New Bus For London January 2017 Update

Many topics...
(below this text is information that was left out of the film)

*more of these buses continue to be introduced
*eventually there will be 1000 of them
*the rear doors are permanently closed, so no more hop-on / hop-off at red traffic signals or traffic jams
*one bus route used to see the buses switch between open and closed door modes en-route - we see this in action!
*there is a new twin door / single staircase version which comes in two forms, including an opportunity charging variant
*a brief look at other opportunity charging solutions and a call for more electric buses using these technologies in London *a brief look at other opportunity charging solutions and a call for more electric buses using these technologies in London - this includes "in motion charging" (also known as "SlideIn") which does not require a bus to be stationary to recharge the batteries
*a look inside the new SRM buses
*more....

It is my view that if TfL / London Buses want to properly evaluate opportunity charging then they should trial all three of the variants which are presently available, including in-motion charging / SlideIn. London already uses under-road induction, the SRM with B5LHC chassis will use overhead pantograph, so in-motion charging will tick the third box.

Music: Quirky Dog By Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
https://incompetech.com/wordpress/201...
License: CC BY 3.0
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Additional factoids which due to time constraints were left out of the film (I wanted to stay below 10 minutes in duration)…

re: Opportunity charging, the BYD principle is that a bus should be able to operate a full shift on one battery charge. However, whilst this works well on single deck buses which have medium duty shifts that do not travel too far, for large buses (especially double-deckers) carrying enough batteries requires a reduction in passenger capacity. (London's experimental BYD double-deckers demonstrate this).

Other bus builders believe in day-time battery top-ups since these mean that the buses can carry a full complement of passengers - rather than enough batteries to operate a full shift on one charge.

However topping up batteries takes time and requires a dedicated parking space – or for areas served by multiple and busy routes will require several / many dedicated parking spaces... . that is, if is space available! Passengers will not welcome even two minute delays during their journeys to allow for battery charging. This explains why most topping-up takes place during the layover period between journeys when the bus is not in passenger service.

Whilst in-motion charging (which is also known as Slide-in) requires trolleybus infrastructure it means that the batteries can be charged whilst the bus is moving, ie: in service and carrying fare-paying passengers.

Beijing trialled battery buses but was not happy with battery life plus how often parked vehicles blocked the overhead charging posts. So instead it is going for trolleybuses and is converting 20+ diesel bus services to trolleybus – in the process installing much new overhead wiring. Beijing also uses in-motion charging, as some of its trolleybus services pass through wire-free zones.

Rome built a brand new trolleybus route because a study by the Roma Tre university found that it was cheaper than paying the healthcare costs of people who had become unwell from diesel bus air pollution. In the city centre there is an unwired section which includes the city centre route terminus where the buses lay-over in battery mode. The batteries are recharged using in-motion charging. However after a decade of use the short life of the batteries required that they be replaced – at a whopping 30,000 euro per trolleybus. Because of this Rome’s next brand new trolleybus services use diesel auxiliary power packs when away from the overhead wires.

New York has also stopped buying hybrid buses, citing battery life and replacement cost issues as being the cause. Instead it has reverted to diesels.