"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 21 Jul 2013 10:46:31 +0100, Richard
wrote:

On Fri, 19 Jul 2013 13:56:30 +0100, Paul Corfield
wrote:

On Fri, 19 Jul 2013 11:34:48 +0000 (UTC),
wrote:

On Fri, 19 Jul 2013 12:23:00 +0100
Paul Corfield wrote:
On Fri, 19 Jul 2013 10:21:23 +0000 (UTC),
wrote:

On Fri, 19 Jul 2013 10:55:11 +0100
Paul Corfield wrote:
Instead we have buses that resemble saunas on wheels being touted as
the latest best thing ever. I'd love to know how many regular users
of
the 24 have abandoned the route since it was converted to NB4L
operation. Some of the tweets from people using the route have been
far from good reading for TfL / the Mayor.

Is the aircon in these buses faulty or just inadequate for the job?

They don't have air con according to statements from TfL. They have an
air cooling system.

The statement on the Grayson web site calls it air conditioning
(incorrectly?), it certainly felt like it on the NB4L I used recently
where it was working well (if you allow for the bloody big hole in the
back of the bus).

[...]
Full refrigerant based air con, as used on buses in the Far East,
would require an extra axle on the NB4L (based on informed comment
elsewhere). There are thousands of tri-axle double deckers with air
con in service and the majority of UK designs or derived therefrom.
The relief from hot and humid weather in HK / Singapore offered by air
con buses is very nice and I can completely understand why bus
operators there specifiy it.

Is that because (as spud-u-dont-like suggests) they are *so* close to
the limit? As you know, full air con can be found on (new) buses much
closer to home in plenty of northern European cities and the weight is
easily supported on a single decker -- perhaps that's the difference.
I believe there are 2-axle double deckers in the UK with air con...
somewhere.

Well air con on a single deck only has to chill the one deck. There
are some old Darts from HK in service with Stagecoach that have air
con from their time there. I think Citaros are also fitted with a good
air cooling system.

The issue with double deckers is, well, the extra deck and all the
ducting and large refrigerant unit at the rear. HK has just allowed a
waiver to its usual axle load regs to allow two axle full air con
deckers to run. A few are Wright bodied Volvos but most are an updated
design of Alexander Dennis's Enviro 400 double deck. Last time I was
there were only a few in service so not easy to track down. There are
now many more in service but it is still the case that tri-axle
deckers predominate as they offer the right match between capacity and
length for HK's roads.

First Eastern got some of those in the late 90s. Beautiful on a day like
this.

I seem to remember they all had to be taken out of service in October
however... lack of heating... Not sure if that's one of those urban legends
but I was living in Norwich at the time and remember some problem of the
sort!

James