These must be to good to break!

[Eng274]

Were there many of the 'old style' Wright bodied artics made? I've never seen any, and indeed hadn't heard they existed until I read about the B10LA's early existence.

Unfortunately First have made a few rash decisions re purchasing, the troublesome B7L chassis was only bought in the UK by First I believe, and they have been fraught with problems (namely fire related) and were never the most reliable buses in the world, hence Volvo had to bodge the B7RLE together using the B7R coach's rear quarters! The B7L 'deckers in Glasgow also have a tendency to like fire AFAIK, but I admire First's policy of using them until they are properly life-expired! Are any of the late 90's Dart SLFs (P,R,S reg) destined for the breakers yard yet?
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Cut-n-shut buses! hock: Anyone else know why this is a bad idea?

Far too costly, when you could buy a midi/full size for less than the cost to cut 'n' paste these ones!

VOSA would want to rigorously test it to ensure it is still structurally sound - since the chassis and body are being sawn through, it would need some damn good welding and fastening to retain its strength. I'm not entirely sure it's permitted to weld the chassis beams back together once they've been separated, or you'd risk ending up with a Jeremy Clarkson special (the Fiat Panda limo breaking in two mid journey!)

Drastic bodywork modifications aren't completely unheard of, many years ago LRT Lothian replaced a Leyland Atlantean's damaged roof with that of a similar older vehicle that had been retired.

 

[bb21]

... T registered Wright Renown (or was the bendy version called something else?!) bodied Volvo artics ...

I think the B10LA ones were simply called Fusion.

... Many voiced concerns about the lack of comfort (with more passengers standing than seated) ...

They aren't really meant for comfort though. They're best applied to short-to-medium distance urban routes where there are large passenger flows in a short space of time so that the crowd can be shifted asap. For example, with a Mercedes-Benz Citaro you need one driver to work one journey shifting up to 149 people at any point in time. Compare that to the Borismaster which shifts 87 people at any point in time and you can see the point of these vehicles. Bendies can allow faster boarding/disembarkation with it's 3-/4-door layout and the lack of stairs. (No, I don't get the point of paying the premium to buy a bendy and only fitting two doors on it.) This is why you now see more of them being placed on university duties where large swathes of students would need shifting at certain times of the day. First were wrong in that they were not a substitute for 'deckers as they have their own little advantages but to dismiss them completely like London has (and withdrawn first from the two routes arguably most suited to their existence) is plainly stupid.

It seems the last hurrah of the bendies was their introduction in London, which of course also ended in tears :roll:

Yes, largely because of Boris.

Sadly there simply isn't any demand for 'bendies in the UK at the moment.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this.

 

[BestWestern]

Well, feel free to disagree of course, but if there was a demand we wouldn't be discussing these relatively recent and very expensive buses being broken up in the first place! The situation seemingly being in this case that they are of more use as spares donors to their rigid counterparts than as serviceable vehicles themselves.

I agree that there are uses for bendies in the UK, but only in a few places, like the Uni routes you mention, or airside duties. Other than that, they just don't really work, as we've seen. Passengers on 'ordinary' bus services prefer half a chance of a seat, unlike mainland Europe where people are more accepting of having to stand; and with the emphasis in UK bus design moving ever towards comfort, bendies just don't tick the boxes for service bus work. And, of course, they're a nightmare in our heavy traffic and our on old roads, I bet the insurance departments of the big operators have to go and site in a darkened room if there's mention of these coming to town!

 

[bb21]

Yes I think we're making a similar point. Mine earlier one was more in response to your comment that there isn't any demand at all. It is a small market, nevertheless it is still a market. The 80 or so people in a full bus load used to take forever getting off a VDL/Wright 'decker but now only takes a few seconds coming off the three doors simultaneously where I am. Punctuality has greatly improved as the buses were on tight turns during the day and bunching is now a rare sight on that route.

Unfortunately the comfort issue will require a culture change in this country and it's not gonna happen any time soon. I personally place faster journey times above the demand for a seat up to a certain limit (say a 30-minute journey) and am willing to give up a seat if I can get another bus that will get me to my destination 2 minutes earlier however I am aware that not everyone thinks like I do.

 

[BestWestern]

Yes I think we're making a similar point. Mine earlier one was more in response to your comment that there isn't any demand at all. It is a small market, nevertheless it is still a market. The 80 or so people in a full bus load used to take forever getting off a VDL/Wright 'decker but now only takes a few seconds coming off the three doors simultaneously where I am. Punctuality has greatly improved as the buses were on tight turns during the day and bunching is now a rare sight on that route.

Unfortunately the comfort issue will require a culture change in this country and it's not gonna happen any time soon. I personally place faster journey times above the demand for a seat up to a certain limit (say a 30-minute journey) and am willing to give up a seat if I can get another bus that will get me to my destination 2 minutes earlier however I am aware that not everyone thinks like I do.

Agreed, the dwell times of a 'decker dumping and loading full load of passengers are horrendous!! With innovative firms like Go Ahead it's entirely possible that new uses will be found, as they've done in Brighton etc. But I think with some of the other firms, perhaps First in particular, they just can't be arsed with it all to be honest :roll: It's interesting that Stagecoach never bothered with the concept, although of course they were very innovative indeed with the bendy coaches, I liked those! And they made sense too, as a motorway is about as long and straight as you're going to find!

The other big problem with bendies in London was always the revenue issues so it seemed, with many just jumping on at the back and hitching a free ride. That's perhaps another reason for them being impractical on stage carriage work, as you then have to employ an army of revenue bods and have a legitimate means of penalising the 'dodgers, and so on. You just can't expect the Driver to have any control over who gets on way down the other end I guess. But again, these problems aside, they make great sense on shuttle routes where you have a specific group of users.