New Bendy Bus

[Tony]

I saw one of these new Dublin BUS bendy buses this morning. It’s one big mother ****er I can tell you! It certainly looks out of place on the streets of Dublin, but I'm sure its something we'll get used to soon enough. It was a 46A, I think. My only problem with these is that if the double deckers are going to be replaced by these monsters, then it means they will be taking up twice the amount of road space. I mean, can you imagine it : [Garda]Sorry, but you’re blocking the junction [BUS DRIVER]Sorry officer, but up here I'd need binoculars to see that far behind!

Has anyone actually been on one yet?

[Phil]

I did'nt know anything about them!!! Where have I been... Are these bendy buses going to replace all double decker buses in the future? It should be fun trying to overtake one of those mother's in town.

If anyone has more information about these buses, let me know?

[Anders]

I haven't seen any here, but they are certainly very common in Stockholm. In Stockholm they are only used for the suburban routes, not in the city centre. Stockholm has a fairly neat setup where the suburban routes typically start outside of the city, so you don't have every bus route taking up space in the city. Stockholm is a good show case for how to integrate buses, underground, and suburban rail.

[Chancer]

I did hear some talk on the introduction of these buses all right, but I didn’t realise that they had been introduced already. I have seen them before on the continent, and that was many years ago, so they’re not exactly a new invention now, are they? Just curious, but I can’t exactly make out the advantage that these buses have over double-deckers. The fact that they take up more road space is an interesting observation though.

[Anders]

If you have a road system with fly-overs instead of traffic lights every 10ft on major roads it's handy to get the buses under them. I'd say a double-decker is too high to go under an EU standard height bridge, but I'm not sure. I also think the bendy ones are more stable at speed. You can use them for express routes, for instance, if Dublin Bus could figure out how to do those sort of things. But I suppose the drivers want more money if they have to stop at less stops or something.

[SpyCamera]

Anders the system in Stockholm sound like a system we could use over here. My work brings in contact with Ericsson alot, so maybe I can convience them to give me a trip to Stockholm to see this system for myself.

Another option is to have a rail system circling Dublin. Feeder bus could then bring people into the city center from points along the track, which could help the amount of traffic trying to get through the city center ie (going from the south to the north of Dublin one would use the rail system instead)

Have you heard of anything like this in action Anders?

[Anders]

There are lots of other nice things to see in Stockholm. Not a bad place in the summer.

I think most cities with a decent public transport system, like Stockholm or Paris, basically use a combination of suburban rail and underground to cover most of the city. You then have buses going from the train stations to give local coverage. The city centre area should really be covered by underground, buses just get stuck in traffic.

There is no reason why the DART can't be leveraged right now. Seems fairly moronic to have a bus lane on the N11 going in parallel with the DART all the way into the city, when they could just drop people at the DART stations. With a system like that it is also possible to get rid of about half the DART stations. Right now the DART is effectively too slow to be used as an alternative to cars because it stops too often. Eventhough the traffic is hell, it is still faster to go by car than by DART.

[Tony]

You’re probably right there Anders. The problem with the Dart though is that it really only serves the north side / coastal areas of the city. The rest of the city is left strangled with an overburdened public bus service, which has to use an already inadequate road infrastructure. We must have one of the most outdated public transport systems in Europe – what an embarrassment. And with all the bureaucrats who can’t make up their minds what type of transportation the city needs, it doesn’t look like it’s going to change too soon either.

[Chancer]

I spotted one of these new buses this morning in College Green (beside Trinity College). Its silver in colour, kind of reminds me of one of those McLaren buses you see at Formula 1. I must say it took me by surprise as to how long it actually is. Now I wonder have they installed a toilet on board, you know, for those excruciating times when you find yourself coming home on the night link with a full bladder after have the odd few pints ;)

[Tony]

Ah ha, a second sighting. So it wasn't a figment of my imagination all along! http://www.eforecourt.com/UBB/disturbed.gif