Cycling UK Forum

Buses are typically in use for 16-18 hours a day or more, maintenance is done at night, then the bus goes out again at 04:oo
Using electric buses means: no. more buses!

Cyril Haearn wrote:Buses are typically in use for 16-18 hours a day or more, maintenance is done at night, then the bus goes out again at 04:oo
Using electric buses means: no. more buses!

only in larger towns and cities maybe. Here in somerset and even in the county town of Taunton buses only run between 08.00 and 6.00pm ie only 10 hours a day and only 6 days a week and not on Sundays or bank holidays.

Cyril Haearn wrote:Buses are typically in use for 16-18 hours a day or more, maintenance is done at night, then the bus goes out again at 04:oo
Using electric buses means: no. more buses!

Self evidently that's not right. Lots of electric buses and more on the way.

Anyway 6-8 hours is plenty of time to charge them up, they can be charging whilst maintenance is being done - particularly as they'll need less of it.

kwackers wrote:As for taxis - you're way behind the curve. Plenty of EV taxis around and those that aren't fully EV are usually hybrid. I believe even the companies that make black cabs have EV versions.

It's not me that's behind the curve.

Prius taxis in Plymouth city - loads of them.
Out here?
None whatsoever. Can't say I've seen a Prius taxi out of the city environs at all.

rjb wrote:

Cyril Haearn wrote:Buses are typically in use for 16-18 hours a day or more, maintenance is done at night, then the bus goes out again at 04:oo
Using electric buses means: no. more buses!

only in larger towns and cities maybe. Here in somerset and even in the county town of Taunton buses only run between 08.00 and 6.00pm ie only 10 hours a day and only 6 days a week and not on Sundays or bank holidays.

Same here.

Useless.

...and, EVs wont make an iota of difference to that.

Al

Mick F wrote:

rjb wrote:

Cyril Haearn wrote:Buses are typically in use for 16-18 hours a day or more, maintenance is done at night, then the bus goes out again at 04:oo
Using electric buses means: no. more buses!

only in larger towns and cities maybe. Here in somerset and even in the county town of Taunton buses only run between 08.00 and 6.00pm ie only 10 hours a day and only 6 days a week and not on Sundays or bank holidays.

Same here.

Useless.

Useless why?

The Chinese are making buses with a 500km range. I bet none of our buses travels more than that in a single shift. Average speed of a bus is going to be less than the average traffic speed of 10mph so they couldn't even do that if they ran 24 hours.

I find it bizarre that folk consider them only OK for towns and cities but think they don't work in the country despite the same folk whining that the bus only comes twice a day...
Do those buses really do loops bigger than 250km? I'm willing to bet they don't.

Anyway as I've said time and time again, sooner rather than later there's going to be a modal shift in power source and then economies of scale are going to screw up any form of IC stuff.

Fortunately there are people out there making solutions rather than whining about having to change how they use their vehicles.
Seems to be mostly the Chinese mind, but we're already buying their buses anyway.

Cyril Haearn wrote:Buses are typically in use for 16-18 hours a day or more, maintenance is done at night, then the bus goes out again at 04:oo
Using electric buses means: no. more buses!

This is a very odd claim to make!

In Shenzhen, China the bus fleet consists of 16,000 vehicles....how many are electric?........ Every single one of them!

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/dec/12/silence-shenzhen-world-first-electric-bus-fleet

Maybe you have been convinced by propaganda articles from the German government/state broadcaster, they really hate the move to electrification as it threatens their diesel dominated motor industry.


The problem here in the UK is that getting rid of our hideous diesel bus fleet will not increase shareholder profits. If the bus companies are not going to change voluntarily then they will need to be forced. Unfortunately on such matters our government is utterly spineless

Hello again, The stupid switch over to diesels in public transport in cities started way back.
In Liverpool back in 1949, the public transport fleet was almost totally tram based, work fine. But sadly there was a large fire at the main tram depot which took out over 60 trams. Offers poured in from around the UK offering help to get the city mobile again, but the cit council had a different agenda? They took the right-off value from the insurers, then place orders for diesel powered buses. They still travelled under the wires, with the council even creating a new large roundabout for the trams at Edge Lane, main corridor, that was done in 1955, only for the plug to be pulled on the Goddesses & Baby Grands in September 1957, black day. I rode the trams in the final week, I also travelled on the "Dockers Umbrella" during it's final week in 1956!
So, just as occurred in large areas of the US of A, the public transport was sold out into the hands of the greedy cartel!
Our betters b*ggered things up, still doing so IGICB MM

I don't suppose it's worth pointing out London had electric buses (not trams) back in 1907.
Interesting read for anyone who wants to do some reading.
Google "London Electrobus Company".

