Manufacturer Northern Counties Floor type Step entrance | Doors 1 or 2 doors Transmission Voith or ZF | |
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Chassis Leyland Olympian, Volvo Citybus, Volvo Olympian, DAF DB250, Scania N113 Engine Cummins & Gardner (Leyland Olympian)
Volvo (Volvo Citybus and Volvo Olympian)
DAF (DAF DB250)
Scania (Scania N113) | ||
The Northern Counties Palatine is a step-entrance 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus body built by Northern Counties of Wigan, UK. It was built mainly on Leyland Olympian and Volvo Olympian chassis, although some were also built on DAF, Volvo B10M Citybus and Scania chassis. Two variants existed, the Palatine I (known as "Palatine" before 1992) which had a flatter windscreen, and the Palatine II (launched in 1993) which had a curved windscreen with an arched top resembling that of the single-decker Northern Counties Paladin.
MTL were a notable buyer, a batch of high-specification Palatine IIs entered service in 1996 on the 'Cross River' services through the Mersey Tunnels. Another batch of 22, branded as 'The Millennium Fleet' began operating on Merseyside in 1998.
Tri-axle Volvo Olympians with Northern Counties Palatine bodies were exported to Hong Kong. Between 1996 and 1998, Citybus received 55 and Kowloon and Canton Railway Corporation received 15.
Some Northern Counties Palatine buses were built as open-top buses for sightseeing purposes.
It was superseded by the Plaxton President body.