20 Years Ago

摘要

October 1988 Buses brought news of another product of the rapid change that overtook the bus and coach industry in the wake of deregulation two years earlier. This was the Reeve Burgess Harrier, a midicoach and bus based on the mid-engined Leyland Swift, which turned out to be the last new chassis design to come out of Leyland Bus. As Tony Pattison commented in his review of the Harrier, minibus builders like Reeve Burgess - a Plaxton subsidiary since 1980 - were building ever-larger vehicles. In 1986, 80% of output at its factory in Pilsley, near Chesterfield was of 'bread van' conversions like the Mercedes-Benz L608Ds ordered by the National Bus Company. It expected that to fall to 17% by the end of 1988 as sales of its coachbuilt Beaver body grew.