Hi Kwackers, London of course also had electric Trolley Buses. In fact they turn up in some very odd places?
In the Liverpool based film "Violent Playground", Stanley Baker, a young David McCallum, a school involved wasn't actually in Liverpool, the giveaway was the sight of a Trolley Bus travelling through the city?
Liverpool never had TB's, St Helens did, but the film scene was actually shot in Poplar in London. A bit like the Military Intelligence H.Q. in "Foyles War" was actually the Cunard Building in Liverpool. As David Frost used to say "The Clues Are There"! IGICB MM

kwackers wrote:

Mick F wrote:

rjb wrote:
only in larger towns and cities maybe. Here in somerset and even in the county town of Taunton buses only run between 08.00 and 6.00pm ie only 10 hours a day and only 6 days a week and not on Sundays or bank holidays.

Same here.

Useless.

Useless why?

The Chinese are making buses with a 500km range. I bet none of our buses travels more than that in a single shift. Average speed of a bus is going to be less than the average traffic speed of 10mph so they couldn't even do that if they ran 24 hours.

I find it bizarre that folk consider them only OK for towns and cities but think they don't work in the country despite the same folk whining that the bus only comes twice a day...
Do those buses really do loops bigger than 250km? I'm willing to bet they don't.
Anyway as I've said time and time again, sooner rather than later there's going to be a modal shift in power source and then economies of scale are going to screw up any form of IC stuff.

Fortunately there are people out there making solutions rather than whining about having to change how they use their vehicles.
Seems to be mostly the Chinese mind, but we're already buying their buses anyway.

Just done the maths,our local bus does 98miles per 8hour shift.

Mark R wrote: .........The problem here in the UK is that getting rid of our hideous diesel bus fleet will not increase shareholder profits. If the bus companies are not going to change voluntarily then they will need to be forced. Unfortunately on such matters our government is utterly spineless

Nail,head,on!

kwackers wrote:I don't suppose it's worth pointing out London had electric buses (not trams) back in 1907.
Interesting read for anyone who wants to do some reading.
Google "London Electrobus Company".

As I recall, the demise of the electric buses of that time was due to fraud and other financial shenanigans by the private companies who owned them. The technology and the services it provided were fine.

So often there's some greedyman ruining things, often with the connivance of government. Will we ever sweep away the greedymen and do the necessary things that could so easily be done with technology were it not for huge vested interests of many kinds? No.

Cugel

merseymouth wrote:Hi Kwackers, London of course also had electric Trolley Buses. In fact they turn up in some very odd places?
In the Liverpool based film "Violent Playground", Stanley Baker, a young David McCallum, a school involved wasn't actually in Liverpool, the giveaway was the sight of a Trolley Bus travelling through the city?
Liverpool never had TB's, St Helens did, but the film scene was actually shot in Poplar in London. A bit like the Military Intelligence H.Q. in "Foyles War" was actually the Cunard Building in Liverpool. As David Frost used to say "The Clues Are There"! IGICB MM

I grew up with the trolley bus. I must have travelled hundreds or perhaps thousands of miles around Tyneside on them. Quiet, unsmelly and good fun for small boys.

Our favourite trick was to sit on the railings around a large roundabout, where trolley buses going on different routes would need to have their conductor leap off to pull the lever to change the points on the wires. "We''ll pull it", we would shout from our perch, doing so but letting go just before the bus trolleys reached the points in question. The bus went one way, the trolleys the other, resulting in a sudden stop of the bus.

Off we would run, giggling foolishly.

You can't do that with diesel buses, which merely cover small boys sat on railings in noxious soot from their spew-pipe.

Cugel