It is well known that the National Express preference was for a solution which would enable them to continue to specify the Scania with Irizar PB bodywork. They had already pinned much of their promotion around the glamour of that vehicle and had built up a substantial fleet of them. However it proved impossible to achieve the National Express requirement on the PB without major structural alteration of the design of that body.

National Express were getting very worried, it was already deep into 2004. They had already interrupted their normal vehicle replacement programme because of the non-availability of a solution and here they were approaching D-Day and no nearer achieving that solution. What they didn’t realise was that there was someone beavering away in the background determined to find a solution. That man was Richard Hunter of Salvador Caetano. With little support from his company Richard persevered. He believed that the new Winner body being produced by Caetano, though not for the UK, could be adapted with a new front end which would allow a wheelchair lift to be fitted in the entrance. 

I well remember Denis Wormwell, who was then running National Express coaches, telling me of his surprise when he got a phone call in the autumn of 2004 from a chap called Richard Hunter, of whom he knew nothing, from a company which he knew little about, saying he had the solution to their problem. He invited Richard to come and see him and the rest is, as they say, history. Richard presented the National Express board with the Levante concept and they went for it. One of the factors influencing this decision was that whilst not quite as glamorous in externally styling as the Irizar PB the Levante is not that disimilar and does not look like any other coach on the road – something National express were very keen on. That exclusivity remains you cannot buy a Levante except as part of a contract for operating a National Express service.

The key to the success of the Levante lay in three elements. The ability of Caetano to produce a front entrance meeting the lift requirements and retain DDA, the NX Magic Lift produced by PLS and the Rotating Rips seats produced by NMI.

Rob Orchard

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