The Greens go look at a bus, a double decker bus!

Just what Canberra doesn’t need. Try more frequency first, might actually make it more attractive to catch the bus, rather than sitting around an interchange for an hour waiting for a bus.

Oh just realised that my local interchange (Belconnen) is no more so make that sitting around on a bus stop in the middle of the Belconnen towncentre. Real good incentive to catch the bus…. Not.

bitzermaloney said :

Amanda’s next trip is to Sydney to learn that trains carry more passengers than buses.

Sydney, as most people would be aware, has double decker trains. Yes, these are great for packing in more commuters but they do have one significant drawback. It takes a lot longer to get commuters on and off than it does with a well-designed single decker. Hence thetrain timetables in Sydney are now slower than they were with the original “red rattlers” 80 years ago.

The only way round this is to have separate entrances for the upper and lower decks and that means re-introducing bus conductors and doubling the labour costs. When Sydney Buses tried introducing driver-only double deck buses (the Atlanteans) in the early 1970s they ran into all sorts of strife because of this.

This is an idea that’s going nowhere like the abandoned yellow “mandala” (or is it “nirvana”) bus in Haig Park opposite the Shell servo. I suggest that the Greens get back to their pie in the sky notions about light rail, ‘cos if this is their idea of practical public transport, they’re going to get into all kinds of strife.

ML-585 said :

Don’t worry about the fact that ACTION’s depots are not capable of housing such a vehicle, and that some Bus Stations (Woden in particular) have height restrictions.

So before buying these buses, you would have to build a new depot somewhere (possibly at Mitchell/Gungahlin). Not so cheap now, are they? (That said, ACT Gov should be seriously looking at a new depot anyway – whether it be for double deckers, bi-artics or light rail.)

Perhaps The Greens should wait to see how ACTION makes use of its new articulated buses, due for delivery from July before calling for double deckers.

^^ This. The Greens would probably be for it though, it’s not like they care about a surplus.

shirty_bear said :

ML-585 said :

Don’t worry about the fact that ACTION’s depots are not capable of housing such a vehicle, and that some Bus Stations (Woden in particular) have height restrictions.

Nice to see the Greens have invested their usual level of research effort.

+1. Also I remember reading somewhere that double decker buses were much more prone to tipping over due to their relatively higher centre of gravity and required specialist driving ability. How do we rate the skills of the drivers of the current buses…?

ML-585 said :

Don’t worry about the fact that ACTION’s depots are not capable of housing such a vehicle, and that some Bus Stations (Woden in particular) have height restrictions.

Nice to see the Greens have invested their usual level of research effort.

bitzermaloney said :

Amanda’s next trip is to Sydney to learn that trains carry more passengers than buses.

If she was working for the Fed’s she’d have gone to go to London UK for the bus research and New York for trains… and Shelbyville for monorails.

Oh, gods – did you have to mention monorails? Now we’ll have the light rail brigade screaming for one.

ML-585 said :

Perhaps The Greens should wait to see how ACTION makes use of its new articulated buses, due for delivery from July before calling for double deckers.

Didn’t see anyone calling for double deckers.

That said, anything that could help with overcrowded buses would be appreciated. A number of times I’ve had a bus go by me in the morning because it’s full. And then the bus after that doesn’t have a bike rack for my bike. Starts to get pretty annoying.

Amanda’s next trip is to Sydney to learn that trains carry more passengers than buses.

If she was working for the Fed’s she’d have gone to go to London UK for the bus research and New York for trains… and Shelbyville for monorails.

DarkLadyWolfMother said :

I’d love to see these on the road, just because I like how they look. Though I’m curious how many roads they’d have to avoid because of bridges and the like.

I look forward to seeing them negotiate a few tight roundabouts at speed

Don’t worry about the fact that ACTION’s depots are not capable of housing such a vehicle, and that some Bus Stations (Woden in particular) have height restrictions.

So before buying these buses, you would have to build a new depot somewhere (possibly at Mitchell/Gungahlin). Not so cheap now, are they? (That said, ACT Gov should be seriously looking at a new depot anyway – whether it be for double deckers, bi-artics or light rail.)

Perhaps The Greens should wait to see how ACTION makes use of its new articulated buses, due for delivery from July before calling for double deckers.

I’d love to see these on the road, just because I like how they look. Though I’m curious how many roads they’d have to avoid because of bridges and the like.

‘But would we have them red? Traditional orange? Or modish green?’

Red for red rapid! Blue for Blue rapid…etc. It would be difficult to run these through the suburbs though, with low power cables and the trees.