The New Bus For London Has Arrived (3 minute version)
full text to come – when the longer version is completed. ———————– As TfL have proudly boasted, this new bus has the most advanced and ‘least polluting’ diesel hybrid propulsion system yet devised. But, as the film shows, if reducing urban air pollution was really seen as being important there is a solution which could result in the NB4L being as ‘clean’ as Croydon’s trams… which means no tailpipe pollution at all – something which would represent a real breath of fresh air. re: CCTV surveillance cameras; “inspired” by events in Walthamstow as experienced by Austrian tourists photographing buses a few years ago and that when Croydon’s Tramlink was built the enabling legislation explicitly prohibited ordinary people from using their own cameras at Tramlink stops, although it permitted the media and official CCTV cameras to be used.
Tagged with: Borismaster • diesel • Electric • hybrid • hybrid vehicle • london • New Bus • Omnibus
Filed under: CCTV
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Strange there are no videos of the thing actually moving..?
OH SHIT !!!!!!!!! NO NO? NO JUST NO!!!
WE will get used to it in time, however? not a very pleasing design and I bet it will cost an arm
and a leg to manufacture.
Thank you for this first overview. I think it? is a good step in modernizing London Transport.
London does have small fleet of hydrogen fuel cell buses that are 100% (local) emission free,? just like a battery!
@jaketen2001 If you knew how much energy is needed to create, store and transport that hydrogen… and the buses are only low-ish capacity single deckers.
Vancouver trialled hydrogen buses and found that the energy to power one of them was enough? to power 9 trolleybuses! So they bought 230 more trolleybuses.
@collieultimo I agree, but most people seem to dislike the new bus.
OK, I would like some changes, but am hoping? that the new bus will prove to be successful with many thousands built.
Simon
@muscleco its very? rare to see it moving! However someone does have a video of it on the road in Trafalgar Square.
@lionsheart8 Especially for the first year, when teething issues are identified and resolved, I would expect the bus to receive expert maintenance from many people – including Arriva, TfL and the vehicle’s builders, Wrightbus.
A bigger question is what happens 20 years from now.?
@lionsheart8 Its not really meant to… as the longer film shows this bus has many features from other buses, including twin stairways, open rear platforms, triple doorways,? and more.
@HitchinTrains I’m not sure about the twin stairways although its not a new idea as , double deckers in cities such as Berlin have twin stairways, as did the Leyland TTL demonstrator of 1935.
The? TTL was of an innovative low floor design with a floor height of just 14 inches (about 35cm) as well as twin doorways (front / open rear). In many ways it could be the best historic bus that never got built.
@2TEG oh surely its not THAT bad?
I will agree that it is ‘different’ and even ‘distinctive’ but thankfully it does not look like some ‘Routemaster copycat’ designs I’ve seen? from overseas.
@citytransportinfo
Those buses were built back in 1998, they were converted to diesel-electric hybrids when Vancouver became privatised under TransLink. Vancouver didn’t get any new trolleys until 2006. BC Transit however had 20 new hydrogen buses built in 2009 and they’re still running in the smaller settlement of? Whistler.
I really dont like the new so called ‘routemaster’ bus, its far too big and far too small inside! There? was one parked in Kingston market a week ago and i couldn’t stand up right on the top deck! Bring back the old proper routemaster bus i say!!
@citytransportinfo companies (van Hool, ect) have larger fuel cell buses on the road in various cities, FC? buses are not size constrained. I am aware of the energy conversion loses, they are not insignificant but also not a killer. There is plenty of by-product hydrogen out there. Your Vancouver data is incorrect.
I am beginning to like the “Borismaster” the interior is modern and looks well proportioned and it doesn’t look like its made from playmobil unlike what I can say for the plain-ugly Alexander-Dennis Enviro 400 buses which seem to be norm of any place in the UK nowadays. I have rode an Enviro? 400 and they are just as bad as they smell – cheap and nasty. Optare and Wrightbus Volvo B7TL/B9TL’s are so much nicer to ride as a passenger.
@citytransportinfo Running costs have to be taken into consideration. While it? does not eliminate pollution completely it still burns less diesel making it more fuel-efficient and hence cheaper to operate per mile (and more incentive for operators to use it). This Borismaster is already costing quite a bit, if they spent any more on making it fully electric the project would have well be dead in the water already.
@jaketen2001 Hydrogen is way too expensive to operate. Singapore has stopped using it for? this reason as well.
I have to say that I can see this bus being a white? elephant, as the so called ‘open platform’ will not be open all the time.
loool give it a year? ..that bus is gonna get fucked up. lool
Interesting post war? look on the exterior as in more rounded. We still use electric trolley buses in Seattle. They are quiet and electric provides outstanding performance on the steep grades.
@lionsheart8 Yes but the thing is, tfl want futuristic designs, so they’re not gonna spend years working on a 1960s bus because London would look very crap… Think of? it as an entirely refurbished Metropolitan line but tfl uses the steam trains rather than the new S-stock.
@Mutleytech They are also clean – no tailpipe pollution!
Despite serious issues with air? pollution London’s transport planners prefer diesel buses. Which is a shame (to put it mildly),
Simon
heating? system?
@citytransportinfo Easier to re-route a diesel bus when you need to dig the roads up though, isn’t it? And they do a lot of that in London . . . Self-powered vehicles are inherently more flexible in operation and easier to deploy on new routes and (the main? reason I suspect) require a lower capital spend on supporting infrastructure. Also, all that cable, just hanging around? Begging to be stolen by some enterprising metal thief! (I’m joking – even thieves aren’t that stupid)