[Article] New bus trams set for trials

mackerski

I'm with the people who think the emperor has no clothes. You can have prepaid or machine ticketing in a bus whether or not it's been made to resemble a tram, and a busway is simply that, no matter what kind of bus you run on it.

But these are nice big vehicles, which can't be bad, right? Depends. Bendybuses didn't work well in most of Dublin because of narrow streets. They'd better be really careful where they deploy these beasts.

So to all of you who can see a big purple bus - you're not imagining it, I can see it too.

Zoney

mackerski wrote:

But these are nice big vehicles, which can't be bad, right? Depends. Bendybuses didn't work well in most of Dublin because of narrow streets. They'd better be really careful where they deploy these beasts.

I'm not actually sure they are big enough to be honest. Take out the bendy section and the section with the rear doors and one window behind that, and you're left with the normal city bus used in Limerick at present. The present single deck buses are woefully inadequate, and demand will jump if there is a service improvement. I'm not at all convinced these purple beasties will be enough of a capacity increase to merit the extra fun that will come from them pulling into and out of traffic.

Even if we get bus lanes to the Uni, they will be at best, the typical Irish ones like those used on the Raheen route, or in Dublin. Simply adding lane-changes to bus interactions with other traffic! Traffic is at times so bad that this might help - but I can't see a bus lane being added to one of the worst stretches; the Childers road. Nevermind the fact that that stretch jams up both ways due to the retail park, roundabouts and two sets of lights; you really would need a bus lane each side - not likely when traffic already has a lane deficit of one lane for some distance of this section (currently this is four lanes only for a short distance with three lane stretches, alternating the extra lane for each direction, where there should also be four).

Stark

mackerski wrote:

But these are nice big vehicles, which can't be bad, right? Depends. Bendybuses didn't work well in most of Dublin because of narrow streets. They'd better be really careful where they deploy these beasts.

And Cork is even worse than Dublin. I can't imagine one of those beasts trying to make its way through the Northside section of the No. 8 route. Of course, the "solution" to that will probably be to have all the buses come back from Bishopstown as "City centre only".

europerson wrote:

I think these bus-trams are a good idea: they offer lots of flexibility compared to trams.

Sounds like a bad thing to me. Trams are "stuck" on their route, you don't tend to see LUAS trams sticking on the "Out of service" signs and pulling in by the side of the road somewhere like you do with buses. With GPS on the buses and RTPI, the system could work but I can just picture "Strike!" if that goes ahead.

Dub13

You must have some phone,the pics are very good.

AlekSmart

Zoney wrote:

Here's the interesting thing; there are two sets of doors, but tickets are currently dispensed by bus drivers. Are they intending to use a conductor, or are they only going to use the front doors and have the bus spend 10 minutes loading people up? Or have they even considered the issue?

Can't see this running smoothly unfortunately...

Give that man an ice cream....
The appearance of the Wrights StreetCar down Shannonside way is quite obviously one of the positive aspects of Minister Cullens recent visit to Wright Bros plant in BallaMeena.

The StreetCar is essentially a standard Volvo Articulated Bus with some styling modifications.

Their initial outing in the UK was in the city of York,where FirstBus introduced them onto the number 4 route,which surprise,surprise is a University route too.

First Group called their new bus the "ftr" (Text parlance for Future).
The "ftr" concept was intended to encompass a new level of cooperation between the Bus Company and York City Council.

To describe the introduction of the StreetCar as a disaster is putting it mildly.
The failures were legion and included Roads Infrastructure Improvements incomplete.
Bus Stop extensions not in position.
Traffic Signal sequencing not modified to allow for "ftr" priority.
Poor reliability from the vehicles themselves.

However the single greatest collapse was the use of a new Ticketing system which utilises a Vending Machine on the Bus.
What happened essentially showed that neither First Group management or York City Council had the slightest grasp of what the requirements of a High Frequency,High Capacity maximum length Bus Service were.

The single greatest requirement is to get the punters On and Off as rapidly as possible.
There must be minimal delay and Bus Stop Dwell time HAS to be far lower than an equivalent standard service bus.

It was a mirror image of Dublin Bus`s experience with the initial introduction of Volvo Artics on the number 10 route.
The Hi Capacity Artic Bus has but Two requirements
1.Dedicated Manouvering Space in and out of Bus Stops.
2.A Totally cash transaction free boarding arrangement.
If either of these is not fulfilled then the added expense of Artic operation simply aint worth a damn.


The situation in York deteriorated to such an extent that FirstGroup had to introduce "Customer Assistants" (Conductors) to sell tickets on board as the "ftr" Driver is totally segregated from the Passengers.

I would sincerely hope that Bus Eireann Management and Minister Cullen to the time to actually travel on First York`s number 4 route as they might learn some valuable lessons in how NOT to introduce new Public Transport technology :eek:

Transport21 Fan

Looks like a Dildo with wheels to me. Which when you think about it. That's just what it is.

Zoney

AlekSmart wrote:

First Group called their new bus the "ftr" (Text parlance for Future).
The "ftr" concept was intended to encompass a new level of cooperation between the Bus Company and York City Council.

Note the ftr on the side of the bus in the photos above... Don't tell me these are rejects from York?! I'd heard about the York tales of woe, and of course the Dublin situation, hence my skeptical comments...

I hate to say this, but I have thought of another issue. Even on the current buses, people are loath to go to the back of the bus (despite even bus drivers telling people to move back, this can result in people being left standing at the bus stop when there is space, or even a seat or two, at the back of the bus). If the back double doors aren't used to let people get off the bus (as they might not be, to stop gurriers hopping on at the back for free), then the problem will be even greater.