14 September 2009

ACTION Going Green

| TP 3000
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Last month ACTION recieved its first of the 77 new buses that ACTION has purchased. This new bus is similar to some of the green buses that you seen on the road, except it runs on diesel.This bus is a MAN bus & is the first MAN Bus in the world to comply with Euro V emission standards.

Prior to tomorrow this bus has been with ACTION Workshop guys making sure it is safe for Canberra roads. But quite soon it should be on Canberra’s roads with more of these buses to follow soon.

These buses will be replacing the old Renaults that have black smoke blowing out the back.

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neanderthalsis said :

Perth had three hydrogen busses operating on a three year trial on the free city loop service, I don’t know if they expanded the fleet though. Low emission oil burners are a positive move away from the old belching ones though.

Perth was part of a worldwide trial. These 3 buses are stored in a bus depot in Perth still. I am led to believe one has been transfered to a bus museum. The are currently talks going on about bringing the other 2 back into service. I have been lucky enough to have a look at these buses (in the depot mind you). They look quite nice, but have a weird inside, as the floor is the same level from front to back.

Also Beau Locks, my only issue is with some of the newer Orange buses. The seats are quite close together & I usually have my legs next to me on the seat (feet are in the air). But if you have trouble with the seats, try going for the seats near the wheelchair area & ignore anyone that bitches & moans about you taking up that extra room.

I’m just as concerned about the fit out as the emissions. The new green (coloured) busses have an appalling fit out for anyone over about 180cm tall, and really narrow seats. Being 196cm tall and a big burley bastard, I can attest that they’re are truly boring, and I find myself having to stand, even on an empty bus, because I can’t fit my legs into the silly seats. I don’t have any problem on Sydney or Melbourne busses, so it’s just a Canberra thing. How unusual!

Hargreaves (my hero) is fully aware of this, but he doesn’t have to ride in the busses, so he probably doesn’t care. Given our busses run half empty 90% of the time, I can’t see why we don’t have 1/3 less rows and more room between them. Bring back bendy busses for the intertown routes, I say.

I’m much happier with the orange sweat boxes, which I can at least sit down in.

neanderthalsis4:38 pm 15 Sep 09

JC said :

By the way ACTION did have two trail gas buses, these were the first PR100.3’s (fleet numbers 991/992)

990 and 991, actually 🙂

Right you are.

It’s pron for anorak wearing trainspotters…

Perth had three hydrogen busses operating on a three year trial on the free city loop service, I don’t know if they expanded the fleet though. Low emission oil burners are a positive move away from the old belching ones though.

Ryan said :

JC said :

By the way ACTION did have two trail gas buses, these were the first PR100.3’s (fleet numbers 991/992)

990 and 991, actually 🙂

Right you are.

JC said :

By the way ACTION did have two trail gas buses, these were the first PR100.3’s (fleet numbers 991/992)

990 and 991, actually 🙂

AG Canberra said :

I can assure you as a daily bus use TP 3000 – ACTION doesn’t sell busses – it uses them until they fall apart. Just last week the wipers stopped working on ours and before that a seat back dropped out and onto the floor.

The replacement of the current dinosaurs can’t come soon enough.

ACTION do sell old buses, at around 15 years and these are highly sort after. This is much less than cities like Sydney who keep them for about 25 years. The exception at the moment are the articulated buses where no replacements have arrived, but some are due soon.

I’m not all that fussed about what the buses run on, but I am pleased to see more airconditioned buses arriving to replace the old orange sweatboxes.

Hells_Bells744:47 pm 14 Sep 09

Sorry AG Canberran I did mix what you said somewhat. I meant the back of the backseat, but still same problems basically.

Hells_Bells744:43 pm 14 Sep 09

Oh yes gotta love those loose backseats! My son and I went flying when he was little on one that too had come loose fully. I wasn’t very impressed!

Good to know they still have them unfixed, makes me want to go catch a bus… not!

I can assure you as a daily bus use TP 3000 – ACTION doesn’t sell busses – it uses them until they fall apart. Just last week the wipers stopped working on ours and before that a seat back dropped out and onto the floor.

The replacement of the current dinosaurs can’t come soon enough.

Gungahlin Al said :

I have significant concerns about this move. It may be less polluting, but only against old diesel engines – not than CNG. And the GHG impact? What about that comparison TP (who writes like they are on the ‘inside’ so should be able to advise us).

CNG is clean but it is not the magic panacea. Also diesel is not dirty like many in Aust would make us believe. Head to Europe and have a look at the amount of clean Diesel vehicles they have over there, car’s in particular. CNG is certainly an improvement over say the Renault buses that ACTION have and either on par or slightly below par compared to modern diesels which conform to Euro IV and Euro V standards.

