More bendy bus trouble...

For lack of hill-climbing ability you couldn't do worse than the old Bristol CITY FLH Lodekkas, handed-down from Country, who had FLFs, and then VRs. Up Park Street it was 1st gear! The VRs that came in eventually were better.

Once one of these classic buses (FLH) failed to start at the Bristol Polytechnic (now University of the West of England) and we students had to give the old girl a push start..luckily it had a manual gearbox. There was also a Country service to Filton that stopped outside the Poly, and they used RELHs, which were quite fast.

Our ones with First are Volvo - new T reg.

Dominators were selected as the standard SYPTE vehicle because of their hill climbing abilities - Sheffield is notorious for them. A lot of modern buses have problems, because they're secondhand tat from elsewhere - unfortunately London buyers don't consider the fact that we might have to use their vehicles when they've run them down!

As for the Cummins Olympians, are those the F***WSC and G***CSG ones with Lothian? They seem to be quite decent, despite their age.

Just watched a clip of the G***CSG ones on youtube and the engine does indeed sound like the Cummins L10.

(The Leyland Olympian + Cummins L10 + Alexander RH is my all-time favourate bus.)

We used to have two Alexander/Scania 113s down this way which were great busses. Ultra smooth ride, motored up hills and looked smart inside too. I also used to like the MCW Metrobus 2s which where also pretty good and also reasonably tastefully designed (for a bus!). Then came the NC Leyland Olympians... they seemed to go ok but the interior must have been designed by someone with a serious grudge! Anyway, at one point we started getting quite a few ex-London vehicles, I guess to replace the aging Bristol VRTs. Most of these vehicles where completely inappropriate for our routes. For starters neither the drivers nor the passengers really knew how to use the rear doors . The worst of the bunch was some Leyland Titans(?) that struggled with anything larger than a speed bump!! These days all we have is modern telly-tubbie style plastic busses. Oh, how I miss the chug chug of a MK1 National .

Just to add my bit, I always found Gardner engined Lympalongs very under powered when it came to hills, and buggers to start when cold.

We had some ex-Leicester Cummins L10 engined Dominators at Northampton. Lordy, they were fast, and would climb anything. BUT, don't turn them off when they are hot if the engine is well worn, as they just won't turn over (where are you now 143 and 146) many drivers would use this to miss a trip in these motors.

True. If done properly, buses can be loaded quickly anyway. I saw a double decker filled to capacity in about 3 minutes earlier today - if passengers have their money ready, exact fare system, and a lot have pre-paid passes, it takes no time at all.

If a conductor is on, say, £12,000 p/a, for every 10 conductors you employ you could have bought a new bus every year.

I remember when I was at university, it wasn't an uncommon occurrence to see a queue of over 200 people waiting for a bus from the student village to the University (~2 miles away) or vice versa at peak times. It would take only 3-4 minutes for a very old (old W-reg iirc) double decker with a licensed capacity of 89 to fully board. >90% of the travellers had passes (£120/academic year for unlimited travel in Swansea/Neath/Port Talbot/Gower) that just required showing to the driver.

Bendy buses are the lowest of the low, and reflects the sickening decline in the standards of comfort that passengers have to put up with. They have a place on short hop routes, linking stations for example. But on routes like the 25, 38, 73 and 149? Simply moronic. And as for putting conductors on them - well if they do that, they might as well have kept the Routemasters, and at least London would still have one of its world famous icons.

For me bendy buses make journeys easier, quicker, and more convenient

What route do you use them on, just out of interest?

The 205 often ends up overtaking the 25 on Mile End Road, both directions. ;D I find the 25 the worst route in London in terms of comfort.

East London has a large fleet of comfortable Tridents. Wish they were used on the 25 instead!

Again, it's a matter of place. Just like putting an Olympian on a route suited to Metroriders is a stupid thing to do (never stopped Leon), putting a bendie on an unsuitable route is silly.

Best modern bus probably has to be the Gemini, some of the ones here are literally weeks old. Smooth, fast, comfortable and clean.

I thinl the pain was (and still is) felt on those routes where bendies replaced routemasters directly - the 12, 38 and 73. I think the 207 improvements were mainly down to the splitting of the route, rather than the introduction of bendies.

Have to say, I think that Boris Johnson is bonkers, but it might be worth voting for him just to get these monstrosities off the road.