"bod43" wrote in message
...
On 28 July, 13:24, "Just zis Guy, you know?"
wrote:
On Jul 28, 1:15 pm, "Basil Jet"

wrote:
Maybe the bendy routes in London should have been introduced as new
routes
constrained to follow the wider roads, instead of taking over existing
routes like the 73 and expecting bendies to turn from Stoke Newington
Church
St to Albion Road without causing problems.

Yes, that would have been a good idea.

I think that getting rid of them all just because they are used badly
is every bot as foolish as introducing them into routes where they
cause problems.

I have commuted daily by bus on a bendy route and
they have approximately zero seats. I think that this may
have figured into the calculation to phase them out.

Nothing at all to do with them being Ken's busses and not
Boris' I am sure.
===============================

Pure practicalities.

The factors a

Low floor required (for DDA, buggy brigade, etc)
Three axles required therefore six wheel arches, four of which are for twin
wheels, and two of which are for wheels that need room to steer. So wheel
arches extend some way into floor area, and are too tall to mount seats on
top, because of low floor.

Two (at least) and often three doors required - can't put seats there.

Buggy bay and disabled wheelchair bay - can't put seats there, or, if you
do, they will be little folddown ones.

Luggage pen if provided - more seat space lost.

Engine/ cooling/ etc - at back in corner, more seats lost.

The bendy bit - can't put seats there.

A bendybus might only have 45-50 seats, same as a singledeck rigid.

But it can carry a helluva lot more standing passengers than a rigid and
this is the big advantage, so long as the route does not use motorways. (not
many bus routes do so, although some do).

(Similar considerations on seating apply to double deckers, with yet more
seats being lost for space for stairway. A double decker might only have
around 24 seats downstairs, but many more than that on the top deck; you may
as well use a miniDart for the same route if the passenger profile is mostly
OAP who won't go upstairs. Or of they do, it takes them half a day to
clamber up and down, whilst the bus is stationary at a busstop.....Perhaps
they should fit a Stannah Stair Lift to doubledeckers....)

Hope that clarifies why bendies don't have many seats.