Birmingham Rapide
Seen turning into Oxford Street from Orchard Place on the final stage of its journey down the M1 is Midland Red Coaches’ 501 (C975HOX), an MCW Metroliner DR130/14 that was just two months old at the time of the photograph. A around 100 of these stylish vehicles added a touch of panache to various NBC companies’ coach fleets between 1984-86. Yet their service life with their original owners was brief, 501 being recorded as withdrawn by Midland Red West in 9/90 and sold to an independent company that did not use it. Many ex-NBC Metroliners were later converted to open-top for use as sightseeing buses, one surviving with EnsignBus today. Do any closed-top DR130s remain?
One must reflect on what appears to have been a mere 5-year working life for a premium vehicle. Why? One issue may relate to the fate of MCW. The bus and rail business belonged to the Laird Group. In 1989, Laird decided it didn’t want any further involvement in the sectors, so put MCW up for sale. No buyer wanted to take the business in its entirety, so Laird sold MCW piecemeal. DAF and Optare joined forces to proceed with the Metrobus Mk 3 project; Optare alone gained production rights to the Metrorider midibus; Alstom took over the rail side; Reliant Motors bought the Metrocab taxi rights (a good product, several London cabbies told me). But the various Metroliner coach products were orphans. Thus existing customers were unsure about after-sales backup, and few others took a punt in second-hand Metroliners. That is my theory, unscientifically proven, so I welcome comments from the better informed.
April 1986
Yashica FR-1 camera
Kodak Ektachrome 100 film.
Birmingham Rapide
Seen turning into Oxford Street from Orchard Place on the final stage of its journey down the M1 is Midland Red Coaches’ 501 (C975HOX), an MCW Metroliner DR130/14 that was just two months old at the time of the photograph. A around 100 of these stylish vehicles added a touch of panache to various NBC companies’ coach fleets between 1984-86. Yet their service life with their original owners was brief, 501 being recorded as withdrawn by Midland Red West in 9/90 and sold to an independent company that did not use it. Many ex-NBC Metroliners were later converted to open-top for use as sightseeing buses, one surviving with EnsignBus today. Do any closed-top DR130s remain?
One must reflect on what appears to have been a mere 5-year working life for a premium vehicle. Why? One issue may relate to the fate of MCW. The bus and rail business belonged to the Laird Group. In 1989, Laird decided it didn’t want any further involvement in the sectors, so put MCW up for sale. No buyer wanted to take the business in its entirety, so Laird sold MCW piecemeal. DAF and Optare joined forces to proceed with the Metrobus Mk 3 project; Optare alone gained production rights to the Metrorider midibus; Alstom took over the rail side; Reliant Motors bought the Metrocab taxi rights (a good product, several London cabbies told me). But the various Metroliner coach products were orphans. Thus existing customers were unsure about after-sales backup, and few others took a punt in second-hand Metroliners. That is my theory, unscientifically proven, so I welcome comments from the better informed.
April 1986
Yashica FR-1 camera
Kodak Ektachrome 100 film.