On 16/10/17 14:07,prescottt@... [TramsDownUnder] wrote:
>

>

> The UK is a generation behind. The developments in continental Europe

> and China have moved on from involving any type of fuel-powered engine

> on board. They've been there, done that - hybrid diesel-electric, diesel

> generators on trolleybuses, even the NZ Wrightbus (if it ever happens)

> is now outside the parameters. It has to be all electric on the vehicle.


Multiple battery failures will not help matters on this front - the
battery packs in their hybrids keep dying, so going 100% electric is
quite a leap of faith if your hybrids don't work properly.

And I kept an eye out for electric vehicals on by recent trip, and
electric buses are 'rare as hens teeth', I don't think I saw any in
Germany at all. I saw many Tesla and Nissan Leaf electric cars - and
public charging points for them. I don't think I saw one pure battery
electric bus. (Ignoring trolley buses, I saw quite a number of those!).

The duty cycle for an urban route bus is punishing and I suspect it's
going to be quite a few years before pure battery electric can hold it's
own. The electrics will only succeed in jurisdictions were the operator
gets subsidized on the costs of extra vehicals so they can give them
less punishing diagrams than the diesel/gas buses are subjected to, but
keep the service levels up.

I do wonder how many hours a day are Melbourne trams out on the road and
how this compares with the buses in the same city.

I know people have collected driver diagrams - does any one collect
'vehicle' diagrams ?