In message , at 13:12:37 on Thu, 3 Feb
2011, Adrian remarked:
The lump I saw at the back on top of a single decker in some picture.
I presume its the battery pack. Perhaps double deckers can fit it in
elsewhere.

http://citytransport.info/Digi/4690a.jpg

Do stop trying to get one over everyone else all the time. You often end
up looking silly.

That's right, Bloaty. It's me that looks silly after you mentioned not
having seen any hybrid buses, because they didn't have lumps on the roof.
Oh, look. I look so silly having posted a pic of one of the hybrids in
service in London - without a hump on the roof. Yes, silly me.

A five year old hybrid bus seems a bit unlikely. What sort of
modifications does it have?
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

The lump I saw at the back on top of a single decker in some
picture. I presume its the battery pack. Perhaps double deckers can
fit it in elsewhere.

http://citytransport.info/Digi/4690a.jpg

Do stop trying to get one over everyone else all the time. You often
end up looking silly.

That's right, Bloaty. It's me that looks silly after you mentioned not
having seen any hybrid buses, because they didn't have lumps on the
roof. Oh, look. I look so silly having posted a pic of one of the
hybrids in service in London - without a hump on the roof. Yes, silly
me.

A five year old hybrid bus seems a bit unlikely. What sort of
modifications does it have?

A quick google for the plate suggests it's perfectly legit.

http://www.buslistsontheweb.co.uk/year/year.asp?
Year=55&Type=9&MenuType=Year&ManuSub=&PageNo=2

Search that page for the plate - LX55EAG. It's one of the first batch of
six hybrids - Wright Electrocities delivered between Dec '05 and Feb '06,
from an order placed in March '05 - there seems to have been at least
one later batch of those.
http://www.busandcoach.com/newspage....2&categoryid=0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Electrocity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_buses_in_London

Mizter T gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

Hybrid bus technology is a Good Thing in my book - it's not some magic
cure all for air pollution by any means, but it does help - and I think
TfL's decision that all new London buses from 2012 will be hybrids [1]
is something of a marker in the sand

Yep, so do I.

I'm VERY cynical about hybrid cars, but hybrid buses really do make much
more sense.

On Feb 3, 9:25*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:

On 3 Feb 2011 10:54:43 GMT, Adrian wrote:

gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
saying:

Are you talking about ... the hybrid diesel ones that had much fanfare
then were never mentioned again (and I remember saying on this group
would be underpowered to many dismissive putdowns)?

You mean the 56 currently in service, rising to 300 through this year, or
the 100% of new buses TfL will be bringing into service from next year?

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/proj...emes/2019.aspx

And you may be interested to read the wording of the latest mayoral
answer on the topic of hybrid buses post 2012.

Hybrid buses promise
Question No:56/2011
Darren Johnson
Can *you *please provide a clear, unambiguous re-statement of your
commitment that all new buses will be hybrids from 2012 onwards?

Written answer from the Mayor

My aspiration is that all new buses from 2012 will be of a hybrid type.
TfL is working with bus operators and manufacturers to maximise the
number of hybrids from 2012 but the pace of the roll out will depend on
the availability of funding within and outside TfL, such as the DfT’s
Green Bus Fund, and the rate at which capital premiums reduce as volumes
increase. The inexorable rise in the price of diesel will also spur
operators to increasingly switch to this type of bus.

You will note the use of the word "commitment" in the question and
"aspiration" in the answer.

I am not surprised to see the above Mayoral statement - it makes sense
that TfL has preserved flexibility to not use hybrids if it cannot
afford to do so.

I'd just described the 2012 commitment as "something of a marker in
the sand" in another post - looks like the wind's blowing that sand
around a little...

Disappointing - though I (somewhat grudgingly) acknowledge it might be
sensible in a 'real-wordly' kind of way - if say it was to come down
to introducing hybrids at the expense of bus cuts elsewhere.

Two thoughts - one is that the issue of air pollution in London
remains very real, and doesn't get anything like the kind of attention
it should. The second is that this is another example of the flakiness
of the 'Boris promise', melting as it has into an aspiration - BoJo
bluster and mayoral credibility don't really go hand in hand.
Ultimately though it's the first issue about air quality which is what
really matters. (Thankfully, going by the publicity push that TfL have
just started - lots of billboard posters etc - the next phase of the
LEZ, which Boris postponed, is going to go ahead in January 2012, i.e.
with no further delay).

