On 09/04/2021 14:41, wrote:
On 9 Apr 2021 12:21:24 GMT
Marland wrote:
Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
In any case, it's not uncommon for different routes to have different
fleets in any case, even if they're not branded differently - eg in my area
the 'prime' pair of routes (direct to the city centre) have always had
newer vehicles than the routes which meander through less salubrious parts
of town on their way to the centre.

As more operators purchase battery electric buses they seem to be
allocating them to specific routes which makes sense, it is the 21st

The flat routes presumably. I can't imagine many electric buses would last
long - in the sense of running time - in dales or hills even with regen
braking.

Work fine in Guildford.

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.

On Fri, 9 Apr 2021 15:51:06 +0100
Graeme Wall wrote:
On 09/04/2021 14:41, wrote:
On 9 Apr 2021 12:21:24 GMT
Marland wrote:
Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
In any case, it's not uncommon for different routes to have different
fleets in any case, even if they're not branded differently - eg in my area

the 'prime' pair of routes (direct to the city centre) have always had
newer vehicles than the routes which meander through less salubrious parts
of town on their way to the centre.

As more operators purchase battery electric buses they seem to be
allocating them to specific routes which makes sense, it is the 21st

The flat routes presumably. I can't imagine many electric buses would last
long - in the sense of running time - in dales or hills even with regen
braking.

Work fine in Guildford.

Guildford isn't exactly big.

On Fri, 9 Apr 2021 14:40:42 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
wrote:
I wouldn't be surprised if induction charging points end up being spread
around the countryside and perhaps some cities for electric buses in the
future, because with the best will in the world, battery tech for large
vehicles isn't up to the job yet on the longer distance routes.

It's claimed to have a 300km range, more than enough to run all day on
urban routes. It gets a four hour overnight charge in Willesden bus garage.

BYD designed and developed the 10.2m long vehicles to TfL specifications
which feature air conditioning, seats for 54 passengers and space for 27
standing passengers.

https://www.metroline.co.uk/blog/pro...mission-electr
ic-double-decker

I suspect those ranges are just as optimistic as electric car ones. You can
probably halve it in slow traffic in winter when regen braking is ineffective
and the heating is on full blast.

Regardless, its pathetic the way the Chinese have just leapfrogged all the
european bus manufacturers who appear to have been caught with their pants
down.

And I can't
imagine National Express have done much flicking through electric bus
brochures yet.

No, not yet. They may have hydrogen-powered buses before battery electric
ones.

Hydrogen power is an enviromental dead end. I wish politicians would realise.

On 09/04/2021 16:10, wrote:
On Fri, 9 Apr 2021 15:51:06 +0100
Graeme Wall wrote:
On 09/04/2021 14:41, wrote:
On 9 Apr 2021 12:21:24 GMT
Marland wrote:
Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
In any case, it's not uncommon for different routes to have different
fleets in any case, even if they're not branded differently - eg in my area

the 'prime' pair of routes (direct to the city centre) have always had
newer vehicles than the routes which meander through less salubrious parts
of town on their way to the centre.

As more operators purchase battery electric buses they seem to be
allocating them to specific routes which makes sense, it is the 21st

The flat routes presumably. I can't imagine many electric buses would last
long - in the sense of running time - in dales or hills even with regen
braking.

Work fine in Guildford.

Guildford isn't exactly big.


But it is hilly.

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.

On 09/04/2021 14:37, wrote:
On Fri, 9 Apr 2021 11:37:02 -0000 (UTC)
Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
It needs a handful of extra unbranded spare vehicles across a fleet, which
was obviously considered and costed when the first few companies began to
introduce it. It's obviously seen as a worthwhile expenditure for the
increased visual recognition of the buses and routes, not just among
passengers but among potential passengers, including those who don't
realise they're potential passengers yet.

I can't imagine too many people see a bus and think "Ooh, nice branding, I
must travel on it sometime!". Though I will grant you if its one of the ones
that has the route map down the side there may be some people who didn't
realise where it went and may use it in future.

Coming back on topic, that's why I want every bridge on the NLL to have
one livery, every bridge on the Goblin to have a different one etc, so
that people who drive every day from Leytonstone to Crouch End would
realise that there is one train all the way.

--
Basil Jet recently enjoyed listening to
1978 - Another Music In A Different Kitchen - Buzzcocks

wrote:
On Fri, 9 Apr 2021 15:51:06 +0100
Graeme Wall wrote:
On 09/04/2021 14:41, wrote:
On 9 Apr 2021 12:21:24 GMT
Marland wrote:
Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
In any case, it's not uncommon for different routes to have different
fleets in any case, even if they're not branded differently - eg in my area

the 'prime' pair of routes (direct to the city centre) have always had
newer vehicles than the routes which meander through less salubrious parts
of town on their way to the centre.

As more operators purchase battery electric buses they seem to be
allocating them to specific routes which makes sense, it is the 21st

The flat routes presumably. I can't imagine many electric buses would last
long - in the sense of running time - in dales or hills even with regen
braking.

Work fine in Guildford.

Guildford isn't exactly big.



For places like Guildford ,and there are many such provincial towns and
cities of similar size the
battery electric powered buses now being introduced are probably the first
time they have had the opportunity to have emission free at the point of
use public transport.
They were and are highly likely to remain too small to build tram ,light
rail and trolleybus systems.
A handful like Taunton had for a short time Edwardian era trams often on
a single route only a couple of miles long, they tended to be early
casualties and again using Taunton as an example its short line closed
after only 16 years of operation in 1921 when unable to agree on a price
for electricity with the corporation power supply found its cars stranded
when the supply was turned off, horses towed them back to the depot.
Many places like Exeter only ran one generation of tram closing in the
1930’s replacing with the now
reasonably developed motor bus. It was only the big places like London
,Leeds, Sheffield ,Glasgow
that could afford to stay with electric power and replace the first
generation of vehicles .
The Guildfords, Salisburys and Chichesters have been using noisy polluting
vehicles for a 100 years now, its time they got some clean ones. The effect
in such places of battery buses may be more marked than in bigger
conurbations.

