Public and Commercial Transport

[white exec]

Disappointing choice. Diesel+diesel and 2.5km battery range. Upgrading costs to full EV will not be cheap, either.
For a bus company, they don't exactly have to cover the countryside with charging points!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Here's one logoed up in Brighton. See how the ULEZ is hidden in the large Zero Emissions "O". Unless the ULEZ's are less than 3 Km to traverse, or the bus free-wheels through it, I havent worked how how it remotely qualifies.



Regards Neil

[white exec]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... congestion

[Gibbo2286]

Not a lot of good making bus rides free if they aren't going to where you want to be at a time you want to go.

I've had my pensioner's bus pass for years and used it less that half a dozen times.

[van ordinaire]

My father always maintained public transport should be free because the revenue is less than the sum of the associated costs. Advances in technology may have changed that - but it's thought.

b-t-w, I'm typing this on the train back up to London & just heard an announcement from the "customer host" that he is operating a "static trolley service".

[white exec]

Is that because someone nicked its wheels?

[van ordinaire]

"Staff shortages" was the reason given, I seem to recall.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Ah look, we have an old thread on Public Transport.

Elon Musks' Hyperloop, one incarnation of the maglev, has had a mention today here. Then there is this from China...

China debuts 385 mph prototype magnetic levitation train

But don't you remember Tomorrow's World and the like reporting on this sort of stuff 40 years ago? Well as I find out from this article, Britain actually ran the world’s first: the Birmingham airport shuttle that ran from 1984-95.

They promised us … Technology....Maglev trains: why aren't we gliding home on hovering carriages

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Some discussion today on Beeching.......on the back of a £500 million announcement on re-opening/reinstating some routes axed in the Beeching cuts.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51272817


Very nearly texted into Jeremy Vine, but just pointlessly joined in with my usual shouting at the radio.

Of course the level of investment is drop in he ocean, and only select schemes will get the benefit. Everyone will want their little patch to benefit, and linking up Ashington and Blyth and Morpeth where there is existing track could well be at the front of the queue

and so it came to pass and hit the news today....

East West and Northumberland rail lines get £794m boost

Also benefiting Bletchley to Bicester.

Regards Neil

[CitroJim]

Good news We've only been waiting 40 years for the Oxford to Bletchley link to reopen... It was first promised back in the 70s...

Work on the line from Bicester to Bletchley has been taking place in a lowish-key way for a couple of years now… Mainly lifting the old time-expired freight-only track and vegetation clearance although more recently a good bit of infrastructure work has taken place...

Pre-lockdown I used to ride the route and check on progress... I'm looking forward to doing the same again as it's always good to see a new railway take shape

[NewcastleFalcon]

Our little Public Transport thread doesn't always have to be filled latest news and developments and weighty discussions on merits and failings.....occasionally a little picture of a thatched bus shelter and an old bus will suffice...




REgards Neil

[CitroJim]

Ohh, that's a proper bus! Love it

[NewcastleFalcon]

why is this in the national news?

Regards Neil

[CitroJim]

Because it's just reopened after 56 years Bow Street, the one near Aberystwyth and not the one in London!

The new Bow Street station is on a different site to the original...

[NewcastleFalcon]

Copied this from the Energy Matters Global and Domestic Thread.

As part of the plan, the government has promised to deliver 4,000 new electric or hydrogen buses that will be built in the UK by the end of this parliament.

It will also end the sale of diesel buses and has launched a consultation to decide when the ban should come into effect.

It said the move will transition cities and regions across the England to emission-free vehicles while protecting the UK's bus manufacturing industry.

The UK does have Alexanders, Optare and Wright Bus manufacturing buses that come to mind, but "due to a number of factors or possibly one huge factor, new registrations of Buses in 2020 plummeted. This would appear to be the lastest figures from the SMMT.

https://www.smmt.co.uk/vehicle-data/bus ... strations/

So probably unsurprising that the bus manufacturing in the UK is given a bit of a boost. But the private operators of buses and coaches will be free to buy buses from whoever they want. Wonder if Deutches Bahn (ie Arriva) will join in with the buy UK manufactured buses campaign for their UK fleet.

Regards Neil