Optare Versa V970

[Quackdave]

RE: Optare Versa V970

(13/09/2016 21:57)Pocket Dart Wrote:  I'm not sure if this has been noticed by any other members of the forum, but I think the only customer for the Optare Versa V970 (as far as I'm aware the smallest-sized Versa available) so far has been TfGM for their green bus and Metroshuttle contracts.

So, does anybody know if there are any other operators of this size of Versa anywhere else in the UK, or if this was a model produced exclusively for TfGM by Optare? Was there a specific reason for TfGM choosing the V970? If an operator wished to place an order for V970 Versas of their own today, they would be able to?
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Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, or if these questions seem trivial.

Seems interesting enough to me. There's possibly an argument that it belongs in the "Buses and their bits" section of the forum, but equally you could argue that it's primarily about the TfGM Ecobuses, and therefore fine where it is!

There was a 9.7m (non-hybrid) 07-registered demonstrator built right at the beginning of production. I'm not aware of any others.

Optare's website says that the Versa is available in "9.7 - 11.7m length", so one assumes that they're generally available if anyone wanted to buy them. I can't think of any reason why either Optare or TfGM would want to make their availability exclusive to the latter.