2 February 2012

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

| johnboy
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greens on a red bus

The Greens’ Amanda Bresnan has shared the news they they’ve been inspecting a double decker bus.

“I was interested to learn that the showcased double decker can carry more passengers than the standard ACTION articulated bus, and is cheaper,” said ACT Greens Transport Spokesperson, Amanda Bresnan MLA.

“One of the issues the Greens are concerned about is peak-hour capacity problems in the ACTION network. It is unacceptable that Canberra’s Canberra commuters are left waiting as a full bus drives by their stop.

“I am interested to know if the Government has considered using double deckers to help ease overcrowding.

“The bus brought to Canberra today was also accessible for older people and people with disability. Issues of the vehicles height and bicycle racks would also need to be considered.

“What is certain is that the Government needs to do something about peak hour crowding; at least by expanding its fleet of high-capacity buses.

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

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How long would it take for a person to exit via the front door if they were in the top section ?

with all the trees in Canberra that overhang the road will it be able to stop at a bus stop.

JC said :

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.

The upper deck could be reserved exclusively for card carrying Greens, EL2’s and above.

creative_canberran6:05 pm 03 Feb 12

Gosh these four are a waste of space. Nothing here that wasn’t already known by the relevant people nor easily found out via Google.

Quit with the damn jihad against cars and do something practical. The Greens have such a one tracked mind.

miz said :

I doubt double deckers would fit at interchanges and depots. Pretty sure this has been considered before and rejected, hence the purchase of articulated buses. Let’s not ‘re-invent the wheel’ for political profile purposes please.

Correct. They definitely wouldn’t fit at Belconnen depot, the CNG buses can’t go everywhere there.

Double-deckers are alright for Europe where they have to negotiate narrow medieval streets. I understand the articulated buses that replaced the double deckers in London have had a lot of problems and London is far from the pokiest of cities.

Without that restriction in Canberra there’d be no point in getting them given the disadvantages.

Bussie said :

00davist said :

I can see some advantages to these busses, and i would be curios to know the overall hight difference between this and a regular bus, and how many seats it provides over the articulated.

They can carry (not seat) 96 compared to 110 for the existing ACTION artics, I assume the new ones will carry the same.

The tallest buses in ACTION’s existing fleet, the CNG MANs, are 3.575m high. The double deckers would have to be over 4m.

Thankyou!

I doubt double deckers would fit at interchanges and depots. Pretty sure this has been considered before and rejected, hence the purchase of articulated buses. Let’s not ‘re-invent the wheel’ for political profile purposes please.

00davist said :

I can see some advantages to these busses, and i would be curios to know the overall hight difference between this and a regular bus, and how many seats it provides over the articulated.

They can carry (not seat) 96 compared to 110 for the existing ACTION artics, I assume the new ones will carry the same.

The tallest buses in ACTION’s existing fleet, the CNG MANs, are 3.575m high. The double deckers would have to be over 4m.

I can see some advantages to these busses, and i would be curios to know the overall hight difference between this and a regular bus, and how many seats it provides over the articulated.

However my biggest concern is the potentially safety concern, yes, modern double decker busses are designed to be much harder to roll, and the centre of gravity of a double decker is actually fairly low, but then again, some of our lovely action drivers poses a special kind of stupid, and drive accordingly!

Ralph Nader, another Green, used to exhibit the same sort of look to give the impression that he had more important things on his mind than choosing the perfect wardrobe.

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.

Why stop there…… http://www.freakingnews.com/Big-Bus-Pictures-30475.asp.

But seriously why stop there. What about these for lateral thinking?

1/ China’s bus on legs – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/green-motoring/7930484/Giant-bus-which-drives-over-cars-planned-in-China.html

2/ Double decker articulated buses http://www.sfu.ca/person/dearmond/phono/London.tbus2049b.jpg?49,22

3/ Bi articulated buses http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUU95szL0cQ&list=PLB5B1975295A41946&index=1&feature=plpp_video

Or, here’s an idea, perhaps just put more buses on major transport corridors, add some more stops and let people get off their slow and circuitous suburban route buses asap and onto the faster intertown routes.

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.

devils_advocate4:15 pm 02 Feb 12

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.

bitzermaloney2:05 pm 02 Feb 12

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.

DarkLadyWolfMother1:24 pm 02 Feb 12

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.

BicycleCanberra1:16 pm 02 Feb 12

‘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.

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