LDN: E400 B9 enters service on route 85- a test case for volvos

原帖由 yblumann 於 2008-10-19 10:02 發表
Well,
OK, Thanks, I haven't read the official press release from Volvo;
At the end of the day,  the problem is still there and getting worse; complaints keep flooding in.
The fact is that if many Vol ...

No, I'm not accusing you or anyone being anti-Volvo, or in fact anti-whoever at all. What I am pointing out is what has been happening with the B7TLs, and the fact that the production B9TLs (2-axle anyway), seem to have a different radiator that fixed the problem.

The radiator defect of the B7L-range will never go away through its service life, and the only practical fix is down to Volvo and the operators  to fix the thermostats of the vehicles when they start roaring. Of course when the bus gets older, chance for things to go wrong increases as well, this is quite natural. And also, if any garage are not bother fixing the problem (which does not affect vehicle availability), it makes the problem in certain area, overall, more profound.

From what I understand, Go-Ahead London, or LC/LG more precisely, actually considered getting more B9s in their fleet. After they have ordered the 3 EVs, apparently they had seriously considered to order more for their next order, but ended up with ADL/Optare at the end. It looks like they have decided to take their time to see how the EVs perform before they make any decision in the future? Also, with some of the respected operators outside London, like EYMS and Lothian, running a fairly large fleet of B9TLs for some time as well, it might have injected some confidence back to them as well.

Anyway, regarding the radiator of B9TL, you need to get on one of the 07-reg or later B9s and you will notice the difference. Another interesting examples to observe are TOLST's B9TLs - I thought they have been on the road for a year or so now? Next time I'm in London, I shall catch up LG's B9 as well to see if it has the new radiator as well.