Probably
one of the more underrated public buses in Singapore - today marks
the last day of the surviving Greek ELBO bodied Scania L113CRL
fleet's lifespan on 27th March 2013 after 17 years of
service.
It had a pretty interesting service history - originally brought in
as non-airconditioned, they were the first zero step entry public
buses in Singapore and were the first in the TIBS fleet to be
fitted with Mobitec flipdot signage. This was due to the lack of an
underfloor airconditioningunit that's present in their Walter
Alexander Strider bodied cousins. Also, they were fitted with
Arianne bucket seats as standard. After that, the fleet had its
windscreens modified to 3 piece, and later converted to
airconditioned buses (CAC) via a roof mounted aircon pod and their
sliding windows locked.
While it was in service, it had problems such as metal fatigue on
the bodyworks (and saw some fronts changed, like TIB842U) and
airconditioning being pretty poor and stuffy, among the
cleanliness and vibration of this type. This eventually resulted in
some of the type being withdrawn from service, and the remaining
fleet continued to be in service; it was refurbished with
repainted/cleaned up interior, new Vogelsitze seats replacing the
bucket seats, airconditioned tuned and fixed up and the sliding
windows replaced with full glass windows (non-tinted) to try to
retain the cool air from the airconditioning system.
They were usually relegated to out-of town services such as 178 and
187. TIB842U is seen here on 187 with a Duple Metsec (UK Dennis
Lance) front destination box and windscreen.
It's
time to bid farewell to this rather unusual yet unique public bus
type in Singapore~
Info from BIS official number one page on Singapore Buses~
