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[email protected] · December 20th 11, 06:21 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article
,
(allantracy) wrote:

I've sometimes wondered why modern tramcar makers don't make double
deckers.

Probably for the same reasons that here in the UK double deck buses
are also in decline.

Bus operators are increasingly turning to longer modern low floor
(floor lowering) single deck buses for their ease of access (mother
and baby), greater safety, better passenger supervision and disabled
friendly features compared to double deckers.

Also in these days of integrated transport consideration of things
like luggage (airport buses) is often required.

There is also no longer the need to accommodate smokers.

But what really swings it for the modern single decker bus is the
extent to which actual seat capacity, falling short of double decker
capacity, can usually be measured in single figures.

Plus, we don't think trams anymore, we think light rail and that means
trains not trams and, as others here have pointed out, that raises the
issue of connecting vehicles together.

I believe Manchester Metro operates some services with six car trains
(with all the ease of access that implies) and it's that kind of
thinking that has brought about the renaissance of the street tramway
into the modern light railway with both on street and off street
running.

That'll be why Stagecoach switched back to double deckers in Cambridge with
50 new ones last year then? Single deckers don't have the capacity for most
Citi services.

--
Colin Rosenstiel