New 3 door buses Brisbane Transport

[ozbob]

Adrian Schrinner just on the radio now ABC Brisbane talking All door boarding and the new articulated buses. The buses being rolled out from next week. Will be used mostly on the busy uni routes and on the Busway routes. Council also pushing for all door boarding

Presently at Sherwood bus depot waiting for formal announcement.

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/956323483163570176

[tazzer9]

Are these going to complement or replace the current articulated buses?   I personally think the current artics are the best buses on the network, apart from being a little underpowered, they are the most comfortable by far.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/956340033023131648

[ozbob]

Additional tazzer9

[techblitz]

149?? or is that 199,139?

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/956346882778791936

[ozbob]

149?? or is that 199,139?

149 on media statement from DM. Might be a typo ...

[Cazza]

There ain't any 149. Probably meant 139 (Sunnybank Hills to UQ).

[ozbob]

There ain't any 149. Probably meant 139 (Sunnybank Hills to UQ).

Yo! I have asked for clarification.   

[Otto]

Just checked my route allocation list for Sherwood. That would be 139. The 149 does not exist on the latest route listings.
Cheers

ps. Tried to post pics of the new artic last night. They exceeded the KB limit. 

[ozbob]

No worries Otto 

https://twitter.com/Team_Quirk/status/956381855971868672

[ozbob]

A few more photographs of the new bus ..





















Photographs R Dow 25th January 2018

[SurfRail]

Maybe Otto knows this one - why is BCC refusing to put proper side destination displays in their fleet?  Virtually everybody else does now.  The only operator anywhere else I can think of which does the same as BCC is the Ventura Group.

[#Metro]

Sorry if I missed it - what is the pax capacity again?? 

[Otto]

Maybe Otto knows this one - why is BCC refusing to put proper side destination displays in their fleet?  Virtually everybody else does now.  The only operator anywhere else I can think of which does the same as BCC is the Ventura Group.

Sorry SurfRail. I don't have any facts as to why that is, but I do agree a full display would be preferable . It would most likely cut down on the number of passengers who board buses ( mostly at interchanges ) who only have read the route number and board a bus, only to end up going in the wrong direction.

[Otto]

Sorry if I missed it - what is the pax capacity again?? 

https://tenplay.com.au/news/brisbane/2018/1/25/commuter-comfort

116 Pax it seems.

I wonder how many Pax the LCBS "Super Artics" carry.

[ozbob]

Yes, 116 pax. I posted it earlier in this thread #Metro .. 

https://twitter.com/tennewsqld/status/956427787664900099

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/7NewsBrisbane/status/956447749217468416

[ozbob]

I posted some photographs of the new artic on Facebook yesterday afternoon.  Been very popular!   

>> https://www.facebook.com/RAILBackOnTrack/posts/1922851104395734

[SurfRail]

Virtually the same buses in Transperth service are permitted to carry over 130.  Not sure why DTMR is so conservative about this stuff (unless its the RTBU at work).

[#Metro]

Virtually the same buses in Transperth service are permitted to carry over 130.  Not sure why DTMR is so conservative about this stuff (unless its the RTBU at work).

Was it DTMR that made the decision? Might be because whoever made the decision didn't want to rock the boat with lack of seats.

IIRC the Clarks Logan City bus holds 110.

[Cazza]

There ain't any 149. Probably meant 139 (Sunnybank Hills to UQ).

Yo! I have asked for clarification.   

Just had reports that it was actually a typo... They meant 399

[ozbob]

Prefer to go by rail thanks ... 

[Cazza]

Hmmmm... You might be waiting a while

[Cazza]

So did these buses hit the streets today?

[SurfRail]

It was (or is) on Route 66 today.

[Cazza]

Ok cheers. I think I might have some time on Thursday to go see if I can go find one

[Otto]

Ok cheers. I think I might have some time on Thursday to go see if I can go find one

If I'm online on Thursday, I can see what it's doing.

[Cazza]

Ok cheers. I think I might have some time on Thursday to go see if I can go find one

If I'm online on Thursday, I can see what it's doing.

Sweet as. I had a plan of standing a Buranda and waiting for one to turn up but that would be handy. Cheers!

[Otto]

1631 is currently doing 66 services between UQ and RBWH.. It had been in the garage on Tue and Wed having minor repairs made.

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> New super-sized $15 million bus fleet won't fit in bus stops

Almost $15 million will be spent on new high-capacity buses for Brisbane, but they will not fit in all of the city's bus stops, will be mainly standing room and won't allow rear-door boarding.

