富豪奧林比安 Volvo Olympian

富豪奧林比安 Volvo Olympian

雙層巴士在新加坡歷史，最早可追溯至五十年代，一九五三年一架A.E.C Regent III由吉隆坡開到新加坡作示範行走兩個多星期，但這次試驗之後，再未有雙層巴士開到新加坡。直到一九七七年六月十三日，新加坡巴士有限公司將首批二十架雙層巴士，利蘭Atlantean投放到86路線行走，而自此之後，合計五百架Atlantean由新加坡巴士購入，正式開展了雙層巴士服務新加坡的日子。在八十年代初，先後有多輛雙層巴士樣板車運到新加坡，供新加坡巴士試用，希望得到可觀的訂單。最後除了平治能夠成功吸引新加坡巴士訂購二百架O305，就只有利蘭的二百架利奧林比安，這亦構成了引進雙層空調巴士前，新加坡巴士的雙層巴士車隊陣容，當中可以見到，利蘭佔了一個極大比重。

一九九三年，透過引入十二米三軸版利蘭奧林比安，新加坡巴士成功地在新加坡推廣雙層空調巴士服務。不過在更新車隊時候，新加坡巴士除了向收購了利蘭的富豪訂購十二米奧林比安空調巴士，同時訂購了一百架非空調版奧林比安。跟昔日利蘭奧林比安一樣，這批奧林比安同樣為最長的兩軸版本，全長十點五米，並由亞歷山大提供車身。出現於富豪奧林比安上的改良版本Royale車身，跟空調版「Super Bus」共用頭幅組件，換句說上下層的擋風玻璃是一幅過，但對車長及上層前座乘客，在新加坡的炎熱天氣環境下，未能提供流暢的通風效果。而機械配搭方面，新加坡巴士傾向盡量採用原廠提供的引擎，這批富豪奧林比安亦沒有例外，而波箱則採用福伊特產品。

自這批富豪奧林比安投入服務後，新加坡巴士再沒有訂購任何非空調巴士，換句話說，這批富豪奧林比安是新加坡巴士以及後來新捷運中，最後的非空調巴士。二零零零年，新加坡巴士把兩架富豪奧林比安出售到英國，期望能夠為這批最後非空調巴士尋找新的出路，但最終亦只有這兩架奧林比安被出售到英國。另外一架奧林比安則被捐贈到一間學校作學生休息室。這批新加坡最後的非空調巴士目前主要在文禮一帶服役，而且在不久的將來，將會由全新的空調巴士所取代，而在它們全面退役後，新捷運不論單層還是雙層巴士，長度均不少於十二米。

The history of double decker bus in Singapore started in 1950s when a A.E.C Regent III from Kuala Lumpur used as demonstration in 1953. However, no more double decker was seen in Singapore until 1977. The first route of Singapore Bus Service served with double decker was launched on 13, Jun., 1977 with a fleet of 20 Leyland Atlantean. Afterwards, 500 Leyland Atlantean were acquired between 1980 and 1986 and started the era of double decker in Singapore. To go one step further, several double decker demonstrators were sent to Singapore for evaluation. Among these demonstrators, only Mercedes Benz O305 and Leyland Olympian were successfully gained order from SBS. Before the introduction of air-conditioned double decker, these models formed the double decker fleet with a large proportion shared by Leyland.

In 1993 we saw SBS successfully launched the air-conditioned double decker service with "Super Bus", the Leyland Olympian 3-axle. When Leyland was taken over by Volvo, Volvo still supplied the "Super Bus" to SBS with the revised version of Olympian started from 1994. At the same time, SBS also placed an order for 100 convention Olympian and this was considered as the last convention bus order. The Volvo Olympian is the longest version of 2-axle series with 10.5m in length and fitted with Walter Alexander bodywork as the Leyland Olympian. The version of bodywork fitted on Volvo Olympian was Royale featured with one-piece, wrap-round screens at the front as the "Super Bus". It would not a good experience for bus captain and the passengers at the upper front under the tropical climate in Singapore. All Volvo Olympians are powered by Volvo TD102KF engine with Voith gearbox.

Two Volvo Olympian were sold to UK in 2000 as SBS would like to find the new way for them. Instead of these two Olympians, only one was donated to a school as student lounge. The remaining Volvo Olympians mainly served in Boon Lay at present and expected to be withdrawn by the end of 2013. After their retirement, all buses in SBS Transit are 12m in length.

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