Big Bus articles

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Bigger buses better than 'bananas'

Bigger buses better than 'bananas'
Tony Moore | January 20, 2009 - 6:16PM

Brisbane City Council will pay around $520,000 per bus for each of the eight new flexible rear axle diesel buses that it plans to add to the council fleet by April 2009.

The new buses provide extra manoeuvrability and allow drivers to negotiate narrow streets and can carry more than a "banana bus", Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said this morning.

Each of the eight new 14.5 metre buses will cost $520,000, much less than the $800,000, 12-metre buses, or the articulated "banana" buses, both of which Brisbane City Council has already bought.

Cr Newman said the lower cost of the new buses, which can carry up to 98 passengers, partly came down to better design.

He said the new buses could carry the extra 36 passengers more efficiently because of the different axle configuration at the rear of the bus.

"We actually have the carrying capacity, the ability 'weight-wise' to carry extra passengers," Cr Newman said.

"An articulated bus carries about 87 people as well, but if you try to put on more, you are basically outside its legal licensing. It can't handle the axle loading."

Cr Newman said the buses could navigate through Brisbane's narrow streets, had been tested driving up Mt Coot-tha and will be used on the University of Queensland and Browns Plains BUZ routes, which had experienced overcrowding before Christmas.

Cr Newman promised to add an extra 500 buses to the council's bus fleet by 2012.

A new bus depot at Willawong will open soon.

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

Super buses for University of Queensland and Browns Plains


http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,6448787,00.jpg

Super buses for University of Queensland and Browns Plains
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Alison Sandy

January 19, 2009 11:00pm

UNIVERSITY of Queensland students and residents on the Browns Plains route will benefit from eight new super buses which will be on Brisbane streets by April.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman unveiled the first of the 14.5 metre vehicles today, saying it had the capacity to carry almost 40 extra passengers.

"These new buses will carry up to 98 people - although a more comfortable load is around 87 - and that's in contrast to a normal bus which moves about 62 people," he said.

"We intend to use them on a couple of particular runs ... (such as) the University of Queensland, but also in from Browns Plains where we have had some of those overcrowding issues."

The buses, which cost about $520,000 each, are part of Cr Newman's promise to add 500 to the fleet by 2012.

"Just five years ago, the Brisbane Transport fleet moved about 44 million passengers a year," he said.

"This current financial year, we'll probably see at least 70 million passengers being moved."

Cr Newman acknowledged the fleet was still stretched, with between 1000 and more than 2000 buses too full to pick up passengers each month.

He said the figures had eased recently, but attributed much of that to the Christmas and New Year period.

"I think we are making an impact with the investments we're making, but I think it's just a little to early to see that coming through conclusively in the figures."

The council is also looking to recruit more bus drivers after about 300 quit in the past year.

"We're on the lookout for good people and sadly given the economic circumstances, we'll see people looking for good, safe government jobs," Cr Newman said.

"So I don't think we'll have problems over the next few years in getting the bus drivers we need.

"We currently have about 1700 drivers and we have a strong commitment to recruiting more and giving them the best possible training."