Scania N113



The Scania N113 was a transverse-engined bus chassis built by Scania AB of Sweden between 1988 and 2000.

Like its predecessor, the N112, the N113 had an 11-litre engine mounted at the rear, coupled to either a Scania or Voith gearbox. It was available as a standard-floor single-decker (designated N113CLB/N113CRB), as a low-floor single-decker (N113CLB-LG/N113CLL/N113CRL), as a double-decker with two or three axles (N113DRB/3-axle N113), and as an articulated bus (N113ALB).

United Kingdom
A total of 641 N113s were sold in the UK, this figure made up of 405 two-axle double-deckers, 194 standard-floor single-deckers and 42 low-floor single-deckers.

The double-deckers were offered with bodywork by Alexander, East Lancs and Northern Counties, while most of the standard-floor single-deckers were bodied by Alexander to their PS and Strider designs, though the Wright Endurance, Plaxton Verde and East Lancs EL2000 were also specified.

London Buses Limited was to be the biggest UK customer for the double-decker, taking 71 between 1989 and 1992 for its London Northern and East London subsidiaries. Of these, 29 were bodied by Alexander, the other 42 by Northern Counties. Brighton & Hove bought 51 between 1989 and 1998, all with East Lancs bodies. Yorkshire Rider, the undertaking of the former bus operations of the West Yorkshire PTE, took 42 in 1990 and 1991 (37 with Alexander bodies and five with Northern Counties bodies), while West Midlands Travel, the former West Midlands PTE undertaking, took 40 with Alexander bodies in 1990.

Nottingham City Transport would buy 23, while Midland Fox took 20, and Kingston upon Hull City Transport and Mayne's of Manchester both bought 16. There were also 13 for Northumbria Motor Services, 12 for Newport Transport, and ten each for Busways Travel Services (the former Tyne and Wear PTE undertaking), Cardiff Bus and Liverline of Liverpool. Other customers included Grey-Green, Borehamwood Travel Services, GM Buses, Midland Red North and Derby City Transport.

Busways was the first UK customer for the standard-floor single-decker in 1989, eventually taking 36, all with Alexander PS bodies. The biggest customer, however, was Yorkshire Rider, which bought 55 with Alexander Strider bodies in 1993 and 1994. Newport took 30 Strider-bodied versions between 1993 and 1997, while GRT Group took 26 with Wright Endurance bodies in 1994/5 for its Midland Bluebird and Lowland Scottish fleets. Cardiff Bus bought 14 with Plaxton Verde bodies in 1992 and a further seven with Strider bodies in 1994, while Nottingham took eight PS-bodied versions in 1990. Among other customers were Yorkshire Traction, Tayside Buses and Stevenson's of Uttoxeter.

Of the 42 low-floor single-deckers, 30 were bought by London Buses Limited in 1994 for trials. These had Wright Pathfinder bodies. The other 12 carried an East Lancs body marketed jointly as the MaxCi, and of these, five went to Clydeside 2000, four to Midland Red North, and one to Tayside.

Replacement
In 1997, Scania introduced its 4-series range of buses, which utilised smaller and cleaner engines in order to comply with Euro2 emission limits. The N113 thus gave way to the low-floor, 9-litre-engined N94. However, N113 double-deckers continued to be sold in the UK until 2000, the last examples being a batch with East Lancs Cityzen bodies built for stock and sold to a variety of small operators. The N94 was eventually introduced to the UK in 2002, in both single-deck and double-deck forms.

For the Hong Kong market, Scania developed the low-floor Scania K94UB6x2/4 double-decker bus, but only one prototype was built.