AdMet CDi 1790 (decker) on route training

[busrider]

Hi all,

The new Bustech CDi for the J1X Jet Express service has been out and about doing route training today, here's a few pics I got of it on North Tce.

The first time I'd ever seen the decker outside of Mile End Depot.

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It pulled into stops along the way, doing route training.

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Traffic was moving slowly, so I managed to get another pic further down in the road.

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A few hours later, with a bit more traffic on the road.

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[leyland4ever]

Great photos -thanks - I have been looking forward to seeing some photos of this!

And your choice of North Terrace is historically very appropriate, as all of these locations could have been used to take photos of the previous generation of 'fuel' double deckers between 1938 and 1961, when eleven pre-war double deckers (until 1954), and 15 post war (from 1947) operated on the Somerton/Graymore routes, which ran from the Railway Station via North Terrace, West Terrace, and Anzac Highway (Somerton) or West Beach Road/South Road, and back to Anzac Highway (Graymore).

Yes - the Transport Minister had it wrong when he said in lastweek's press release that the new 'decker is the first metropolitan decker since the d/d trolleybuses were withdrawn in 1958!

The remaining post-war Daimlers were not withdrawn until February 1961 (although from November 1958 they no longer used North Terrace, but travelled via King William Street).

The second photo is almost exactly where the Somerton/Graymore terminus was from 1938 until November 1958!

Very well done - let's see some more, please?

Cheers

Trevor

[Lt. Commander Data]

Very good photos Busrider, I love this bus already. I am very jealous of anyone who has seen this bus physically, not just on the computer. (Some of us live in the hills and don't venture into the City very often -And now the 'freeway' down track is only 90km/h it takes longer). But haven't they left the training a bit late, if route J1X is starting next Monday? Also, I saw a clip on Youtube from when they reintroduced dd buses to Sydney. (it was a channel 7 news report). It said that trees were going to be trimmed back to allow room or the DD to do certain routes- i was wondering if they would have to do that here.

[Douglas]

On the note of trees, I note that our specimen doesn't have that silver tree tamer thing on the front left of the top deck as the others do.

[Hull Depot Approver]

Full Hull Depot approval Mr T ! Well done, superb shots indeed

[Mitch]

The front looks absolutely fantastic in those colours. It's nice to see something other than CC in Adelaide. Mixin' the game up a bit.

Thanks,
Mitchul ;]

[Lt. Commander Data]

The front looks absolutely fantastic in those colours. It's nice to see something other than CC in Adelaide. Mixin' the game up a bit.

Thanks,
Mitchul ;]

I don't mean to b a pedant, but amongst many hundreds of CC buses Adelaide has 62 Volgren buses and a large number of PMC and ABM buses (granted most of them are nearing the end of their life).

[TA3001]

The front looks absolutely fantastic in those colours. It's nice to see something other than CC in Adelaide. Mixin' the game up a bit.

Thanks,
Mitchul ;]

I don't mean to b a pedant, but amongst many hundreds of CC buses Adelaide has 62 Volgren buses and a large number of PMC and ABM buses (granted most of them are nearing the end of their life).

The body styles with PMC, Custom, and ABM have evolved from the semi prototypical bodies with the NLs and 11.190s to the CB80 versions produced today. They haven't really changed much as a result of a new manufacturer taking over the facility. Personally, i think the Volgren bodies are more sturdy and rattle less. The 18.280s and CC bodied L94UBs rattle like crazy.

[Lt. Commander Data]

I don't mean to b a pedant, but amongst many hundreds of CC buses Adelaide has 62 Volgren buses and a large number of PMC and ABM buses (granted most of them are nearing the end of their life).

The body styles with PMC, Custom, and ABM have evolved from the semi prototypical bodies with the NLs and 11.190s to the CB80 versions produced today. They haven't really changed much as a result of a new manufacturer taking over the facility. Personally, i think the Volgren bodies are more sturdy and rattle less. The 18.280s and CC bodied L94UBs rattle like crazy.

I definitely agree. Living in the hills, most of the buses I see and catch are Volgren Bodied, and when I occasionally do get on a CB80 it rattles like hell!

[TA3001]

I definitely agree. Living in the hills, most of the buses I see and catch are Volgren Bodied, and when I occasionally do get on a CB80 it rattles like hell!

The rattles you've seen on the CB80 bodied vehicles are nothing compared to those on the Custom bodied L94UBs. If you get a chance, catch one some time. They're probably some of the worst buses in Australia for rattles. Some of the ABM bodied 18.280s are pretty bad as well.

[busrider]

Very nice of Bustech to share my photo thread, see their post here: https://www.facebook.com/Bustech.Pty.Lt ... 7505797570 (if someone from Bustech is reading this, I'd like to say that I think you've made a very nice product).

Now to reply to some of the posts above...

The front looks absolutely fantastic in those colours. It's nice to see something other than CC in Adelaide. Mixin' the game up a bit.

Thanks,
Mitchul ;]

I don't mean to b a pedant, but amongst many hundreds of CC buses Adelaide has 62 Volgren buses and a large number of PMC and ABM buses (granted most of them are nearing the end of their life).

Perhaps stating the obvious here, but PMC evolved into AP, then ABM, then Custom Coaches, so they're not really different manufacturers, just evolutions of one manufacturer (which even had other names before PMC). Not that any of this is relevant to the Bustech decker, of course...

Great photos -thanks - I have been looking forward to seeing some photos of this!

