Western Greyhound: FAQs: Why arent all your buses wheelchair-friendly? said:The government has introduced legislation to replace normal buses with low-floor wheelchair-friendly buses in the transport industry and are aware that it is impossible to change all buses overnight due to the massive capital cost involved. Unfortunately, unlike elsewhere, grant money is not available to bus operators here in Cornwall and as you will appreciate, fleets cannot be disposed of overnight early in their working lives; it has to be a gradual process. Larger buses are not the answer, as the existing buses are already too large for the routes we operate. You may be interested to know that the new low floor buses cost nearly twice as much to buy, use nearly twice the fuel and are significantly more unreliable as well as costing more to maintain than our existing buses. They also carry less passengers! There will therefore be a major cost increase for passengers using these buses, as has been the case in London where it now costs up to £2 for travelling just one stop on a low floor bus. Using a bus from our current fleet, you can travel for miles for £2! Also, up to now, there has not been a wheelchair friendly bus designed which can cope with the narrow country lanes, poor road conditions, traffic calming measures and hilly terrain that that exist in some parts of Cornwall. Surmounting the problem of ground-clearance which the long, flat-floor bus faces is a serious challenge. We have been spending a lot of time testing various mobility buses on our routes but only now are manufacturers coming up with a solution. Although vehicles have recently been designed, at this point in time they are operating on relatively unproven and un-robust technology. If this technological barrier wasnt enough, we are also faced with the phenomenon of our revenue having fallen because we are instructed to give free travel to National Concessionary Bus Pass holder (including eligible disabled people) we are not being adequately reimbursed by the government who is granting it .
We hope that you appreciate that this is not designed to be unhelpful, but simply to let you know the difficulties that we are up against. Please be assured that the issue remains high on our agenda.
the change is most certainly not being done overnight and bus fares costing £2 in London is because they can get awayt with it. Sounds like a right whingebag
Apparently there is a problem with newer buses being unsuitable for rural areas. If you have ever ventured off the main roads in Cornwall you will know what I'm on about, and this comes from Western Greyhound:
http://www.westerngreyhound.com/faqs.php
There will therefore be a major cost increase for passengers using these buses, as has been the case in London where it now costs up to £2 for travelling just one stop on a low floor bus. Using a bus from our current fleet, you can travel for miles for £2!
european railways have single & 2 car emus
That does sound like a disengenuous answer.
There is a serious point though, that some routes just won't be able to justify a bigger vehicle - in the way that electrification of some railway lines will see stock that is far too big used (i.e. replacing the bubble car 121s on the Cardiff Bay shuttles with an EMU that is at least three times the size).
The difference is that a longer train should still get down the railway line, but a bigger bus may struggle with rural roads.
Post 2 states Any bus after 1/11/00 should be dda compliant, western greyhound have some 53 and 04 plate step entry mercs.
I wouldn't be surprised if new vehicles these days have half the fuel consumption of the manual Varios Western Greyhound use currently. For a start they're autos - so use more fuel. Then the increasingly stringent EU emissions protocols have pushed fuel consumption up too.