Electric, Hydrogen & Hybrid Electric Buses in Ireland

If you read the planning application for the Galway Depot and what the hold up is, it is pretty infuriating and shows some of the nonsense that has to be dealt with.

So the planning application is pretty straight forward, mostly just charging infrastructure in the existing depot, nothing unusual. It turns out that the Galway planners were unhappy with how the bright lights of the depot would impact wildlife! So the design team had to go away and do an even more detailed and comprehensive Natura Impact study taking this into account and then because of this, the Galway planners made them re-advertise to the public about the updated study and thus they have to wait another 5 weeks for public feedback!

Keep in mind, this is all in the footprint of an existing depot, in the middle of a business park in the middle of a port!

As far as I can see there hasn’t been a single application to the plan by a member of the public, it all just seems like silly rubbish from the Galway planning department!

So should we cancel Metrolink, DART+ and new Luas lines so?

Frankly it is ESB Networks job to ensure they can deliver on customers demands. Frankly charging infrastructure for buses isn’t rocket science nor should it have been a big deal. Keep in mind other countries have been rolling out EV buses for years before us (single deckers) across Europe without issues. Over 9,000 EV buses were sold in Europe last year.

If ESB Networks can’t sort some chargers for a depot, often in industrial estates or ports, god help us when we need to build sub stations across Dublin for DART+ and Metrolink!

Frankly I'm glad this happened now and with buses and that the NTA and DoT realised these issues that the distribution grid now. At least with buses, we can continue to just operate with the older buses for a while longer until is gets sorted.

Imagine instead we spent billions on Metrolink and DART+ only to discover that they couldn't open and operate because lack of distribution grid resources! The DART+ charging infrastructure at Drogheda station requires a large and very expensive battery energy management system (BESS) in the station to act as a buffer for the grid, because of lack of distribution grid capacity in Dorgheda!

I suspect there are some pretty high level and intense meetings going on between the DoT/NTA and DoCEE and ESB Networks and that ESB is getting a kick up the ass. This issue risks all major public transport plans in Dublin, not just buses!

To be clear I'm not moving the goal posts, I'm pointing out the bigger picture and the much more serious issues that exist.

You mean the operators who decided to get rid of dual door buses and go to single door buses or the operator who decided to get rid of double decker buses and replace them with single decker buses!

Anyway, it isn't like it would make much difference, there are only a very small number of manufacturers and DB and BE have a long history of buying Wright buses anyway. Since Wrights came out of bankruptcy, the new company is mostly only interested in BEV and hydrogen buses, which reflects the market as a whole, pretty much all the manufacturers are dropping Diesel/hybrids in favour of BEV.

Yes, not really any good options, Wrights use to have a hybrid bus, but I don't think they make it any more, at least they have dropped it from their website. They do still make a pure Diesel bus! But in pretty small numbers, more for very small operators, their emphasis really is on the BEV's now.

Realistically the alternative would have been to continue to buy the ADL PA's which they didn't seem to be happy with either.

To be clear, over 200 BEV buses are out on the road across the country, being used every day per Bus Times!

Sure, there should be more out, but lets not make this out to be a bigger deal then it is. As frustrating as the planning nonsense like Galway is, they will get there eventually and we will have a massive fleet of BEV's on the road.

So let’s get this straight, you would prefer for DB/BE to take on the cost of spending 10’s of millions on new buses per year, rather then have the NTA buy them for them and take on the responsibility of that cost and all the risk that goes with it!!

I can tell you with certainty that DB/BE management are delighted that the NTA have taken on those risks and costs.

But the NTA would of required they be BEV buses anyway as it is national policy, just like how TFL now requires all new buses bought in London to all be BEV’s, so you would up in exactly the same situation.

It was government policy to electrify, so whether the NTA bought them or DB/BE, you’d end up with pretty much the same buses!

And the buses we buy are basically just a tweak on the TFL spec bus. The UK/Ireland double decker bus market is relatively speaking tiny and it is mostly dominated by whatever TFL spec as the biggest customer.