In message , RobWilton
There was even one
occasion when one of these turned over. The owner of the company
tried to put a positive spin on the whole incident .

Turned over.....Positive spin!! AH, the old ones are the best eh,Mike.

LOL that's what I keep telling my wife. Trouble is she says there's old
and then there's me. I'm not too sure what she means :-))

--
Mike Hughes
A Taxi driver licensed for London and Brighton
at home in Tarring, West Sussex, England
Interested in American trains real and model?
Look here http://mikehughes627.fotopic.net/

In article ,
(Colin McKenzie) wrote:

wrote:
In article ,
(Adrian) wrote:

An RM is about 7.5t ULW.
A Citaro bendy is about 18t ULW.

Actually, an RML (nearer in capacity to a bendy and not
appreciably different from a modern double-decker) is 8.25 tons
ULW. You only get a 64-seater RM for 7.5 tons.

Difference between tonne and ton? RMLs were always labelled as
7t15cwt - so your figure is high unless the replacement engines
were half a ton heavier than the originals. RMs were 7t5wt.

RMLs are definitely over 8 tonnes now. Now I think of it, it was RMs that
were 7 tons 15 cwt.

And the RM is as rigid a bus as has ever been produced.

I suspect a big part of the reason why modern buses are so heavy is
that the low floor requirement means you have to put in more metal
to get the same rigidity (because it can't be in the most
weight-efficient places).

A front engine, front entrance (behind the front wheel) Borismaster
might be able to be lighter than any existing low-floor bus,
especially if it didn't have a driveshaft to the back wheels.

The solidity of the Routemaster is in the frame, I agree.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:28:04 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

Was in London today when I saw some kind of mercedes vehicle with taxi
light on the front. I first though that it was an out of town one on
a London job but no on the back was the PCO plate.

So basically that is the end of the old London taxi. The iconic
design has been around since I dont know when.

That's what they said when the TX1 came in a decade or so back.

"Mike Hughes" wrote ...
As far as the Merc is concerned I am reserving my judgement as there are
several items which have mechanical or electronic operation (electric
step, electric doors, rear steering) which have not seen heavy duty yet. I
always have this fear that mechanical things can go wrong and the ore
complicated they are the more time and money they take to repair.

Fair comment.
How do you feel about the 'fact' of competition?
Does it look like the first of several?
Will it force a more realistic price for TXs?

In the past, they've always managed to re-assert the monopoly pretty
quickly - but will Merceded hang in there?

And finally, what's the uptake on the Mercs been like?

(that'll teach you admit you have good sources!)
--

Andrew

"She plays the tuba.
It is the only instrument capable
of imitating a distress call."

In message , Andrew Heenan
writes
"Mike Hughes" wrote ...
As far as the Merc is concerned I am reserving my judgement as there are
several items which have mechanical or electronic operation (electric
step, electric doors, rear steering) which have not seen heavy duty yet. I
always have this fear that mechanical things can go wrong and the ore
complicated they are the more time and money they take to repair.

Fair comment.
How do you feel about the 'fact' of competition?

I welcome competition as this should bring a better level of customer
service to the trade - it certainly did when Metrocab brought out the
TTT as it resulted in the Nissan engined FX4 driver which some claim was
the best London taxi ever (obviously pre- Euro 3 emissions regs)

Does it look like the first of several?

Hard to say. There have been rumours that a Hybrid car, based upon the
Metrocab was due to come out, but that has now died down. LTI have
(had?) a couple of 'concept' electric cars in the pipeline but these
have a limited range (100 miles) and a top speed of about 50 mph which
is no good for going along the M4 to Heathrow. They are alo supposed to
be developing some Hyrogen fuel cell based vehicles in time forthe 2012
Olympics. Whether the present economic situation will change this
remains to be seen

Will it force a more realistic price for TXs?

Hard to say. LTI (well the parent company MBH) have signed a deal with
Geely in China. This means that production of 4000 at Coventry will be
increased to 40,000 in China. The Chinese built vehicles will be sold in
China and Asia by Geely while LTI will sell them elsewhere in the world.

It was claimed that production will continue in Coventry but it was
hoped that Chinese made parts would help keep prices down

In the past, they've always managed to re-assert the monopoly pretty
quickly - but will Merceded hang in there?

