Now that Lord Mayor Livingstone`s Bus plans for London seem to be stalling somewhat it may offer us Dubs a bit of a lifeline.
Transport for London have suspended their highly successful and cost effective Routemaster Refurbishment plan and are instead accellerating the withdrawal of these fine machines.
The reasons are manifold but are essentially Accountancy driven.
Kens huge investment in London Buses during his period in office has turned Londons Bus service around from being a cut-back operation to once again being seen as a driving force in the City`s commercial life.
However having raced so far ahead and committed such huge resources to Bus Transport TfL are now in something of a quandary as they are becoming increasingly financially stretched.
The first casuality of this was Kens committment to retain TPO in Central London and with it the Routemaster.
Even allowing for the uncomfortable fact that TfL can refurbish 3 Routemasters for the cost of a single ALX type Low-Floor bus the bottom line of employing TWO staff per bus per shift has allowed to Accountants to win out.
In order to achieve their goal however TfL have had to press ahead with the somewhat unpopular and financially suspect "Cashless" off bus ticketing combined with Low-Floor Citaro Articulated buses on Central routes.
It is testimony to the essential strength of the Routemaster Principle that only a complete Volte-Face in operational terms could allow the High Tech Modern approach to actually match the 50 year old Routemaster for efficiency.
NOW,This is our opportunity to accquire the cream of the RM/L fleet as they come off service.
Most are refurbished to the highest standards including new Scania engines,and a variety of bidy and interior mods which have left a vehicle which is ready to work at full efficiency for at least another seven years.
I understand that £12,000 per bus is a ball park figure on the retail market.
I consider the accquisition and use of a fleet of RM/L`s would be a very sensible and effective response to the present emergency in Public Transport which Dublin is now experiencing.
Remember LUAS should be carrying well over 7,000 pax per day by now,so we have an immediate capacity shortfall which needs to be filled BEFORE we even begin to move forward.
Main problem that I forsee is that the Routemaster operation wold prove so popular with the Customers that nobody would want to use the Shiny new Trams when they eventually do enter service.
Any other opinions on this..?
BUSRAGE Discussions » Fleet
Routemasters for Dublin ?
(9 posts)-
Posted 6 years ago #
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Now what kind of fare-collection would we have with Routemasters (which themselves are non-traditional fare for Dublin, what with DUTC/CIE having a preference for the Leyland Titan)? Would BAC be willing to hire and train new conductors to collect cash fares, or would this be a “proof-of-payment” system like proposed with the Luas, with ticket vending machines strategically placed at bus stops and fare inspectors checking tickets every so often? (I would imagine that conductors are an utter necessity on a Routemaster, especially since they give the “two-dings-for-go” signal to the driver.)
I do not see any of the private operators taking to the Routemasters save for any city-centre tour operations. After all, these are the operators that by indications would receive the least amount of government subvention for operation—so they would be automatically averse to putting conductors on the payroll…
Furthermore, what paint scheme would these Routemasters were, assuming they were bound for Dublin and other Irish cities? I would myself presume that British Empire Red would be offensive to the average Irishman…Posted 6 years ago # -
The Irish are no longer colour concious AL.
And WE have an emergency on our wheels NOW.
This is not about dogma or Labour Relations stuff,its about dealing with our problem today rather than waiting for yet another study-group to report back to the Minister...Posted 6 years ago # -
That desperate, eh? Well, hopefully BAC will not sit on their hands waiting for yet another private operator to jump in on this deal.
I am still very curious about the OPO issue, however—would BAC revert to using conductors should the Routemasters start arriving in Dublin? because that is how TfL was doing it of course.Posted 6 years ago # -
Not a hope AL.
The very prospect of TPO returning fills the halls of 59 with the sound of screaming accountants .
Another problem which they would rather not have descend upon them would be the relative popularity of TPO vs the LUAS.
The essential thrust here now is to avoid ANY action which might allow the Bus Service to become too attractive.
This is central to the build-up to LUAS L-Day.
LUAS is incapable of catering for much modal shift away from the Private Car but it is hoped internally that it will suck business from the Bus and this colours ALL present Public Transport thinking in Dublin.
A high-frequency,cheap hop on/off conductor operated service complete with effective Bus Priority might just be a tad TOO attractive to commuters....if you catch my drift....?Posted 6 years ago # -
It would be nice to see Routemasters on revenue earning service in Dublin but no matter how fast the fare collection the traffic isn't going to improve to make the buses move faster.Posted 6 years ago #
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What feckin headbanger would have these feckin things on the streets of Dublin, sure have yeh not seen the feckin sh1t that comes from the back of these yokes.
[posted by: R Master]Posted 6 years ago # -
Comes from the back…now are you referring to passengers or exhaust? The passengers would be the same old passengers that have been in Dublin. I rode the Scania-engined Routemasters about three years ago, and the exhaust was up to present-day clean standards.
And as far as POP goes, it seems to be turning into a massive failure—especially with reports that on LRT systems in Amsterdam, conductors have made a comeback…Posted 6 years ago # -
Talking about exhaust of course, the clean air that originally came out now does'nt, in some cases it's worst than ever.
[posted by: R Master]Posted 6 years ago #
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