E-Leather takes off
Coach
Despite its attributes, the fact is that E-Leather has been relatively slow to take a hold in the coach market, though this is now changing.
There have been a number of coach users, among the first being Adrian Morton of Mortons of Tadley, Basingstoke who took two Bovas trimmed in E-Leather more than two years ago. Another application was a batch of 22 former Stagecoach Neoplan Skyliners, that Dawsonrentals had retrimmed in E-Leather before they joined second owners. More recently, Barnes Coaches have also specified it.
Van Hool’s own seats trimmed in E-Leather in the interior of one of a pair of TX16 Alicrons for Chalfont Coaches
At Coach & Bus Live this year, visitors were able to inspect one of two of MAN powered Van Hool TX16 Alicrons that are trimmed throughout in two tone grey E-Leather. Advantages in this application are a weight saving compared with leather (up to 60kg on a bus) and the ability to stand up to contact with sunlight very well. Carl told me that if you have to change the odd seat cover after some years because of vandalism, you can barely tell the difference.
A further boost is the announcement by EvoBus that the new Euro6 generation of Mercedes-Benz Tourismos including the tri-axle Tourismo M 16-RHD can have E-Leather seat trim specified as an option.
There are a number of things that can be done to personalise a coach trimmed in E-Leather that cannot be done using other materials. An example I have seen was on an Irizar i6 belonging to Greys of Ely. They had the pictogram reminding passengers to fasten their seatbelts embossed into the E-Leather trim on the rear of each seat, which ensures that the sign is always there and also avoids having to have the unsightly stickers on yours windows where they can be peeled off by children.
Greys of Ely have had seat belt emblems embossed on the rear of headrests
As on the buses, another option and one that can be done in a variety of ways is the embroidering of names, logos or other devices on to the headrest, something that really adds distinctiveness to an interior.
There is a standard colour palette of 12 colours, but if you are buying in very large quantities, as First does, you can have a special colour developed specifically for your use. Reference SL2-2098 Brown 045 is the equivalent of Balmedie Brown in leather and First have purchased 35,000 square metres of it in the last 18 months. This has been split roughly 50/50 between new and refurbished buses.