The only reason that the TX has a monopoly is because alternative
vehicles simply were not bought in enough volume to make a profit. That
was frequently because they had more problems that the FX/TX range.
Whether the Merc will be able to continue remains to be seen

And finally, what's the uptake on the Mercs been like?

They hope to have 150 in service by the end of Jan

(that'll teach you admit you have good sources!)

No problems I just hate to see misinformation which is why I chose to
write for Taxi talk magazine

--
Mike Hughes
A Taxi driver licensed for London and Brighton
at home in Tarring, West Sussex, England
Interested in American trains real and model?
Look here http://mikehughes627.fotopic.net/

On Mon, Dec 01, 2008 at 08:18:52PM -0000, wrote:

The Mercedes can make U-turns better, one driver told me. IIRC, it is
because the rear wheels can also turn to a degree.

It's basically a converted small van. A driver told *me* that they had
to make the rear wheels turn because otherwise the turning circle
wouldn't be tight enough. He didn't vouchsafe to me how he got this
insight into Mercedes' manufacturing :-)

He also told me that he quite liked the one he'd tried, except for one
thing - he thought that because it didn't look like a taxi, customers
wouldn't hail it.

Isn't there some Peugeot thing that's also been approved?

--
David Cantrell | top google result for "internet beard fetish club"

I caught myself pulling grey hairs out of my beard.
I'm definitely not going grey, but I am going vain.

The only reason that the TX has a monopoly is because alternative
vehicles simply were not bought in enough volume to make a profit.
That was frequently because they had more problems that the FX/TX
range. Whether the Merc will be able to continue remains to be seen


Is there any talk yet of issues of recognition/branding with the Vito or
anything else other than TXs? Until now the distinctive
shape of the vehicle has been a pretty good guide to it being a licensed
taxi. (I suppose Prince Philip, Stephen Fry et al may have had to get
used to people
waving at them - or possibly trying to open the doors at traffic
lights.) In contrast there are plenty of other vehicles including many
private hire vehicles which look like the Vito. Will the orange
stickers on the early Vitos be a fixture- so we might perhaps end up
with London [partly] orange cabs in place of the traditional black?

(And while I'm here, I'm sorry my comment "I don't see what merits the
TX4 has over it" was
unclear. I have no view one way or the other really; I intended only to
offer an alternative to the OP's regrets
about losing the traditional style. And, as was manifest, I didn't know
about the prospect of manufacturing going offshore.)



--
Robin

David Cantrell gurgled happily, sounding much like
they were saying:

The Mercedes can make U-turns better, one driver told me. IIRC, it is
because the rear wheels can also turn to a degree.

It's basically a converted small van. A driver told *me* that they had
to make the rear wheels turn because otherwise the turning circle
wouldn't be tight enough. He didn't vouchsafe to me how he got this
insight into Mercedes' manufacturing :-)

Umm, he looked at their website...? (already linked to here)

Rear-steer's nothing new, of course - Honda were using it in the '80s.

He also told me that he quite liked the one he'd tried, except for one
thing - he thought that because it didn't look like a taxi, customers
wouldn't hail it.

Yep, I can see that being an issue - those sort of van conversions are in
widespread use elsewhere as minicabs - and just as Joe Public's been
thoroughly trained that in London "Black Cab" = Taxi, anything else =
minicab/not hailable/driven by unininsured perverts & rapists...

On Mon, Dec 01, 2008 at 08:53:57AM -0800, Boltar wrote:
On Dec 1, 3:24 pm, Adrian wrote:
Bendis just plain don't fit London streets with tight junctions,
pedestrian refuges and frequent traffic lights.
********. They fit fine on all the main roads. Funnily enough so do
HGVs.

When was the last time you saw a HGV trying to turn right from
Bloomsbury Street onto New Oxford Street?

--
David Cantrell | A machine for turning tea into grumpiness

Today's previously unreported paraphilia is tomorrow's Internet sensation

"neverwas" gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

Will the orange
stickers on the early Vitos be a fixture- so we might perhaps end up
with London [partly] orange cabs in place of the traditional black?

That one's long since gone, of course.