Whatever happened to Dublin's Bendy Busses?

strandroad wrote: »

Agreed, apart from Berlin I think the continent is all bendy buses isn't it?

There are plenty of articulated buses operating in Berlin in addition to double deckers.

Another interesting thing is that many standard length single decker buses used on the continent can carry the same amount of passengers as a double decker bus in Ireland or the UK. Single decker buses sold in the UK and Ireland like the Streetlite and Enviro 200 are generally designed to be lightweight and designed for routes with lower usage.

bk wrote: »

Partly this is due to single deckers in the continent typically having less seats and more standing space. The single decker BE buses in Cork have surprisingly lots of seats and very little standing space compared to what you see in Europe.

But it comes down to a completely different operating environment. Buses in Europe tend to be fast, very quick dwell times with 3/4 doors and zero driver interaction ticketing like the Luas, they also tend to stick to main roads and not journey into every estate along the way, plus proper bus priority measures. All of this adds up to faster journey times, so people don't really mind standing.

Here, at least until recently, people expect journey times to be slow. Very slow dwell time, one or two door operation, slow ticketing via the driver, too many bus stops and too many diversions off into windy estates, too little bus priority measures, all leads to slow, long journey times, so people prefer to have a seat.

Personally I'd be happy standing if it meant we got all the other features of the European model and much faster journey times.

The Citaros used in Cork are a different spec to the ones used on the continent. The Citaro is the best selling bus in Europe and has been for quite some time. However the recent Citaros have been made to a different lighter weight spec specifically for the UK and Ireland market.

The other thing is worth pointing is people are happy to stand on the Luas but less so on the bus however this is changing the SGs can take up to 30 standees but have a lot less seating than previous single door models.

The other thing on the continent areas with lower demand are still not by main routes but generally shorter routes that connect with other busier bus routes or other modes such as suburban rail, metro or trams. This is where smaller buses may sometimes be used. Generally on the continent low usage routes where in the UK or Ireland would be served by a single decker instead of a double decker these routes may use a lower capacity shorter wheelbase single decker.

I've even seen some places on the continent where converted Sprinter vans have been used as buses on fixed route public transport.

In fairness to the NTA, I believe they pushed BE in Cork to start using double deckers in Cork which has been a major relief.

They also seem to have no issues with DB being all double decker fleet except two buses. GAI is a bit different as they operate some fairly extremely low demand outer routes. No point using a double decker if you never fill a single decker. Even DB had about 100 single deckers prior to Network Direct consolidations, GAI's single deckers is really partly a return of those routes.

The 0 route, will need to be single decker operated too due to passing under low bridges.

VT's fair enough, but the issue there always seems to be that the tri-axles available seem to lag behind in the drive train technology. Assuming because they are relatively niche product in the UK/Ireland. Hopefully that changes in time, it would be great to get some Berlin style tri-axles.

Though I wonder would trying Glider/Luas/BRT style "bendy-buses" with proper infrastructure and support be a better bet for the VT operated routes?

The single deckers used by GAI have run into some problems I believe some of the routes there have issues where they were too small for some of the routes they were allocated to for example the 102 I believe has had issues particulalry around school times.

The other issue with lower capacity buses is they have a lack of flexibility. Many of the routes GAI operate are interworked with other routes this is typical of low frequency low demand routes where they are typically worked by the same driver(s) and bus as other busier routes. Again I would like to point out that the main cost of providing public transport in developed countries is staff not fuel. This means there is little in terms of cost difference between providing a small bus and large bus.

This why in developing countries with cheap labour costs you'll see loads of minvans being used as an ad hoc means of public transport instead having large buses operating on a fixed route. Typically the driver will be self employed in these countries and own his/her own vehicle.