NSW Bus Industry Taskforce announced

[eddy]

Electric cars cost too much and are hard to park so I see many people using bikes to get to school and work and sometimes your age prevents you from having have a car licence or the ability to afford one.

So whatever they decide on buses they must be very frequent on main roads and be able to take a few electric bikes, strollers,mobility scooters and anything else with wheels even if they take a chance of being laughed at.

[Swift]

Interesting recommendation in Page 36.



And wow new innovations on Page 23.

The 3 door 12 metre bus thing is something that Tony P has been going on about for years

We should have 4 doors on bendys. Some smarter better functioning countries have five.

[Campbelltown busboy]

They would need to clear things up with the unions before this 3 door 12 metre bus thing comes in

[Merc1107]

They would need to clear things up with the unions before this 3 door 12 metre bus thing comes in

An extra door has no negative impact on driver welfare - in fact it will save on late running.

[tonyp]

The 3 door 12 metre bus thing is something that Tony P has been going on about for years

And all-door boarding. Glad somebody noticed!

Don't worry, the RTBU will bring any hopes for change crashing down.

The other emerging gremlin is the overnight-charging battery bus, which has brought passenger capacity (and thus ultimately route capacity) crashing down. Not mentioned in the report. I wonder when the penny will drop?

[Merc1107]

Don't worry, the RTBU will bring any hopes for change crashing down.

Perhaps their "brothers" in QLD and the ACT can tap the NSW branch on the shoulder bringing news of how the world hasn't ended in their respective jurisdictions since all-door loading was inplemented

[tonyp]

I'll leave this here to frighten the horses.



Seriously, Singapore is gaining experience in adapting multi-door low-floor buses to RHD, so we don't have to go look far for guidance.

[tonyp]

Perhaps their "brothers" in QLD and the ACT can tap the NSW branch on the shoulder bringing news of how the world hasn't ended in their respective jurisdictions since all-door loading was inplemented

The irony is that the ACT drivers are part of the TWU NSW Branch.

Perhaps now that there's a Labor government in NSW, the unions are relieved of the burden of being obliged to maintain a petulant opposition against a conservative government. We can only live in hope.

[tonyp]

What is refreshing about this paper is:

1. It addresses the nexus between planning and transport - the different levels and types of development and the transport capacity needed to service each level of development.

2. Breaking with years of opposition to /lack of understanding of trams by the bus sector, it finally recognises trams as part of the spectrum of street public transport solutions. Most significantly, it breaks away from one-size-fits-all thinking and opens up consideration of tailored capacity appropriate to each operating context - all the way from minibuses to 60 metre trams.

3. It finally recognises (for Australia) that there are solutions that can improve the productivity and efficiency of vehicles according to the type of work they have to undertake, including extra doors and all-door boarding. A pity they don't mention stepless floors, but extra doors will force that.

4. It welcomes artics back into the fold, thus hopefully ending the completely irrational hex that TfNSW put on them during the Coalition years.

A visual downside to the paper is that whenever a bus is illustrated, it's mostly a Bustech - a challenger for the worst-designed bus in terms of fitness for the job that I've seen in 70 years of observing buses! This leads to a niggling doubt that, if they can't see what's wrong with a Bustech, do they really understand the issues?

Overall, quite a lot here that I've been boring this forum about for the last decade! Good to see it finally come together.

The only thing is that buses are no substitute for trains, which is a little ongoing thematic undercurrent with NSW Labor governments - like, "let's see if we can get out of commitment to transport investment on the cheap". Never mind that buses only have about 10% of the capacity of a metro, it's the appearance of doing something that counts doesn't it?

[Swift]

Overall, quite a lot here that I've been boring this forum about for the last decade! Good to see it finally come together.

Speak for the insular fuddy duddy transport people here who are resistant to admitting we can do far better, I've been on board all the way and found your beliefs a ray of hope in clouds of stale backward ways here.

As for Bustech, that was a very LNP solution to purchase from this interstate builder to save bucks and Labor would do well to dissociate from it fully.

[rogf24]

Looks like the Custom Denning Element 2 is already a little out of date without 3 doors.

[Linto63]

With none of Custom Denning’s potential customers having ever shown any interest in three door rigids, hardly surprising that they didn’t go down that path.

[Campbelltown busboy]

Overall, quite a lot here that I've been boring this forum about for the last decade! Good to see it finally come together.

Speak for the insular fuddy duddy transport people here who are resistant to admitting we can do far better, I've been on board all the way and found your beliefs a ray of hope in clouds of stale backward ways here.

As for Bustech, that was a very LNP solution to purchase from this interstate builder to save bucks and Labor would do well to dissociate from it fully.

All the issues Custom Coaches where having with the Alexander Dennis ownership in the 2010s would be why the LNP was getting the buses built elsewhere

[Swift]

Oh by the way, Singapore proven once again they are way ahead of the pack over anything in Australia.
They actually strive to keep up with world's best practice instead of holding on to old ways until there's political gain in handing out breadcrumbs.

[Merc1107]

With none of Custom Denning’s potential customers having ever shown any interest in three door rigids, hardly surprising that they didn’t go down that path.