And your choice of North Terrace is historically very appropriate, as all of these locations could have been used to take photos of the previous generation of 'fuel' double deckers between 1938 and 1961, when eleven pre-war double deckers (until 1954), and 15 post war (from 1947) operated on the Somerton/Graymore routes, which ran from the Railway Station via North Terrace, West Terrace, and Anzac Highway (Somerton) or West Beach Road/South Road, and back to Anzac Highway (Graymore).

Very well done - let's see some more, please?

Cheers

Trevor

Thanks for your comments. I didn't exactly choose the photo location, I just happened to be in that area at the time it come through. There were reports of it appearing along the route at various points through the day, and I got to that spot on North Tce about a minute before it went through. A few hours later, I was there with a friend, and it came through a second time, thankfully we didn't have to wait very long... I'd have got a few more photos of it, but my camera battery died right after I took the last photo.

Very good photos Busrider

Thank you.

But haven't they left the training a bit late, if route J1X is starting next Monday?

Not really, it's a relatively simple route and they probably wouldn't have to train very many drivers for it.

Also, I saw a clip on Youtube from when they reintroduced dd buses to Sydney. (it was a channel 7 news report). It said that trees were going to be trimmed back to allow room or the DD to do certain routes- i was wondering if they would have to do that here.

Hopefully they've already done that...

Full Hull Depot approval Mr T ! Well done, superb shots indeed

Many approvals to you too, Mr M !!!!!!!

It's nice to see something other than CC in Adelaide. Mixin' the game up a bit.

Thanks,
Mitchul ;]

I dunno, we have plenty of interstate oddballs in the fleet

[Crispy!]

Great photos busrider almost got that tree. will be looking forward to going for a ride on it when I get back to Adelaide.

[Eagle Eye]

In the second photo that tree just after stop W1 looks very imposing!!

[The Inspector]

In the second photo that tree just after stop W1 looks very imposing!!

That tree will not be an issue, all that is hanging down is light branches and leaves, the branches that could do damage are well clear of the decker if it moves out into the proper lane.

The area under the tree is car parking space anyway.

[Tim Williams]

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[Tim Williams]

This is the 4.35pm departure from Adelaide Airport - hope the numbers of passengers do pick up in the days to come. Gunzels abound - not sure about "genuine" passengers!

[The Phonj]

Looking at that destination of "City King William Rd" it makes me wonder if there was another route initially planned for the service, particularly considering the service uses neither King William Rd nor King William St

[Tim Williams]

Yes, you do wonder what is happening, particularly when the transport Minister comments that they (The Government?) are looking at double deckers in system wide use!!

[Eagle Eye]

Pretty embarrassing to display a destination the bus doesn't go to...

It doesn't need a road name as the bus services much of the city in a loop. A simple desto of 'City – Express' is all that's needed. I wonder what the desto is for the outbound trip – 'Tullamarine'???

[The Inspector]

This is the 4.35pm departure from Adelaide Airport - hope the numbers of passengers do pick up in the days to come. Gunzels abound - not sure about "genuine" passengers!

A shame I didn't get to bump into you Tim, I came out on the 5pm service.

[crazyturbo76]

Also, I saw a clip on Youtube from when they reintroduced dd buses to Sydney. (it was a channel 7 news report). It said that trees were going to be trimmed back to allow room or the DD to do certain routes- i was wondering if they would have to do that here.

Council approval has also been a bit of a challenge in getting DDs to run on routes here in Sydney-Blacktown Council were a bit naive about letting Busways run their CDi on the routes they wanted to run it on.

Back on topic, very nice pics busrider, I'm impressed with how the Admet livery is presented on the CDi and I am looking forward to seeing the Scania/Gemilang deckers in this livery as well.

[Tim Williams]

Hi Scott,

Likewise, shame I missed you - I nearly waited around for the later service - the CDI does look impressive in Adelaide Metro livery!!

[panther998]

....
It doesn't need a road name as the bus services much of the city in a loop. A simple desto of 'City – Express' is all that's needed. I wonder what the desto is for the outbound trip – 'Tullamarine'???

Perhaps ''West Beach'' ?

I must confess that these dd buses on a (presumably) dedicated and very frequent route are a considerable (and impressive) improvement over what was available to public transport users when I last visited ADL in December 2013. Please understand that I am NOT saying the bus services available then were palpably deficient / inferior / inadequate - they were definitely 'up to par' in terms of frequency and journey time, at least. Yet they lacked the 'distinctive identity' that marks Melbourne's red liveried 'Skybus' service, and Sydney's former green and yellow liveried 'Airport Express' buses (long since replaced by 'lacklustre' stainless steel trains, at far higher fares).

To my mind, with this move to dedicated dd's, Adelaide has 'gone 2 or 3 better' than Perth in regard to servicing its major airport with bus oriented public transport, and is now 2nd only to Melbourne in that respect. Politicians in both Melbourne and Perth have repeatedly espoused certain intentions to build, in the medium to long term, (very expensive) railways to serve their airports, while largely ignoring the short to medium term potential for introducing (ie, subsidising) better, more frequent bus services. True, within the past year or so, Perth has radically (and commendably) improved frequency of the 2 Transperth routes serving the Domestic terminal, and has publicly 'floated' the concept of a new route designed to serve the International terminal. But the standard buses used are not really suited to transporting airline passengers and their luggage, especially compared with Melbourne's Skybus service.

Maybe, Adelaide will show Perth how to 'do it properly' with introduction of these dd's.

[08 XDi]

^ Not unless they buy a few more! This will be on its way back to my neck of the woods next year.

[Lt. Commander Data]

^ Not unless they buy a few more! This will be on its way back to my neck of the woods next year.

I wish we could keep this bus. If we (ADL) do buy a fleet of dd buses, will they be numbered 1791-onwards or maybe 1930 (or 1950)-onwards?