Manufacturer DAF Bus/VDL Bus Doors 1 or 2 door Engine Cummins B-series/ISBe | Production 2001–present Floor type Low floor
Low entry Length 12000mm (12m) | |
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The VDL SB200 (previously known as the DAF SB200) is a light-weight 12m low floor single decker bus chassis produced from 2001 by VDL Bus International (formerly DAF Bus International). It replaced the SB220, the longest of the DAF bus chassis in the UK before the renaming of DAF Bus International.
It is originally designed for use by Arriva (VDL dealer in the UK) in order to save fuel over heavy-weight citybuses which are designed for Continental Europe where buses carry large numbers of standing passengers, whereas in the UK they do not.
The SB200 sells very well in VDL's home market, the Netherlands mainly using VDL Berkhof type Ambassador and Citea LLE bodywork. They are operated by all large transport companies in the Netherlands, Connexxion (including Hermes), Veolia Transport and Arriva. Arriva also uses SB200 with Wright bodywork.
In the UK sales have been slow, not helped by the increased success that Volvo and Scania are having with heavy-weight citybuses. Apart from Arriva other notable users include Claribels in Birmingham (which took the first bus) and Fishwick of Leyland. Initially the SB200 built for the UK was only available with Wright Commander bodywork, but from 2006, it has been available with the now discontinued Plaxton Centro (the first of these examples went to Fishwick) or Wright Pulsar (successor of the Wright Commander) bodywork, succeeded in late 2009 by the facelifted Wright Pulsar 2.
One MCV eVolution-bodied SB200 exists, a 2012-built former Arriva Bus & Coach (dealer) static demonstrator, which in 2014 was road registered as YJ14CCV and put into service with Richards Bros of Cardigan, Wales. It remains a unique one-off bus because no actual orders were placed. Coincidentally 2014 was the same year that the SB200 stopped being available on the UK market as a new build (with Wright Pulsar 2 bodywork).