It's entirely possible CD have anticipated the future need of additional doors and made their buses able to accommodate them without any significant modifications required to the design.

[eddy]

The problem is as I see it nobody wants to be held responsible for stupid people that think everything should foolproof and that is from drivers not wanting to open all doors to those who operate buses to the regulations that go back to 1945.

I saw a women on TV who walked up to a train and stuck her skinny hand in to prevent the door closing but her wrist was not sufficient to prevent the train from moving and she was very lucky someone on the station stopped it.

In America they even had to put a sticker on lawnmowers saying it was dangerous to trim hedges with them.

[tonyp]

It's entirely possible CD have anticipated the future need of additional doors and made their buses able to accommodate them without any significant modifications required to the design.

The Element is certainly closest to being able to be modified for a stepless rear door. I've seen a Volvo BZL adapted in Singapore, but it's messy and they can only manage a single leaf door. The Scania low floor chassis does not allow for a RHD rear door. MAN I'm unsure yet. Most other models on the Australian market would struggle, particularly those with a high floor at the back where it would be impossible.

[BAMBAM]

Speak for the insular fuddy duddy transport people here who are resistant to admitting we can do far better, I've been on board all the way and found your beliefs a ray of hope in clouds of stale backward ways here.

As for Bustech, that was a very LNP solution to purchase from this interstate builder to save bucks and Labor would do well to dissociate from it fully.

All the issues Custom Coaches where having with the Alexander Dennis ownership in the 2010s would be why the LNP was getting the buses built elsewhere

To further clarify your point, Custom was purchased by AD in 2012 of June, then went bust in 2014 May. During that period, they didn’t get contracts to build for STA with the Liberals going for Bustech, which lead to more Bustech orders. There wasn’t trouble, just didn’t get contracts to build buses which meant no money coming in and that’s where it went downhill.

Here’s a YouTube link of Custom Coaches at the time basically begging for work otherwise they were closing down.

https://youtu.be/FNQ3yOI54q8?si=xG-pJb-HmEWRWd-Q[/youtube]

https://youtu.be/FNQ3yOI54q8?si=xG-pJb-HmEWRWd-Q

[Campbelltown busboy]

It's entirely possible CD have anticipated the future need of additional doors and made their buses able to accommodate them without any significant modifications required to the design.

The Element is certainly closest to being able to be modified for a stepless rear door. I've seen a Volvo BZL adapted in Singapore, but it's messy and they can only manage a single leaf door. The Scania low floor chassis does not allow for a RHD rear door. MAN I'm unsure yet. Most other models on the Australian market would struggle, particularly those with a high floor at the back where it would be impossible.

The high floor at the back of buses is to cater for the horizontally positioned engine or underfloor battery packs as that is what most Australian operators opt for as state governments don't mandate flat floor buses with a veridically positioned engine or on roof battery packs

[eddy]

The big wheels are why the DD cannot go from Northern beaches through the tunnel as well as trying to squeeze motor and doors into an bus that needs to have a mass exemption to run.

[tonyp]

Here’s a YouTube link of Custom Coaches at the time basically begging for work otherwise they were closing down.

Sounds like a rerun of Comeng and trains - Transport willingly abandoning good design and performance for cheap and nasty. The first was Labor's call, but for the second, the Coalition should have called out the loss of orders interstate. Ms B also seems to have overlooked all the buses that were being built at Tomago, which then closed down for the same reason.

The high floor at the back of buses is to cater for the horizontally positioned engine or underfloor battery packs as that is what most Australian operators opt for as state governments don't mandate flat floor buses with a veridically positioned engine or on roof battery packs

Since the change to mandatory accessibility, the Australian bus sector has, for whatever reason, preferred interurban chassis to citybus chassis. But they'll have to move into the 21st century sometime and CD and European manufacturers will lead the way there. State agencies also need to mandate the change and it's looking like Victoria is leading.

[eddy]

The big wheels are why the DD cannot go from Northern beaches through the tunnel as well as trying to squeeze motor and doors into an bus that needs to have a mass exemption to run.

PS
If they pay for their drivers to upgrade to a semi licence for a fully flat floor DD Trailerbus with big doors they would have more qualified drivers knocking at their door.

[Linto63]

During that period, they didn’t get contracts to build for STA with the Liberals going for Bustech, which lead to more Bustech orders.

It wasn't so anything to do with the Liberal government going for Bustechs, contracts were put out to competitive tender, Bustech scored best against the assessment criteria and hence was awarded the work.

Transport willingly abandoning good design and performance for cheap and nasty.

While everybody has their preferences, Bustechs appear to be a better build quality than Custom bodied buses of the same age.

If they pay for their drivers to upgrade to a semi licence for a fully flat floor DD Trailerbus with big doors they would have more qualified drivers knocking at their door.

Can we please keep the trailerbus fantasy to the trailerbus fantasy thread?

[Campbelltown busboy]

How about if we could cut the contracts down to 5 like I suggested the last entry in my bus contract thread in the fantasy section
https://busaustralia.com/forum/viewtopi ... 5#p1101405

[Fleet Lists]

Totally off topic Trailerbus posts removed.