JumpinTrainz
Established Member
- Joined
- 30 Jul 2018
- Messages
- 1,660
First should have just opted for electric buses like they have with Glasgow and their other subsidiaries.
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First Aberdeen
- Thread starter Jordan Adam
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cnjb8
Established Member
Didn't Aberdeen Council insist on hydrogen though?
fife_circle
Member
There is a new green hydrogen facility due to open at the end of this year I believe.
Where is this facility located?
Haribolover06
Member
It is planned to be located at the new Energy Transition Zone, in Altens off Hareness Road, here is a link to the planning application with some info about the plans https://publicaccess.aberdeencity.g...s.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=RRG8YQBZHGE00 as far as i now there has been no progress on the site so far, so i doubt it will be done this year.
Yes, I was aware of this site, but as you say, nothing is happening on the ground, so it's unlikely to begin production in 2024, or even 2025.
On 27 Feb 2024, the announcement of UK Government funding for the project was said to be [my emphasis]:
Given the lack of any more recent news on the project website, we can assume the FID has still not (yet) been made.
Unless / until a FID has been made, no substantive procurement or construction will take place.
Wasn’t Aberdeen suppose to get 12 or 15 Enviro 400 buses from Manchester again?
Why are there only 6 of them again?
Aberdeen clearly need more buses, as the Hydrogen pumps keep failing, and they only have a few buses to replace them right now, which leads to First Glasgow buses being sent up on loan (excluding the low-height E400s, which have been sent there to replace the E500s).
Why are there only 6 of them again?
Aberdeen clearly need more buses, as the Hydrogen pumps keep failing, and they only have a few buses to replace them right now, which leads to First Glasgow buses being sent up on loan (excluding the low-height E400s, which have been sent there to replace the E500s).
Jordan Adam
Established Member
The 9 additional Enviro400s from Manchester would directly replace the 9 Citaros so it wouldn't really make any difference to the situation. At least the Manchester Enviro400s seem more reliable than their Glasgow counterparts.
Even without the Hydrogen pump issues Aberdeen have frequently been struggling to make service for the past two years, the issue is more to do with the fleet size when compared to the peak vehicle requirement. The Hydrogen pump failing just add to it.
The only good thing (i suppose) is that reliability and availability of the Ex-Glasgow Enviro300s does seem to be better than the Streetlites they replaced.
fife_circle
Member
Why are they replacing all of these busses when they’re struggling to meet the current fleet requirements? Surely it would be more beneficial to them to keep the bendys or some of the E500s and bring in the additional E400s as well. Is space an issue in the depot? Is it purely financial?
PG
Established Member
My money (pardon the pun
) is on it being purely financial - E500s drink fuel and the bendys aren't light on it either.dodecahedron67
Member
Whopping 3mpg (on a good day) on those citarosMy money (pardon the pun
Trnsprt4Sctlnd
Member
It is peculiar that they do such poorly on fuel economy, The latest Volvo B8L tri-axles across the country are doing quite abit better fuel economy wise according to ZEMO even in an urban environment, their age and the fact they have 5.12 rear diff ratios is simply contributing to this let alone their weight.
The latest Volvo B8L have a 6.20 rear axle fitted which reduced the need for the engine to put in quite as much effort, however, this also means their engines are resting a quite high revs whilst cruising..
Is simply continuing with usual unreliable fleet they’ve got.
The bendys and E500s have age against them and the E400s have always been a poor choice of vehicle in my opinion.
Volvo still provides the most robust and reliable vehicle on the bus market for the UK, body manufacturer aside.
Before Aberdeen had Yutongs there best vehicles were the B7RLE Eclipses.
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dodecahedron67
Member
Part of the reason the Citaros are so fuel hungry is the 5.2L turbo V12 on them. Beefy engine
Jordan Adam
Established Member
Agreed. Although in their final year reliability of the B7RLEs dropped a fair bit. The Yutongs have really proven themselves though, it's a shame there isn't more.
What doesn't help either is poor vehicle allocations. For example today there's a football match on at Pittodrie therefor you'd expect the highest capacity vehicles on the 1, 1B, 2 and 13. Yet for some bizzare reason the morning controller has decided to put single deckers on the 1/2 meanwhile deckers are on the 3/3A, 12, 17/18 and 23. This seems to happen pretty much every time theres a football match on a Saturday.... you really couldn't make it up!
5.2L turbo V12? The Citaros have a 10.8L 6-cylinder.
dodecahedron67
Member
I am nowhere near awake enough to be as confident in my thoughts as I am! Many apologies…
Getting confused with a side project of my own, incidentally involving a citaro