Mizter T gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

Two thoughts - one is that the issue of air pollution in London remains
very real, and doesn't get anything like the kind of attention it
should.

Counter that against the proportion of traffic that's bus, rather than
taxi/truck/van/car/motorbike...

The second is that this is another example of the flakiness of
the 'Boris promise', melting as it has into an aspiration - BoJo bluster
and mayoral credibility don't really go hand in hand.

Again, counter - find me a _single_ local authority in the country that's
not having to do some very serious cost-cutting in the budgets for the
next couple of years.

In message , at 18:32:45 on Thu, 3 Feb
2011, Adrian remarked:
http://citytransport.info/Digi/4690a.jpg

Do stop trying to get one over everyone else all the time. You often
end up looking silly.

That's right, Bloaty. It's me that looks silly after you mentioned not
having seen any hybrid buses, because they didn't have lumps on the
roof. Oh, look. I look so silly having posted a pic of one of the
hybrids in service in London - without a hump on the roof. Yes, silly
me.

A five year old hybrid bus seems a bit unlikely. What sort of
modifications does it have?

A quick google for the plate suggests it's perfectly legit.

Yes, you are correct.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Electrocity

That's a slightly different bus, though. It does have a "bump at the
back", albeit a different bump from the more recent hybrids.

--
Roland Perry

In uk.transport.london Paul Corfield wrote:
Written answer from the Mayor

The plans for the new Countdown system are as follows:

The new system will deliver real time information for all bus routes
across the network.

Oh, I thought the screens already did that? Or do they currently just
display timetable time? Or does it mean that only a subset of routes are
currently equipped.

Using the miniBus Android app, I was quite surprised that routes in the fens
have realtime information - I thought it was only the city buses. The Cambs
data seems to cover any route that goes into Cambs - goes as far as Oakham,
for example (though I don't think that service is transpondered).

Hope that reply helps a bit. The description of the internet service
sounds pretty similar to the Traveline interface.

It does. I think Traveline/whoever are coordinating a national effort.
Cambridge Uni Computer Lab have been involved in the Cambs system, but I
think DfT/Traveline/etc have been working independently.

Theo

On Feb 4, 12:24*am, Theo Markettos
wrote:
In uk.transport.london Paul Corfield wrote:

Written answer from the Mayor

The plans for the new Countdown system are as follows:

The new system will deliver real time information for all bus routes
across the network.

Oh, I thought the screens already did that? *Or do they currently just
display timetable time? *Or does it mean that only a subset of routes are
currently equipped.

I'm guessing that terminology is the problem here. People associate
the term Countdown only with the stop displays. The new system
includes the web and phone interface. Stop displays do show real time
info and have been linked into I-Bus so use that data. I think the
Mayoral answer means that real time info will be at stops, on the web
and accessible via mobile phone.

Using the miniBus Android app, I was quite surprised that routes in the fens
have realtime information - I thought it was only the city buses. *The Cambs
data seems to cover any route that goes into Cambs - goes as far as Oakham,
for example (though I don't think that service is transpondered).

Interesting. I guess it goes to show that there are relatively cheap
ways of providing this type of info. Shame that for Cambs there will
be no rural buses in the future when the subsidy is cut to zero.

--
Paul C
via Google

In message
,
Paul Corfield writes

Shame that for Cambs there will be no rural buses in the future when
the subsidy is cut to zero.

I don't think all the rural bus routes in Cambs are subsidized and
therefore likely to disappear.
--
Paul Terry

In message , at 09:09:48 on Fri, 4
Feb 2011, Paul Terry remarked:

Shame that for Cambs there will be no rural buses in the future when
the subsidy is cut to zero.

I don't think all the rural bus routes in Cambs are subsidized and
therefore likely to disappear.

Depends a little what you mean by "rural", but a huge number of routes
are being proposed to be cut shortly, especially those which go more
than "one village away" from Cambridge.

Fifty services listed he

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/.doc...ibrary?get=216
--
Roland Perry