I’ve been a bit remiss in posting various researches that have appeared on other forums, so I’m going to put them here in a big lump. First off, Red Arrow bus types and capacities over time:
Bus Seats Stands Total %sts %stnds stnds/sts ratio
MBS 25 48 73 34% 66% 1.92
N/nal2 28 46 74 38% 62% 1.64
CitaroG 49 100 149 33% 67% 2.04
MEC 21 76 97 22% 78% 3.62
[MEC is Boris's Cattle Truck as used now on the 507 and 521, of which a fairly balanced, informed discussion can be read here at londonbusroutes]
Bus passenger numbers over time, taken from the most recent TfL Annual Report :
Passenger numbers on buses per annum:
- 2002/3 – 1.534bn
- 2003/4 – 1.702bn
- 2004/5 – 1.793bn
- 2005/6 – 1.816bn
- 2006/7 – 1.880bn
- 2007/8 – 2.176bn
- 2008/9 – 2.247bn
Seats per hour calculations for the new and old 507 timetable:
- Old – 12 buses per hour, 49 seats per bus, 588 seats/hour
- New – 18 buses per hour, 21 seats per bus, 378 seats/hour
So the result is 64% of the previous seating capacity.
I now return you to our regular spam.
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Erm. Isn’t the linked article slightly wrong as it says that the non-artic version of the 507 is cheaper than the artic version? I thought that the reality was the other way around and the bids were more expensive for the non-artic option?
They’re referring to the new bendies option, which came in a few tens of thousands above the rigid option for some reason. Retaining the existing bendies came in a good deal cheaper, but of course they’re the oldest in the fleet, dating from 2002.
For the extra tens of thousands a year you would of course have got a lot more seats while having cleaner buses (EEV or Euro V instead of Euro III).
On the 38, the option chosen was the most expensive of the three, with a new fleet of bendies in the middle.
Ah. Now I understand. What’s the average lifespan of a London bus? 7 years seems quite short, but I guess keeping them for the lifespan of two contracts would mean they’d end up pretty decrepit by year 13/14.
Also. The capacity on the rigid Citaros at Heathrow to take people to the plane is 18 seated. Worryingly close to the 21 on the 507/521.
Does anybody know if a manufacturers’ been appointed/interested to build the lean green New Routemater machine?
I know TFL postedin the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) inviting bus manufacturers to express an interest but has anyone responded ?