On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 19:00:46 +0100, Paul Corfield
wrote:

In another place a MD of one company that uses bendy buses in London
said very clearly that they had big advantages compared to say Hong Kong
style 12m double decks. One of big issues was over dwell time at stops -
particularly in busy places like Oxford Street where bus stop capacity /
occupancy is a key issue. While I understand the point he made I am not
100% convinced as big buses work in Hong Kong although given the very
high frequencies it is not uncommon to have for buses to queue to get
onto a stop.

The dwell-time problem is very obvious on a route like the 42 in
Manchester. Stagecoach operate (or did operate, they may now have
gone to Megabus) some very large ex-Hong Kong double-deckers on their
Magic Bus services. These were single-doored (not only that, but the
single door was very narrow), and so dwell times at stops were
measured in minutes rather than seconds, exacerbated by the need to
take fares on board. The loadings and typical short journeys mean
this route is crying out for cashless bendy operation (though you'd
need very good revenue protection!)

That said, long deckers *can* be operated on the European model - the
best style I've seen is Berlin's, where boarding is via the front door
and alighting via the rear - but with the rear door all the way to the
back and two staircases. These seem to manage a speed of operation
not dissimilar to a 3-doored bendy.

I don't think I'd go for a bendy decker, though. Large deckers work
better as 12m rigid vehicles, though these may be too long for
London's narrow streets. They're not the longest buses in Germany,
mind - Hamburg has a few 16m *rigid* Citaros with steering rear axles
- FirstGroup brought one over a while ago for a test, though they're
still not legal in this country.

Neil

--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
To e-mail use neil at the above domain