Has the 'green' argument for buses been lost?

[Geordie driver]

I think the OP has a point. Many of the bus lanes put in round here , some from the early 1980s, were put in on the basis of encouraging public transport use.

Now there are way less services for people to use and fewer people using them too, so people sit in their cars fuming in a huge queue whilst the occasional half full bus goes past. Taking up 50%of the road for sub 10% of the journeys does not make sense.

 

[Trainbike46]

With regards to electric buses, the problem still seems to be the range of them. Can you get a full day out of one on a long route?

That depends on the route, for city routes and the newest generation of electric buses the answer seems to be yes.

There's also the option of opportunity charging

 

[Tetchytyke]

Taking up 50%of the road for sub 10% of the journeys does not make sense

Taking bus lanes out doesn't improve road throughput, though. Queuing in two lanes doesn't get you through the traffic lights any quicker.

But without bus priority measures, the appeal of the bus drops even further.

 

[Geordie driver]

Taking bus lanes out doesn't improve road throughput, though. Queuing in two lanes doesn't get you through the traffic lights any quicker.

But without bus priority measures, the appeal of the bus drops even further.

That depends on what the nature of the traffic light junction is. Not everyone is going straight on.

 

[Jordan Adam]

I wouldn't expect Aberdeen and Inverness to be at the forefront of electric buses as they are still relatively small places. But Manchester and Birmingham are 2+ million conurbations so are surely big enough to justify electric buses.

First Aberdeen operates 15 Hydrogen Buses including the worlds first Hydrogen powered double decker with a further 10 pending entry in to service. Additionally they have 24 electric buses on order and recently lodged plans to install nearly 150 electric vehicle chargers at King Street Depot. Arguably Aberdeen has been the UK leader when it comes to Hydrogen vehicles and the city council also run an extensive fleet of Hydrogen vehicles.

Stagecoach Bluebird operates 22 electric buses with a further 13 on order which will see all their city routes converted to EV operation. This will account for around 2/3rds of the fleet at their Aberdeen Tullos Depot.

Lastly, Stagecoach Highlands are away to start taking delivery of 25 Yutong E10 electric single deckers. This will see the entire city network at Inverness converted to electric operation. They previously trialed 7 Optare Solo EV minibuses (6 in Inverness and 1 on Orkney). The Inverness examples have since moved to Kilmarnock.