Talk:Alexander Dennis Enviro500 (Batch 1)

Demonstrator bus

I would like to enquire why SMB5001A and SMB5002Y are considered "demonstrator buses" for this model.

Firstly, "demonstrator buses", in a traditional sense, is a singular bus per model created for the operator to evaluate how effective the model is for everyday service, or to test out new technology. After the trial period, operators will then decide whether or not to set up a contract to buy that particular model in bulk. However, SMB5001A and SMB5002Y were never officially tried in revenue service before. Furthermore, they were not even the first buses to enter revenue service. Hence, it is incorrect to call them "demonstrator buses", as they were not used for evaluative purposes.

Secondly, the term "production prototype" would be more accurate as they were assembled in the UK as assembly reference models, with the rest of the buses of this model taking reference from these 2 buses that were built first. As such, they are merely "production prototypes", used as references for the assembly of this model.

Hence, I feel that it only makes sense to classify SMB5001A and SMB5002Y as "production batch", rather than "demonstrator bus" because they were never used for the purposes of a "demonstrator bus".

LTA Bus irrationalisation