Here's an earlier Scania N series from Volgren with the stepless aisle:Eurostar wrote:Latest buses at Volgren look great
Compared to the K series:
Here's an earlier Scania N series from Volgren with the stepless aisle:Eurostar wrote:Latest buses at Volgren look great
Small problem with that, as most interstate operators also include local content requirements in their orders. Personally, while local content requirements are a nice "feel good" initiative for local employment (and politicians), they go past the fact some of the body-builders haven't got a clue about designing buses for Australia's cities.jibb wrote:... create a showroom vehicle that could be sold to Government and private operators interstate.
This rumour was first mentioned roughly a year or more ago. But it would mean that private buses that exceed 25 years would be permitted to be registered as buses as well. I don't have a problem with it, but is it a slow news day somewhere, or something else?Tim Williams wrote:I hear a rumor that the maximum age of buses in SA is to be or has been extended to 30 years, most probably to cater for the oldest of the Adelaide Metro fleet - the high floor MAN/PMC's
We speak from different viewpoints. "The older the bus, the better", is basically what I think. But I don't see how this life extension would be legal anyway given that there was some kind of requirement for the Adelaide system to be fully accessible by 2022 mentioned ages ago. The last SL202 built new for Adelaide turns 25 in January 2021 according to the fleet lists.Tim Williams wrote:I do not think that you have grasped what I was talking about, that is that the maximum age of buses allowed on the roads in SA is reportedly being extended purely due to the slow or recalcitrance of the ordering process for Adelaide Metro buses - yes private operators will benefit, as an aside, but 30 years for a major city urban bus is too long!! And yes, London operated Routemasters, older than even 30 years, but the bus was an amazingly competent and practical design and their maintenance procedures were very thorough.
Most places remove buses from the road from between 17 and 25 years - the economics of extending the life of buses are often fairly shaky!
Most if not all of the major UK fleets, European, US, Singapore and HK now operate all low floor fleets and we are going to retain these high floor buses (200??) for a few more years yet - a bit third world isn't it??