Brisbane City Council announced 20 new high-capacity buses would begin servicing the city's busiest bus routes from the end of January, with each buses costing $736,000.

On Tuesday, the public and active transport committee heard more about the super-size buses and questions were raised about their functionality.

It was revealed the buses, at 18 metres long, would not be able to pull into every bus stop in the city.

The standard bus is currently 12.5 metres.

Shadow transport spokesman Jared Cassidy called for a city-wide audit of bus stops

"[Bus length] would be an issue if they're thinking about putting them on non-busway routes," he said.

"We need an audit of bus stops, particularly on high-capacity routes."

Brisbane's current standard bus, a Volvo B7, costs about $445,000, which was about $291,000 cheaper than the new B8 super bus, but the new buses carry about 113 compared to the current 79.

The existing buses have 43 seats and 36 standing spaces, while the new buses have 56 seats and standing room for 60.

Cr Cassidy said on short trips on the busway he believed the standing room was practical but did not think it was a good idea to have majority standing space on other routes.

"If we're going to get to the point of rolling these buses out to suburban routes it could be a problem for older people, little kids and families," he said.

"What it means for an overall fleet capacity for any routes that aren't on trunk infrastructure busways there will be less seats available in the long run."

Cr Cassidy also said the vehicles for the proposed Brisbane Metro would be mainly standing room.

The new buses would also have three dual doors spread out along the length of the bus, but passengers would not be allowed to use them to board.

Currently, rear boarding is only allowed on the blue and maroon City Glider bus service.

Cr Cassidy said he supported rear-door boarding and it was important in the context of the new buses the idea of it was revisited.

"I support Translink investigating and potentially trialling it on high-capacity routes, particularly ones where there are a lot of people like King George Square, Queen Street and Adelaide Street bus stops," he said.

"If it's an empty bus where everyone is boarding making sense to get them on quicker.

"I do understand suburban routes where you've got a driver and they've got a duty of care to keep track and account of who is on the bus and what's happening ... but high-patronage, high capacity routes I think we should look at all-door boarding."

Cr Cassidy said anything that got people off the road and onto public transport was good, but the bus stops on high-capacity routes needed to be audited.

Public and active transport chairman Adrian Schrinner said about 76 million passenger trips were taken each year and the new buses would provide more options for residents.

"Brisbane is home to the most modern bus fleet in the country, and we are committed to continuing to improve our services to provide more buses for suburbs and fewer cars on the road," he said.

Only one of the new 20 buses has been delivered and is in service, the remaining 19 will be delivered by September 2018.

Drivers operating the route will need to do some extra hours of familiarisation training before they can drive the new buses.

The high-capacity buses will only service the following routes:

    66 – Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital to UQ Lakes
    111 – City to Eight Mile Plains
    139 – Sunnybank Hills to UQ Lakes
    169 – Eight Mile Plains to UQ Lakes

[Derwan]

Wow... the buses won't fit the stops that they're not stopping at anyway!  That's huge news! 

[ozbob]

Wow... the buses won't fit the stops that they're not stopping at anyway!  That's huge news! 

Yo! Dumb click bait headline 

[Mr X]

Yeah they're hardly going to be sending these on the 198 for example.

[achiruel]

Well a high capacity bus might be useful on the 199, but I think there's no way it could do that route.

[James]

Well a high capacity bus might be useful on the 199, but I think there's no way it could do that route.

I don't think it's necessary either, while the route is one of the most highly patronised on the network, a lot of its pax do quite short trips - if the bus is at capacity, it isn't for long and another bus (whether another 199 or an alternative route) is often on the way shortly.

[techblitz]

the priority should be modifying the affected stops to accommodate these buses.
Costs are no issue as that is recovered over time in the dwell-time savings.

[achiruel]

The problem isn't only the stops, it's the narrow windy streets that some routes pass through.

[SurfRail]

If the vehicles are running on the routes which actually need them, there isn't much of a need for remedial works anywhere.  They aren't any longer than the articulated buses they have had in the fleet continuously for decades.

[brissypete]

While these new artics are very nice buses the middle door is useless at King George Square on the RBWH 66 at least and presumably other stops as it doesn't align with the platform door which doesn't open so if disembarking from middle door one then needs to go to front or back platform door to exit or risk being stranded on the wrong side of the door (speaking from experience at another stop).

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