One Kowloon Motor Bus-owned Centroliner (fleet number AP69) was forced off a viaduct by a lorry on Tuen Mun Road on 10 July 2003 and was subsequently written off. All of them have been put back into the fleet. However, the actual reason is not clearly known. Some believe that it is caused by the difficulty in maintenance by NWFB, or due to the fleet quota limit set by the Transport Department of Hong Kong. Since 2004, a number of these buses have been suspended from service. They were delivered in 2000 and entered service in 2000/2001.
#Neplan bus verification#
Template:Failed verification New World First Bus File:NWFBNeoplanWthWavyLivery.pngĪ Centroliner of New World First Bus with the standard wavy livery of the companyĪfter KMB put its first 20 Centroliners into service, NWFB announced the order of 30 NEOPLAN Centroliner N4426/3s in October 1999. It has been criticised for its frequent breakdowns and extra difficulty in maintenance and so it has remained as a reserve bus since it entered service. The bus was painted in gold with dark brown skirt, which is the standard livery for other straight-staircase low-floor buses such as TransBus Enviro500 and Wright-bodied Volvo Super Olympian. The width of the bus has increased from Template:Convert to Template:Convert, and is equipped with MAN D2866 LUH-24 straight six engine, four-speed Voith DIWA864.3E transmission, and ventilated disc brakes on all wheels. In May 2003, KMB received a NEOMAN Centroliner N4426/3 (APM1) with MAN A34 chassis and straight staircase. They were the test buses of Eco-driveline (with large differential gear ratio, engine with high low-end torque and six-speed automatic gearbox). The transmission is a modified ZF Ecomat 6HP602C. Two of them (fleet number AP144, AP159) are the world's first two citybuses to be equipped with six-speed automatic transmission.
In 2002, KMB acquired a further 30 Centroliner N4426/3s (AP133-AP162) with MAN Euro 3 engines. KMB's Centroliner (APM1, second generation) One of them (AP131) was repainted in the standard KMB champagne gold livery in 2010. They were coated with special metallic 'flip' paint, which shows different colours (mainly green and purple), depending on the angle of light reflection. In April 2001, KMB acquired two Centroliner N4426/3s (AP131-AP132) which were fitted with MAN D2866 LOH-27 straight six common rail Euro 3 turbodiesel engines, and either a four-speed Voith DIWA864.3E or five-speed ZF Ecomat 5HP602C transmissions. They (AP21-AP130) were allocated to long-distance routes serving North/ Yuen Long/ Tuen Mun Districts. In 2000, KMB received 60 Centroliner N4426/3s, followed by 50 similar buses in 2000/2001. A total of 20 Centroliner N4026/3s (fleet number AP1-AP20), equipped with Cummins M11-305E21 Template:Convert straight six diesel engine and ZF Ecomat 5HP590 five-speed automatic transmission, entered service in August 1999. KMB received the first NEOPLAN Centroliner in September 1998, after the test-drive of the Template:Convert Neoplan Megashuttle in 1997.
A total of 193 NEOPLAN Centroliner double-deckers were introduced to Hong Kong by Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB) and New World First Bus (NWFB). NEOPLAN Centroliner was the third type of German double-decker introduced in Hong Kong (the first being the Mercedes-Benz O305, and the second the MAN 24.350).
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