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#1
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Borisbus inching forward?
What with all the Tube strike discussions, I didn't see any discussion
of this press release from a week ago: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/medi...tre/11940.aspx |
#2
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Borisbus inching forward?
Recliner wrote:
What with all the Tube strike discussions, I didn't see any discussion of this press release from a week ago: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/medi...tre/11940.aspx I read it at the time, but haven't bothered to cover it yet for some reason, sheer laziness mainly. Did anyone else notice that the 507 and 521 haven't lost the bendy buses yet? Contract was up at the end of May, but there's been a delay for some reason. Anyway, Borisbuses. They're rather coy in not saying that probably three of the applicants are *foreign*, assuming the three main UK suppliers are involved, although there could be some wildcards in there. Also that there's now consideration given to covering up the rear platform at night. Where I come from that's called a 'door', Boris (the real reason is probably to save staff costs at times when the bus is lightly loaded - someone's probably drawn up a cost estimate for running the bus with two crew on 24 hour routes, and it has rather too many noughts at the end). So, a collapsible door - if memory serves doors are amongst the usual troublesome components on new transport vehicles these days, and I'm not sure making them collapsible will necessarily help. Finally, there's no suggestion of the bus having to be a hybrid or electrically powered vehicle, opening the way to a pure diesel or gas vehicle, provided it's less polluting than some notional 'conventional bus', of what Euro emissions standard isn't stated. Tom |
#3
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Borisbus inching forward?
On 11 June, 21:26, Tom Barry wrote:
Recliner wrote: What with all the Tube strike discussions, I didn't see any discussion of this press release from a week ago: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/medi...tre/11940.aspx I read it at the time, but haven't bothered to cover it yet for some reason, sheer laziness mainly. *Did anyone else notice that the 507 and 521 haven't lost the bendy buses yet? *Contract was up at the end of May, but there's been a delay for some reason. Anyway, Borisbuses. *They're rather coy in not saying that probably three of the applicants are *foreign*, assuming the three main UK suppliers are involved, although there could be some wildcards in there. Also that there's now consideration given to covering up the rear platform at night. *Where I come from that's called a 'door', Boris (the real reason is probably to save staff costs at times when the bus is lightly loaded - someone's probably drawn up a cost estimate for running the bus with two crew on 24 hour routes, and it has rather too many noughts at the end). *So, a collapsible door - if memory serves doors are amongst the usual troublesome components on new transport vehicles these days, and I'm not sure making them collapsible will necessarily help. Finally, there's no suggestion of the bus having to be a hybrid or electrically powered vehicle, opening the way to a pure diesel or gas vehicle, provided it's less polluting than some notional 'conventional bus', of what Euro emissions standard isn't stated. Tom How will they make the upper deck DDA-compliant? |
#4
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Borisbus inching forward?
"Darth Sunil" wrote in message
On 11 June, 21:26, Tom Barry wrote: Recliner wrote: What with all the Tube strike discussions, I didn't see any discussion of this press release from a week ago: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/medi...tre/11940.aspx I read it at the time, but haven't bothered to cover it yet for some reason, sheer laziness mainly. Did anyone else notice that the 507 and 521 haven't lost the bendy buses yet? Contract was up at the end of May, but there's been a delay for some reason. Anyway, Borisbuses. They're rather coy in not saying that probably three of the applicants are *foreign*, assuming the three main UK suppliers are involved, although there could be some wildcards in there. Also that there's now consideration given to covering up the rear platform at night. Where I come from that's called a 'door', Boris (the real reason is probably to save staff costs at times when the bus is lightly loaded - someone's probably drawn up a cost estimate for running the bus with two crew on 24 hour routes, and it has rather too many noughts at the end). So, a collapsible door - if memory serves doors are amongst the usual troublesome components on new transport vehicles these days, and I'm not sure making them collapsible will necessarily help. Finally, there's no suggestion of the bus having to be a hybrid or electrically powered vehicle, opening the way to a pure diesel or gas vehicle, provided it's less polluting than some notional 'conventional bus', of what Euro emissions standard isn't stated. Tom How will they make the upper deck DDA-compliant? Why would they need to? |
#5
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Borisbus inching forward?
