East London Line Replacement Bus Service (Optare)

well, we will have to agree to disagree!

Solos are certainly suited for services in the rural areas and small towns- there is no doubt about that.

The remarks I made regarding the type of service buses in London have to provide are relevant when operators have to choose a new bus for service.
in a lecture given by the engineering director of a major bus company in London , the following factors are taken into account::
-bus suitability for the route and the demand it places on the vehicles
[and he explained the service intensity issue I referred to in my previous msg]
- delivery schedule
- financial package
- engineering support
- 'tried and tested' [= do we know the product?]
- fuel consumption

Solos have been tried in London by various operators and found a niche in servicing suburban areas such as Sutton [Epsom bus has quite a lot of them], and routes which require narrower machines than the darts [route W12 and R8].

Regards

Yoram

原帖由 yblumann 於 2008-6-2 19:06 發表
well, we will have to agree to disagree!

Solos are certainly suited for services in the rural areas and small towns- there is no doubt about that.

The remarks I made regarding the type of serv ...

So are ther any differences for the operating environment
for Epsom bus and other operators?

原帖由 yblumann 於 2008-6-2 11:06 發表
in a lecture given by the engineering director of a major bus company in London , the following factors are taken into account:

I do not dispute what he said, but in a hindsight, the London operational practice on single deckers, and in fact the London Buses contract themselves, have been geared handily to which the Dart range is offered.

This has much to do with the initial success of the standard floor Dart itself. By the time the Solo, which is arguably the only credible competitor of the Dart, comes to the market, the Dart has been around for nearly 10 years, and become very well established in London to say the least, with about 2,000 of various size operating in the captial.

What such a foothold in this important market, it is always difficult for any competing products to get into London. The Solo proved that, and so has the B6, B6LE, SB120s and so on.

The other reason that I claim the product range offered on the Dart is important because the four length, 8.8m, 9.2m, 10.2m and 10.7m (the 11.3m Super Dart doesn't count as it doesn't catch on in London anyway) it is offered fits well in London operations. You just need to look at back in 1989, when the first Darts flood into London, they are the short 8.5m. As longer versions are being offered by Dennis, the Dart becomes a good choice for growth in London without having to acquiring a different type of vehicle - most of the Darts in London now are the 10.2m versions. Naturally, it helps itself to maintain the foothold in London.

Now look at the Solo. When first offered, it was only available with 2 lengths, 8.5m and 9.2m. The market of this size of buses in London is minimal anyway, esp Dennis is offering the 9m version Dart SLF at the point already. The longest length, 9.8m, did not appear until 2003, five year after production start, and it is far from ideal because of its long wheelbase - and a lack of a dual door layout doesn't help either. So the Solo is stuck at the lower end of the midibus market - if an operator ends up needing a bigger bus to cope, all they can do is get a different type. Connex/Travel London did that by, ironically, buying some Darts, which progressively ousted the Solos when they standardise their fleet.

These are the main reason why the Solo never catch on in London. It's not the fault of the bus, having been of the market and having sold so many copies across the country, the Solo is far from untried and untested, and as I said it is just as robust and reliable as the Dart. The problem is its range doesn't fit into London's operation as well as the Dart/E200Dart has been, and Dennis/Transbus/ADL's dominating market share in London doesn't help either. In other major cities (e.g. Manchester & Nottingham) in the UK, the operation philosophy is different in that operators prefer to run larger and heavy duty full size single deckers (like the B7RLEs and various Scanias), and this leave the small size midibus segment unoccupied, where the Solo fits in well - and as a result it become a much bigger force to be reckoned in those markets against the Dart.

[ 本帖最後由 NV58 於 2008-6-2 18:34 編輯 ]