Gingerbus1991
Member
- Joined
- 30 Jul 2018
- Messages
- 992
If first had the capital investment many moons ago then the only logical way would have been to get Baumot or Eminox to upgrade the exhausts on euro3 or 4 buses or replace buses more often, of course, bottom line I don’t think first have given a damn for years despite there being previous talks about LEZ in scotland etc.
Its a total and complete stark contrast to the city on the east coast, yes edinburgh, Lothian buses are striving to get rid of most of there euro 3 and 4 buses as fast as possible, and yes I do understand they have a further 2 years to have everything sorted.
Regards to the E3 and E4 buses FiG have, theyve been here, there and everywhere so they have earned there keep I suppose and many of them are still comfortable, which is one thing I still admire about older buses like the B7 deckers, but considering that it’ll cost between £10k - £15k per bus to upgrade with a new compliancy exhaust system yet this LEZ isn’t to be complete until 2022 by which time for example many of the Euro 3 and 4 buses will be approaching a 15 year old life or more, replacement age is something that first arent wildely known for i suppose, many of them already older than that atm, the Presidents and ALX400s for example should start being scrapped with the delivery of the 75 new ones on apparent order.
Spending between £10-15k per bus when you will technically only get a few more servicable years is quite frankly shocking to say the least.
Adding insult to injury, adding a new E6 exhaust system onto a E3 engined bus and another onto a E5 engined bus, the operational long term cost will be higher for the E3 retrofitted engine, as the E3 engine without its stock emission system would naturally be spitting out more NOX emissions ergo the E6 retrofit system would have to use more AdBlue than it would when fitted to a E5 Engine.
Same impractical case when you consider that periodic DPF cleaning may need to take place for the best perfomance, the E3 engine spitting out more particulates than an equivalent E5 engine meaning the E3 engined bus would need its filter cleaned far more often, impinging on the operation.
Most older E3 and E4 ECU systems don’t have the capability to automatically regenerate the DPF meaning it would need to be removed from the exhaust and done manually with an external machine.
However most E5 engines have more advanced ECU systems so that Active On-Road or Parked Regenerations of the DPF can take place.
Passive Regen takes place all the time using natural engine heat within the exhaust, but around a city this may not be enough.
Euro 4 and 5 engines should be the ones to go for though, regards to First taking other vehicles from other areas is just down right stupid, even though outlying areas may not have LEZ’s it’ll mean that perhaps falkirk or Stirling who already have faultering bus services and passengers number falling will have to most likely endure older buses, which again should’nt be the philosophy when operating a public transport company!
Apologies for the rant btw, engineer at heart
Its a total and complete stark contrast to the city on the east coast, yes edinburgh, Lothian buses are striving to get rid of most of there euro 3 and 4 buses as fast as possible, and yes I do understand they have a further 2 years to have everything sorted.
Regards to the E3 and E4 buses FiG have, theyve been here, there and everywhere so they have earned there keep I suppose and many of them are still comfortable, which is one thing I still admire about older buses like the B7 deckers, but considering that it’ll cost between £10k - £15k per bus to upgrade with a new compliancy exhaust system yet this LEZ isn’t to be complete until 2022 by which time for example many of the Euro 3 and 4 buses will be approaching a 15 year old life or more, replacement age is something that first arent wildely known for i suppose, many of them already older than that atm, the Presidents and ALX400s for example should start being scrapped with the delivery of the 75 new ones on apparent order.
Spending between £10-15k per bus when you will technically only get a few more servicable years is quite frankly shocking to say the least.
Adding insult to injury, adding a new E6 exhaust system onto a E3 engined bus and another onto a E5 engined bus, the operational long term cost will be higher for the E3 retrofitted engine, as the E3 engine without its stock emission system would naturally be spitting out more NOX emissions ergo the E6 retrofit system would have to use more AdBlue than it would when fitted to a E5 Engine.
Same impractical case when you consider that periodic DPF cleaning may need to take place for the best perfomance, the E3 engine spitting out more particulates than an equivalent E5 engine meaning the E3 engined bus would need its filter cleaned far more often, impinging on the operation.
Most older E3 and E4 ECU systems don’t have the capability to automatically regenerate the DPF meaning it would need to be removed from the exhaust and done manually with an external machine.
However most E5 engines have more advanced ECU systems so that Active On-Road or Parked Regenerations of the DPF can take place.
Passive Regen takes place all the time using natural engine heat within the exhaust, but around a city this may not be enough.
Euro 4 and 5 engines should be the ones to go for though, regards to First taking other vehicles from other areas is just down right stupid, even though outlying areas may not have LEZ’s it’ll mean that perhaps falkirk or Stirling who already have faultering bus services and passengers number falling will have to most likely endure older buses, which again should’nt be the philosophy when operating a public transport company!
Apologies for the rant btw, engineer at heart
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