are still in service somewhere? Or have any even been preserved?

 

[Dwarfer1979]

Even Optare admitted they weren't originally designed for regular bus work, the concept was a better standard of community transport vehicle but it was really too expensive to attract those buyers in any volume, so when they were deployed on regular bus work their reliability struggled - later models had a larger and uprated engine which may have been a reflection of where the sales were in practice rather than were they were originally aiming at but by then the reputation for fragility meant that it could never build a market. It was also slightly smaller than the EVM Sprinters are now, the Alero was 14-16 seats whilst the EVMS are 16-18 seats (and other Sprinter models slightly larger still) which limited its appeal for general bus work. Also, in comparison to the modern Sprinters, DRT was a much more niche product which is work that a lot of the smaller EVM Sprinters are bought for meaning demand in that sector was not as high and step-entrance minibuses were still on the market and older models were still widely used in service so that other niche wasn't yet open and as an integral bus not based on a minibus it was more expensive and less mainstream than a low-floor Sprinter is.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Are there any Optare Alero buses still in service? Or is my presumption correct that they are all gone?

This bus was so short lived. I remember there was a brief period when a lot of operators had them and they were fairly common and then they just dissappeared. They seemed to last for about five years and then just dissappeared everywhere.

Handcross District Community Bus had one (YN03 ZWJ) for use on their rural routes in the Handcross and Balcombe areas. Rye District Community Bus had one (YR02 YTG) for use on their 326 in the Rye area. These were the last two that i went on. They both got rid of theirs in the late 2000s around 2007 or 2008 and i have never found one again.

I thought it would have been more popular. I believe the Optare Alero was the first (or at least one of the first) low floor breadvan to be built. These days the low floor Mercedes Benz EVM breadvans have become extremely popular. Maybe it was just too early for its time. Perhaps if the Optare Alero was built today then it would be more popular.

Does anyone know of any Optare Alero buses that are still in service somewhere? Or have any even been preserved?

As @Dwarfer1979 said, they were a rather expensive solution for welfare buses, and not really robust enough for more intensive stage carriage. As a result, they were quite unreliable and that becomes quite tiring for operators.

The only examples that might be around to my mind are Roy Brown Coaches of Builth Wells. They had one that they used on the Brecon to Llandovery service. My better half's mum lived in Llandovery and I remember seeing it in service, and then seeing it as we headed into Builth (Christmas 2016?) parked at their graveyard - the google car seems to have photographed it and another yellow one in 2015.

Given what that place is like, one might be hidden there?

 

[Murray J]

Judging by a quick look on flickr (and some existing knowledge), Cumfybus in Liverpool were one of if not the last operator of them, they still had at least 1 running in service in December 2021. I don't think any are still in service anywhere in the UK but my guess would be they haven't seen service since 2022.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Minibuses Isle of Man have one still.

It's very...well, see what you think.

Limo Bus - Minibuses IOM

minibuses.im

 

[M60lad]

While not in service I think there still a few Optare Alero's still about in various different uses.

 

[Teds]

I was surprised to see one on the road recently - it appeared to be in use a small motorhome.