On 21.02.2017 8:05 PM, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Thursday, 9 February 2017 09:25:55 UTC, wrote:
Or did I get the wrong end of the stick? Some brand new 66 plate single
deckers have appeared on the W9 and they're plain old diesel.

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Spud

Err new DD buses in *Central London* have to be hybrids. Single decks have to zero emission in Zone 1. Some other routes further out have gained them but there's no consistent approach. The new buses on the W9 are to euro6 standard so are low emission. The Mayor's policy re the ULEZ means there will be more hybrid double deckers bought new with a massive programme of retrofitting existing fleet vehicles to bring them to either euro6 or euro6 equivalent. There are simply far too many buses with at least 7-10 years service life left for them all to be booted out of the fleet and replaced with new vehicles. There are also two other huge issues - there needs to be an enormous increase in electricity generation if London is to have a lot of electric buses with overnight charging. There is also a development gap in the bus market - there are very few viable hybrid single deck buses and even fewer all electric or hydrogen buses. China seems to have a monopoly on producing electric single deckers (see those on the 507/521) and I don't think that's very healthy. There are some Optare electric buses but their reliability seems dubious. Single deck hybrids have broadly failed in London - several fleets have had short service lives and then been scrapped prematurely. This poses a big problem for TfL hence the current reliance on buying euro6 spec diesel single decks. It will be interesting to see if the bus manufacturers can produce reliable and affordable hybrid / electric single decks in the range of sizes that London's network needs.


It remains a mystery to me why London spends a fortune on hybrid and battery
powered buses (complete with the inefficiency of adding a load of weight in
the form of decidedly environmentally unfriendly batteries to every bus) to
address a problem that in a sane nation would be solved with trolleybuses.