GH

On 09/04/2021 21:16, Marland wrote:
wrote:
On Fri, 9 Apr 2021 15:51:06 +0100
Graeme Wall wrote:
On 09/04/2021 14:41, wrote:
On 9 Apr 2021 12:21:24 GMT
Marland wrote:
Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
In any case, it's not uncommon for different routes to have different
fleets in any case, even if they're not branded differently - eg in my area

the 'prime' pair of routes (direct to the city centre) have always had
newer vehicles than the routes which meander through less salubrious parts
of town on their way to the centre.

As more operators purchase battery electric buses they seem to be
allocating them to specific routes which makes sense, it is the 21st

The flat routes presumably. I can't imagine many electric buses would last
long - in the sense of running time - in dales or hills even with regen
braking.

Work fine in Guildford.

Guildford isn't exactly big.



For places like Guildford ,and there are many such provincial towns and
cities of similar size the
battery electric powered buses now being introduced are probably the first
time they have had the opportunity to have emission free at the point of
use public transport.
They were and are highly likely to remain too small to build tram ,light
rail and trolleybus systems.
A handful like Taunton had for a short time Edwardian era trams often on
a single route only a couple of miles long, they tended to be early
casualties and again using Taunton as an example its short line closed
after only 16 years of operation in 1921 when unable to agree on a price
for electricity with the corporation power supply found its cars stranded
when the supply was turned off, horses towed them back to the depot.
Many places like Exeter only ran one generation of tram closing in the
1930’s replacing with the now
reasonably developed motor bus. It was only the big places like London
,Leeds, Sheffield ,Glasgow
that could afford to stay with electric power and replace the first
generation of vehicles .
The Guildfords, Salisburys and Chichesters have been using noisy polluting
vehicles for a 100 years now, its time they got some clean ones. The effect
in such places of battery buses may be more marked than in bigger
conurbations.


Unfortunately it's only a fleet of 9 buses in Guildford at the moment,
theoretically dedicated to serving the 4 park and rides. However one of
the car parks has been doing duty as a drive in Covid testing station
for the last year so the electric buses are making guest appearances on
the university services. Good for me as they pass the end of my road on
their way into town.


--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.

On Thu, 08 Apr 2021 18:56:33 -0500, Christopher A. Lee
wrote:

On Thu, 8 Apr 2021 21:35:31 +0100, "NY" wrote:

"Graeme Wall" wrote in message
...
Reading buses go in for different liveries for different routes.

Some said that at one time the York Park&Ride buses used have different
liveries for the different routes, depending on which P&R car-park they went
to/from. But by the time I used them, they were a standard livery - the same
as the non-P&R buses (*) - and distinguished only by the LED display with
the number and the route name (I think it alternated between the colour-name
of the route and the name of the car-park).

What is always amusing is if a bus company has temporarily borrowed a few
buses from another company: there's something a bit weird getting on a bus
in York which has bus-company or place-of-interest adverts for Sheffield or
Leeds. I think the furthest afield was one that was from the Exeter area.
That's a hell of a long way to transport a bus that you've borrowed ;-)

When I lived im Manchester, we had Pacers which were withrawn from
Cornwall because the curves were too tigh. These still had Cornish ads
and wers till painted chocolate and cream )their only redeeming
feature).

We also had ex- Glasgoe Class 303 units, still painted in Strathclyde
livery, with Glasgow adverts and maps.

The company down the road from me which used to supply school-sports
ground transport to Harrow never bothered to remove any of the adverts
from its buses resulting in several of them bimbling around
advertising various things in Crosville-land.

On Fri, 09 Apr 2021 08:01:36 -0500, Christopher A. Lee
wrote:

On Thu, 8 Apr 2021 23:20:42 +0100, Roger Lynn
wrote:

On 08/04/2021 13:16, Sam Wilson wrote:
I haven’t noticed it so much recently, but Edinburgh used to have quite a
lot of dedicated buses with the route number included in the livery as well
as on the indicator blinds.

Stagecoach do that a lot (at least in some areas). At weekends it's common
to see buses on the wrong routes.

Back when it was still all London Transport, did red buses ever appear
on green (country) routes or vice versa, where the two systems
overlapped?

They used to turn up if there wasn't one of the right colour available
due to accidents, overhauls etc. although RLH low height buses seemed
to never get a repaint from green when permanently transferred to the
230 route around Harrow.

On Fri, 09 Apr 2021 23:50:21 +0100, Charles Ellson
wrote:

On Fri, 09 Apr 2021 08:01:36 -0500, Christopher A. Lee
wrote:

On Thu, 8 Apr 2021 23:20:42 +0100, Roger Lynn
wrote:

On 08/04/2021 13:16, Sam Wilson wrote:
I haven’t noticed it so much recently, but Edinburgh used to have quite a
lot of dedicated buses with the route number included in the livery as well
as on the indicator blinds.

Stagecoach do that a lot (at least in some areas). At weekends it's common
to see buses on the wrong routes.

Back when it was still all London Transport, did red buses ever appear
on green (country) routes or vice versa, where the two systems
overlapped?

They used to turn up if there wasn't one of the right colour available
due to accidents, overhauls etc. although RLH low height buses seemed
to never get a repaint from green when permanently transferred to the
230 route around Harrow.

The RLH buses I remember on the 230 were all red. I grew up in Harrow
and don't remember seeing any in green.