New Hydrogen fuelled Buses for Birmingham.

[2206]

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/new-fleet-500000-zero-emission-13800364
New Hydrogen fuelled buses set to be on the road and in service for March 2019.
A new refuelling facility at Tyseley Energy Park.

[MW]

Okay so there's 22 buses and they'll be based at Tyseley Energy Park. So it's the 37 basically?

[monkeyjoe]

I thought they haven't sad which operator it will be yet

[MW]

I thought they haven't sad which operator it will be yet

Who else has a route with a PVR of around 19-20ish?

Has it said whether it'll be one route or spread across a few? It's probably one route. My money's on the 37.

[Jack]

Who else has a route with a PVR of around 19-20ish?

Has it said whether it'll be one route or spread across a few? It's probably one route. My money's on the 37.

Why the 37? The buses on it are fine and nice. Probably some of the best Single Decks in service. If they did get put on the 37 then put throw them on the 6 too.
I don't see why they couldn't do the 82/87 or the Pershore Road.

[2206]

Why the 37? The buses on it are fine and nice. Probably some of the best Single Decks in service. If they did get put on the 37 then put throw them on the 6 too.
I don't see why they couldn't do the 82/87 or the Pershore Road.

There are only 22, not enough for both the 6 and 37.
Is the 82/87 PVR 22 or less. I don't think it is? They don't operate anywhere near Tyesley as well.

[Mike K]

Why the 37? The buses on it are fine and nice. Probably some of the best Single Decks in service. If they did get put on the 37 then put throw them on the 6 too.
I don't see why they couldn't do the 82/87 or the Pershore Road.

The article also mentions that they will be part funded by the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership, which doesn't cover Sandwell and Dudley, so I can't imagine they'd be for the 82/87. As already stated, with the refuelling depot in Tyseley, which is along the 37 route, the 37 seems the most logical explanation.

[monkeyjoe]

To be fair it's been a while the 37 having an upgrade lol

[Stu]

I'm not quite sure why people have jumped to the conclusion that these will be for the 37.

City council bosses are set to approve the pilot project to buy 22 new zero-emission buses, costing £500,000 each, to run on key routes throughout the city....

...The cost of the buses will come from the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (£1,474,000), the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (£4,080,800), the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (£2,156,000) and the yet to be appointed bus operator will make up the rest through a lease agreement. The city council is running the pilot project.

I know that most press releases out of TfWM can be a bit thinly veiled at the best of times, but I think its a bit early to be prematurely assuming that NXWM will be operating these. For all we know, even though they will be based in Tyseley, it could be a combination of operators operating a few each, or even someone like Diamond using them on the 16 and 50 services for example.

I guess we're just going to have to wait and see what happens.

[Stuharris 6360]

I'm not quite sure why people have jumped to the conclusion that these will be for the 37.

I know that most press releases out of TfWM can be a bit thinly veiled at the best of times, but I think its a bit early to be prematurely assuming that NXWM will be operating these. For all we know, even though they will be based in Tyseley, it could be a combination of operators operating a few each, or even someone like Diamond using them on the 16 and 50 services for example.

I guess we're just going to have to wait and see what happens.

Think the key wording in the press release is "routes", I would suggest that a number of routes will get the buses so that areas throughout Birmingham will benefit.

I know it probably wouldn't happen in Birmingham, but in London, the Hydrogen buses on the RV1 couldn't operate during the Olympics because the refuelling point was to close to the Olympic Stadium and there were security concerns.

[2206]

Think the key wording in the press release is "routes", I would suggest that a number of routes will get the buses so that areas throughout Birmingham will benefit.

I know it probably wouldn't happen in Birmingham, but in London, the Hydrogen buses on the RV1 couldn't operate during the Olympics because the refuelling point was to close to the Olympic Stadium and there were security concerns.

They're not really going be able to upgrade a number of routes throughout Birmingham with just 22 buses.

[Stuharris 6360]

They're not really going be able to upgrade a number of routes throughout Birmingham with just 22 buses.

Not fully upgrade no, but do you want a route with all Hydrogen buses.

Lets say for example the 37 was fully upgraded and suddenly there is a problem, for example in 2011 the London Hydrogen buses were taken off the road due to a fire. would NE be able to find 22 spare buses without other services suffering. Thankfully the fire on the London ones was nothing to do with the Hydrogen part of the buses and at that time only 5 were in service, so they were able to cover them with normal buses.

So my gut feeling is, it will be several routes with a few buses on each.

[suavegarv]

Interested operators will have to submit a tender. The bus operators will have to contribute a minimum cost of £149,510 per vehicle.This minimum contribution is based on the cost of a new EuroVI compliant bus.

[Stuharris 6360]

Interested operators will have to submit a tender. The bus operators will have to contribute a minimum cost of £149,510 per vehicle.This minimum contribution is based on the cost of a new EuroVI compliant bus.

In that case, can't see many operators taking up the option myself, even Diamond, would they be able to afford it?

[Isle of Stroma]

I'm not quite sure why people have jumped to the conclusion that these will be for the 37.

I know that most press releases out of TfWM can be a bit thinly veiled at the best of times, but I think its a bit early to be prematurely assuming that NXWM will be operating these. For all we know, even though they will be based in Tyseley, it could be a combination of operators operating a few each, or even someone like Diamond using them on the 16 and 50 services for example.

I guess we're just going to have to wait and see what happens.

Tyseley. Acocks Green's a stones throw away but I suppose it would be more handy for Tividale/Kidderminster/Redditch.....

Not fully upgrade no, but do you want a route with all Hydrogen buses.

Lets say for example the 37 was fully upgraded and suddenly there is a problem, for example in 2011 the London Hydrogen buses were taken off the road due to a fire. would NE be able to find 22 spare buses without other services suffering.

Easily.

Interested operators will have to submit a tender. The bus operators will have to contribute a minimum cost of £149,510 per vehicle.This minimum contribution is based on the cost of a new EuroVI compliant bus.

Last time I looked at the maths, the operator was expected to stump up about £6m+, so considerably more than £150k per show pony bus