By the way ACTION did have two trail gas buses, these were the first PR100.3’s (fleet numbers 991/992), these have in the past 18 months been converted to diesel as they were orphans in the fleet. As a result of the trail ACTION have in the past 4-5 years added around 70 gas buses in the fleet all based in Tuggeranong, they are mostly Scania’s with a dozen or so MAN buses. Bit hard to miss as they have whopping great pods on the roof for gas storage.

TP3000, you will find the reason Belco doesn’t have CNG buses is because there isn’t a large enough gas supply going past Belconnen depot to add gas refueling facilities for a sizable fleet of gas buses. Remember CNG is very low pressure. This is the same issue faced by other operators in the country such as STA in Sydney and BT in Brisbane, hence why these cities have in recent years ordered a mix of CNG and diesel buses.

That would be like Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout?

Spectra said :

I think the confusion here is what various people consider “green” or “clean” and what they’re talking about when they say “emissions”. It sounds like this bus still kicks out CO2 at much the same rate as any other bus (most of our current ones are diesel – I think they were trialling some LNG ones at one point, but I may have made that up; they certainly trialled an ethanol blend, from memory – not sure what because of that). What it doesn’t do, however, is kick out that black smoke that we associate with big diesel engines – the “particulate matter”. While it’s not a huge issue in Australia, the added prevalence of diesel cars in Europe (combined with the bigger, higher density population) makes this soot quite a problem – besides the respiratory issues it can cause, it tends to leave a black coating on everything after a while.

i do hope that you aren’t saying that diesel is dangerous for the carbon particles released into the environment?

Diesel seems to be the new fuel, biodiesel even more so, but until the by-product is steam, or water, these new vehicles will still be polluting us… When they can make a hydrogen fuel cell at a reduced cost, which won’t level a building if it goes off, maybe we can get closer to a green solution.

personally, I would like to see maglev trains and springs at each end sending them down the lines…

According to this page, action has been using CNG since circa 1994. The original post is about new buses, but its not about ‘action going green’, but maybe ‘greener’. As others have said though, when comparing diesel to CNG, ‘greener’ is a relative concept.

The story behind why Canberra isn’t going for CNG buses is they don’t really have a resale value. Only Government run operators have CNG facilities, so they are the only ones who will buy our CNG buses in 10 to 20 years time. While anyone will be interested in purchasing ACTION’s diesel buses.

OzPhoenix said :

Can anyone fill in the blanks? Are current Action buses unleaded? Or is this simply using more modern diesel technology – which can make a massive difference?

The older ACTION Buses run on diesel. As you have also said, it is just modern technology at work.

Gungahlin Al12:54 pm 14 Sep 09

I have significant concerns about this move. It may be less polluting, but only against old diesel engines – not than CNG. And the GHG impact? What about that comparison TP (who writes like they are on the ‘inside’ so should be able to advise us).

I think the confusion here is what various people consider “green” or “clean” and what they’re talking about when they say “emissions”. It sounds like this bus still kicks out CO2 at much the same rate as any other bus (most of our current ones are diesel – I think they were trialling some LNG ones at one point, but I may have made that up; they certainly trialled an ethanol blend, from memory – not sure what because of that). What it doesn’t do, however, is kick out that black smoke that we associate with big diesel engines – the “particulate matter”. While it’s not a huge issue in Australia, the added prevalence of diesel cars in Europe (combined with the bigger, higher density population) makes this soot quite a problem – besides the respiratory issues it can cause, it tends to leave a black coating on everything after a while.

My memory is that there were already a few trial buses in Canberra running on CNG.

Presumably these are ‘new-tech’ diesel with far less emissions than their old stinky counterparts.

I’m surprised there hasn’t been more of a push towards CNG to be honest. Possibly the $$ factor I guess.

Growling Ferret11:54 am 14 Sep 09

Euro V emissions standards are strict, with particulat matter of .005 parts per million.

Its cleaner than the majority of cars on the road.

Can’t wait for SGS review of how the bus drives and rides in the future 🙂

I thought Action buses were already Diesel? Surely something like that would not be running on Petrol – it’d cost a small fortune!

But yeah, they already have gas busses up in QLD etc, so when I first read the title I thought action had done the same – even more so seeing I thought they already ran on diesel.

Can anyone fill in the blanks? Are current Action buses unleaded? Or is this simply using more modern diesel technology – which can make a massive difference?

Since when does diesel count as a green fuel? LPG or NGV maybe but diesel? If anything diesel is a lot dirtier than unleaded and results in more emissions.

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