The Neoplan N4016 was a low-floorsingle-decker bus built by Neoplan between 1988 and 1999, initially at Stuttgart in Germany and later also in Poland. It is the larger version of the Neoplan N4009midibus. The N4016 is remembered for being the first low-entry single-decker bus sold in the United Kingdom. In Belarus, Minsk Automobile Plant took contacts with Neoplan in order to produce the, a low-floor bus closely related to the Neoplan N4016. While the MAZ-101 sold poorly, subsequent variants have been sold to a vast amount of Belarusian, Russian and foreign operators and are still in production today.
Specifications
The N4016 was 12m long and 2.5m wide, and is powered by a MAN or DAF engine with Voith or ZF Friedrichshafen transmission. The N4016 typically seated 31 or 39 with a large standing capacity. Some interesting features that it has a double-curvature windscreen, a separately mounted destination sign and a rounded roof dome that is more rounded than the existing Centroliner that is slightly different from the existing Centroliner.
Only twelve N4016s were sold in the United Kingdom. They were bought by the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive in 1994 for use on Merseytravel SMART services in Liverpool, and were operated byMTL. They later passed to MTL for use on other services, primarily between Liverpool and Croxteth Park. MTL's successor Arriva North West & Wales continued to operate them until late 2008, also between Liverpool and Croxteth Park, when they were replaced by Wright Pulsars. Two examples survived until early 2009, and were also replaced by Wright Pulsars. Rumours suggested that the Neoplans could have gone toArriva Southend in 2009, however this never occurred, and instead the majority of the Neoplan fleet was scrapped. Three N4016s found their way into further service with Tanat Valley Coaches in mid Wales. After the loss of a contract, Tanat Valley placed their N4016s up for sale and they were sold, however their location is currently unknown.
Europe
-based bus operator, OAS, purchased 93 Neoplan N4016s in 1994. All of them were retired in 2009. Poznań-based tram and bus operator, Miejskie Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacyjne w Poznaniu, purchased 32 Neoplan N4016s between 1996 and 1999. The last Neoplan N4016s were withdrawn in 2014.
