Dennis Dart SLF

Photographs are sorted into the following entries:
Hong Kong
Citybus Dart SLFs (3 pages)
Interior details of a Citybus Dart SLF (2 pages)
Discovery Bay Transit Services Limited Dart SLFs (2 pages)
Kowloon Motor Bus Dart SLFs (3 pages)
Kowloon Motor Bus Ex-New World First Bus 10.7m Dart SLFs (1 page)
New Lantao Bus Dart SLFs (1 page)
Interior details of a New World First Bus 10.1m Dart SLF (2 pages)
NWFB Dart SLF celebrating 1st anniversary (1 page)
NWFB Dart SLF Mobile Customer Service Centre (1 page)
New World First Bus 10.7m Dart SLFs (6 pages)
New World First Bus 10.1m Dart SLFs (8 pages)
Park Island Transport Company Limited Dart SLFs (3 pages)

Macau
Transmac SARL Dart SLFs (10 pages)

Malta
Paramount Garage East Lancashire bodied Dart SLFs (1 page)
Paramount Garage Plaxton Pointer bodied Dart SLFs (1 page)

New Zealand
Redbus Limited Dart SLFs (2 pages)
Ritchies Coachlines Dart SLFs (1 page)

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The Dart SLF is the super low floor variant of the Dart. It was developed in mid-1990s. It has become the best seller in buses of that class. Such buses can be found in United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Hong Kong and many other places.

Citybus was the first operator in Hong Kong having Dart SLFs. They have bought a total of 15 buses (1422-1436). They entered service in 1997. These buses were 10.6m long with two doors. All of these buses have been serving in Stagecoach Plc. in Britain. The buses were claimed to have mediocre performance in climbing hills on Hong Kong Island. Due to hard wearing on slopes on Hong Kong Island, some of the buses have ultra low floor, such that the front overhang may scratch the ground if they go up a slope.

From my experience, the buses were powerful and the seats were comfortable. However, the corrosion resistance treatment seemed not very well and the engine noise was loud.

In 1997, Kowloon Motor Bus acquired 12 Dart SLFs (AA49-AA60) in their fleet. There are two wheelchair parking spaces inside each bus. They are 9.8m long with single entrance/exit. in 2002, six of them were transferred to Park Island Transport Company Limited, which was another subsidiary of Kowloon Motor Bus Holdings, and refurbished. These buses are deployed on routes linking a new private housing estate and the nearest MTR Station. These buses have been withdrawn. In 2003, eight more 11.3m long Dart SLFs are purchased by Park Island. 5 of them have entered service by May 2004.

In 1998, New Lantau Bus acquired three Dart SLFs for airport service, as to meet the low floor airport bus requirement issued by the Transport Department. However, the tough road condition on Tung Chung road has made these buses wear too much. They have undergone thorough repair and were then usually deployed on South Lantau routes, sometimes on the operator's only daytime airport route A35. They are now scheduled buses in Tung Chung routes.

When New World First Bus was founded in 1998, 43 10.7m long and 34 10.1m long dual-doored Dart SLFs were purchased in batches. most of the 10.7m buses have typical British specification of morgue seats with headrests and have double-glazed windows. They were initally ordered by First Group in early 1998 for consumption in the United Kingdom, but they were allocated to NWFB for a high air-conditionisation of the fleet. A number of these Darts have been shipped back to Britain. 10 of them were sold to Kowloon Motor Bus in 2003.

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Page created: 11 July 1999

Last updated: 22 January 2012