On Sun, 21 Jul 2013 11:43:29 +0100
Paul Corfield wrote:
won't happen. For the time being we're lumbered with the things.

On a related note, does anyone know where all the Bendy buses ended up? I know
some went to Malta but where did the rest end up - scrap or slogging it out
in some provicial towns?

--
Spud

On Mon, 22 Jul 2013 10:53:12 +0100
Paul Corfield wrote:
Some of the above allocations are quite small. Several of the routes
they are used on are those serving University routes with very highly
peaked loadings.

Our loss is their gain I suppose.

I believe there are still hundreds of bendies slowly rotting away on
leasing company premises. What a waste of perfectly decent vehicles
that could be used to boost capacity on London routes which
desperately need it.

That would require the mop headed buffoon to admit he got it wrong and thats
never happened AFAIK.

--
Spud

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

TfL and the Mayor have said the system is fixed but this has emerged
from the depths of Twitter this morning. It's from a West Midlands
based air conditioning systems business.

http://www.graysonts.com/grayson-sol...-con-meltdown/

That page is no longer available. I wonder if someone objected to the wording.

"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

wrote in message
...
On Sun, 21 Jul 2013 11:43:29 +0100
Paul Corfield wrote:
won't happen. For the time being we're lumbered with the things.

On a related note, does anyone know where all the Bendy buses ended up? I
know
some went to Malta but where did the rest end up - scrap or slogging it
out
in some provicial towns?

Some are on the Park and Ride in Norwich, with Konect of Dereham. Can be
seen daily on the Costessey Park and Ride - 605 i think - 60-something
definitely!

James

In message , at 10:53:12 on
Mon, 22 Jul 2013, Paul Corfield remarked:
On a related note, does anyone know where all the Bendy buses ended up? I know
some went to Malta but where did the rest end up - scrap or slogging it out
in some provicial towns?

Not a comprehensive list but these are ones I know of.

Go North East - Gateshead
Arriva North West - Liverpool
Brighton and Hove - Brighton
Arriva Midlands - Leicester
Konectbus - Norwich
Go Ahead London - London for private hire work
McGills - Glasgow
Wilts and Dorset - Bournemouth

I saw some on student-routes in Leicester (where for some reason they
built the main student accommodation several miles from the University
itself)
--
Roland Perry

On Mon, 22 Jul 2013 10:53:12 +0100, Paul Corfield
wrote:


Not a comprehensive list but these are ones I know of.

Go North East - Gateshead
Arriva North West - Liverpool
Brighton and Hove - Brighton
Arriva Midlands - Leicester
Konectbus - Norwich
Go Ahead London - London for private hire work
McGills - Glasgow
Wilts and Dorset - Bournemouth

I think Isle of Man Transport have trialled a bendy but not sure if
any have ended up there for service.

Some of the above allocations are quite small. Several of the routes
they are used on are those serving University routes with very highly
peaked loadings.


Re Liverpool, I believe that only route 500 (John Lennon Airport to
Liverpool One, limited stops, circular) is served by bendybuses. They
probably don't need very many buses to cover it.

--
John Ray

Paul Corfield wrote:

I think Isle of Man Transport have trialled a bendy but not sure if
any have ended up there for service.

I think Stansted airport car parks got a few, or at least the seats are the
same.

Some of the above allocations are quite small. Several of the routes
they are used on are those serving University routes with very highly
peaked loadings.

Would be perfect for the Manchester 42, as I've been saying for years.

I believe there are still hundreds of bendies slowly rotting away on
leasing company premises. What a waste of perfectly decent vehicles
that could be used to boost capacity on London routes which
desperately need it.

Quite.

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK. Put first name before the at to reply.

On Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 10:53:12AM +0100, Paul Corfield wrote:

I believe there are still hundreds of bendies slowly rotting away on
leasing company premises. What a waste of perfectly decent vehicles
that could be used to boost capacity on London routes which
desperately need it.

They could be usefully used on a few London routes, such as 25, but
not many. They're good on routes that are all three of:

* long
* mostly straight
* with lots of passengers

Putting them on twisty routes through a busy city centre was stupid.

--
David Cantrell | Reality Engineer, Ministry of Information

Only some sort of ghastly dehumanised moron would want to get
rid of Routemasters
-- Ken Livingstone, four years before he got rid of 'em

On Tue, 23 Jul 2013 11:46:03 +0100
David Cantrell wrote:
On Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 10:53:12AM +0100, Paul Corfield wrote:

I believe there are still hundreds of bendies slowly rotting away on
leasing company premises. What a waste of perfectly decent vehicles
that could be used to boost capacity on London routes which
desperately need it.

They could be usefully used on a few London routes, such as 25, but
not many. They're good on routes that are all three of:

* long
* mostly straight
* with lots of passengers

Putting them on twisty routes through a busy city centre was stupid.

They're used like that all over europe (in plenty of cities with narrow streets
I might add) without the issues the cycling lobby and Boris claimed they had
in london. So either the europeans are all idiots or someone was telling
porkies to further their own agenda.

--
Spud