On 13 June, 11:44, "Recliner" wrote:
"Darth Sunil" wrote in message On 11 June, 21:26, Tom Barry wrote: Recliner wrote: What with all the Tube strike discussions, I didn't see any discussion of this press release from a week ago: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/medi...tre/11940.aspx I read it at the time, but haven't bothered to cover it yet for some reason, sheer laziness mainly. Did anyone else notice that the 507 and 521 haven't lost the bendy buses yet? Contract was up at the end of May, but there's been a delay for some reason. Anyway, Borisbuses. They're rather coy in not saying that probably three of the applicants are *foreign*, assuming the three main UK suppliers are involved, although there could be some wildcards in there. Also that there's now consideration given to covering up the rear platform at night. Where I come from that's called a 'door', Boris (the real reason is probably to save staff costs at times when the bus is lightly loaded - someone's probably drawn up a cost estimate for running the bus with two crew on 24 hour routes, and it has rather too many noughts at the end). So, a collapsible door - if memory serves doors are amongst the usual troublesome components on new transport vehicles these days, and I'm not sure making them collapsible will necessarily help. Finally, there's no suggestion of the bus having to be a hybrid or electrically powered vehicle, opening the way to a pure diesel or gas vehicle, provided it's less polluting than some notional 'conventional bus', of what Euro emissions standard isn't stated. Tom How will they make the upper deck DDA-compliant? Why would they need to? On a bendy, all seats would be accessible to the disabled. |
#7
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Borisbus inching forward?
On Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:26:42 +0100, Tom Barry wrote:
Also that there's now consideration given to covering up the rear platform at night. This seems a bit silly. There are far fewer buses running at night than during the day, so if they don't want open platforms at night, why not just put the Borismasters away at night and only use other buses? An over-engineered solution to a simple problem. |
#8
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Borisbus inching forward?
Also that there's now consideration given to covering up the rear
platform at night. This seems a bit silly. There are far fewer buses running at night than during the day, so if they don't want open platforms at night, why not just put the Borismasters away at night and only use other buses? An over-engineered solution to a simple problem. Looking at the pics of *proposed* (yes, I have noted that word) designs there would be no opportunity for the driver to sell/check tickets anyway as the door seems half way along the bus. Unless this is just the plan for the routes with ticket machines at stops and presumably they think it unsafe to have open platforms with no conductor. |
#9
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Borisbus inching forward?
Commuter wrote on 14 June 2009 13:16:10 ...
Also that there's now consideration given to covering up the rear platform at night. This seems a bit silly. There are far fewer buses running at night than during the day, so if they don't want open platforms at night, why not just put the Borismasters away at night and only use other buses? An over-engineered solution to a simple problem. Looking at the pics of *proposed* (yes, I have noted that word) designs there would be no opportunity for the driver to sell/check tickets anyway as the door seems half way along the bus. Unless this is just the plan for the routes with ticket machines at stops and presumably they think it unsafe to have open platforms with no conductor. I don't think the pictured designs are in any sense "proposed". They were just the two designs that jointly won the competition. I note that they have slavishly copied the axle positions from the Routemaster design. With the space needed for wheelchairs/buggies and the rear platform, the vehicle would obviously be at least as long as current double-deckers. Hence, with the front wheels right at the front like the Routemaster, the wheelbase would be too long. It would be less manoeuvrable than a bendy-bus! Are the specs that have been issued to the short-listed manufacturers available online anywhere? -- Richard J. (to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address) |
#10
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Borisbus inching forward?
On Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:26:42 +0100, Tom Barry
wrote: Also that there's now consideration given to covering up the rear platform at night. Where I come from that's called a 'door', Boris (the real reason is probably to save staff costs at times when the bus is lightly loaded - someone's probably drawn up a cost estimate for running the bus with two crew on 24 hour routes, and it has rather too many noughts at the end). As someone from outside London who's knowledge of public transport there is admittedly limited, can you explain why a borisbus would need to be double crewed? -- Cheers Peter |
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