The Dennis Dart was conceived when Hestair Group decided to produce a bus between a minibus and a full-sized single-decker. It was launched in 1988 and was originally offered with the Duple Dartline bodywork. It was 2.3m wide and was initially available in the length of 9.0m, but later available in lengths of 8.5m and 9.8m. It was powered by a Cummins 6BT engine and coupled to the Allison AT545 gearbox. This model was sold to London Regional Transport and to some operators outside London. Soon after it was launched, Duple was sold to Plaxton and the Blackpool plant closed. Plaxton decided not to acquire the design rights of the Duple Dartline and it was sold to Carlyle Works, who continued producing the bodywork from 1991. Production passed to Marshall of Cambridge in 1992 who bodied five Darts to this design. In 1993, Marshall updated the design to the C36 and later, the C37. In 1990, Wadham Stringer became the next builder to body the Dart with a body called the Portsdown, but it was sold in small numbers and replaced by the UVG Urbanstar in 1995. In the same year, Wright bodied the Dart with the Handybus. In early 1991, Plaxton launched the Pointer. Later in 1991, East Lancs bodied the Dart with its EL2000. In the latter half of 1991, Alexander launched the Dash. Another contender entering the market at the same time was the Northern Counties Paladin. Initially, it was built with a design of a barrel shaped windscreen with quarterlights, later models had a deep double-curvature two-piece windscreen. It was phased out when Plaxton bought Northern Counties in 1995. Dennis Dart 9SDL Carlyle prototype “Ecobus” in Bitterne in August 1995 In 1993, Southampton Citybus purchased 16 Dart 9SDL buses adapted to use natural gas, the cylinders being mounted in a pod on the roof. As the low-floor single-decker buses became more popular in late 1990s, orders for standard-floor Dart dropped heavily and production ceased in 1998, with the final five delivered to Jersey Motor Transport. A total of 3,470 first generation Darts were produced.
Second generation (Dart SLF)
In 1996, Dennis launched a low-floor version of the Dart known as the Dart SLF, with the letters SLF standing for Super Low Floor in reference to the new low-floor design. It was 2.4m wide and initially offered in lengths of 9.2m, 10m and 10.6m, with air suspension introduced in place of the taper leaf used in the original design. The driveline of the step-entrance Dart was retained, although some early examples were fitted with Eaton manual transmission. It was initially offered with the low floor version of the Pointer bodywork, replaced by the updated Pointer 2 in 1997. It was also offered with a wide variety of bodies, namely the East Lancs Spryte, UVG Urbanstar, the Wright Crusader, Alexander ALX200, Marshall Capital, Caetano Nimbus and MCV Evolution. With the move to Euro III emissions in October 2001, the new Cummins ISBe engine was launched, with the 4-cylinder 3.9-litre model being used in all lengths except the 11.3m version, which uses the more powerful 6-cylinder, 5.9-litre version. The Cummins ISBe Euro IV engine became available on the Dart SLF chassis since late 2006. In 2007 the Dennis Dart SLF was superseded by the Alexander Dennis Enviro200. The last Alexander Dennis Dart SLF was delivered to Park Island Transport of Hong Kong in March 2008. A total of 9,191 Dart SLFs were produced, making it one of the most successful buses of all time. Cardiff Bus for instance was one operator that took order to many of low floor Dennis Darts and a few high-floor examples. These were numbered 23-28, then 301-320, 361-399, 144-199, and 211-244. In 2015, S302 SHB was preserved as one of the first low-floor Darts preserved and goes to many rallies.
Dart SPD
In 1997, the Dart SPD was launched with a length of 11.3m, typically seating 40 to 44 passengers. The Dart SPD was launched to compete with full-size buses such as the Volvo B10BLE and Scania L94UB, while retaining the more lightweight construction of the basic Dart SLF. The Dart SPD has a more powerful engine and a more heavy duty Allison World Series B300R gearbox than the Dart SLF, but also with an option of a Voith gearbox. Originally offered only with Plaxton Pointer 2 bodywork, this larger bus was later offered with other bodywork such as the East Lancs Myllennium, the Alexander ALX200 and a few have also been bodied by Marshall. At least 230 Dart SPDs were produced.
Dart MPD
In 1998, the Dart MPD was launched. At 8.8m long, the Dart MPD was a model reminiscent of the original 8.5m Darts; it was launched to compete with newly emerging shorter midibuses such as the Optare Solo. The Dart MPD typically seated 23 to 29 passengers, and was available in both provincial and London specifications. As with the Dart SPD, the MPD was launched initially with only the Plaxton Pointer 2 bodywork, although other bodies became available later on.
Narrow width Dart SLF
In 2002, TransBus launched a narrower-width variant of the Dart SLF at the request of bus operators in the Channel Islands of Guernsey and then Jersey, who replaced the majority of their fleets with slightly narrower Darts designed to comply with the islands' vehicle size restrictions, sporting adapted versions of existing East Lancs Myllennium and Caetano Nimbus bodies respectively. Further examples have since joined them and small numbers of similar buses have entered service with other operators around the UK. Gibraltar also has a fleet of these narrower buses. The last ones entered service in summer 2007 in Gibraltar.
Thomas-Dennis Dart SLF 200
The Dennis Dart SLF, with Alexander ALX200 bodywork, was constructed in the United States for the North American market by Thomas Built Buses, being sold as the Thomas-Dennis Dart SLF 200 in reference to both the chassis and bodywork.
In Singapore, Singapore Bus Service purchased 10 Duple Metsec bodied Darts in 1994 for smaller routes. All the buses were retired in 2010 and replaced by Volvo B10Ms. Several private operators uses Dennis Darts, those are being scrapped by 2019.
Gallery
Earlier front-engined Dart
The Dart name was originally applied to a front-engined single-decker bus chassis produced by Dennis between 1978 and 1980. However, the front-engined Dart remained unsuccessful, with only two examples produced, both with Marshall bodywork. The first was built for the Iraqi University and exported to Baghdad in 1978; the second was produced for the West Midlands Fire Service as a mobile command centre in 1980.
