I hear what you’re saying, but in terms of clearing up a backlog, if there are ‘metros’ running at 5 minute frequencies that is a capacity of up to 2040 people per hour. The Cleveland line through Buranda runs a peak frequency of 8 trains per hour, which is a capacity of approximately 7,600 per hour. Even the off peak weekday frequency of 4 trains per hour is over 1.5 times higher than the ‘metro’ capacity.
I’m not saying the high frequency of the service isn’t good or helpful, but rail will be much more capable of clearing a backlog from an out of commission busway. The two working in tandem will be even better!
I’m glad people are choosing the train, but a lot of people are still pretty interchange avoidant, especially at somewhere like Buranda where you have to hike up out of the trench and up to the rail platforms. I suspect most people would just choose the M1 purely due to the convenience being a same platform transfer
Theres also plenty of people who come from the south who would interchange at cultural centre for another city bound route to access different parts of the city (ie transfering to 60, 196, etc), so for them staying on the M1 would be ideal
The numbers of the old Bustech models Clarks are running is being wittled down - being replaced by the newer Volgren and Custom Denning models. That said, all diesel buses spew some particularly nasty gasses.
On the topics of Clarks buses though, I can’t recall seeing any of Clarks’ electric buses in quite some time. They used to do the occasional Brisbane city runs, but I haven’t come across any for quite a while. Are they still in operation?
Regarding Clarks electrics, 902,904 and 906-908 are still in service. They average 1-2 hours a day, usually during morning peak and sometimes afternoon peak. But that’s about it.
I wonder if they’re having issues with the units? Other operators including Transdev and Kinetic (especially on the Gold Coast) are getting 8+ hours a day out of their EV units.
Well said. I wonder if the mandate for new buses from 2025 onwards in SEQ to be 100% electric is being scrapped or not? Radio silence from the state government so far.
Doors not closing, grab poles falling off, aircon issues, Clarks apparently having to limit their max speed to 80 as a way to allow their batteries to last an entire shift (with their battery provider, Proterra, falling into bankruptcy a few years ago) and the funniest one I had the pleasure of seeing:
The life of a school bus is a lot more relaxed compared to the one of a normal one, obviously. Or you’re gonna tell me than the units of CDC SC have the same amount of mileage of a Kinetic one in the same city?
Those buses should be used intensively but instead they barely do more than 4 services per day. Come on.
The problem with H2 is just the infrastructure it requires. I imagine CDC aren’t producing their own, so they must be getting it delivered, however this still requires very high pressure storage tanks, a special refueling setup, extra safety precautions, etc, which is pretty expensive. CDC obviously see the value in at least giving it a try, but Kinetic are very tight on depot space (hence the Noosa depot being built) and also significantly invested in EV so I’m not surprised that they’re giving hydrogen a miss.
If I’m not wrong, TMR were recently working on 1-2 hydrogen units with a volgren body, I wonder what is happening to them? They don’t seem to be a part of the railbus fleet and haven’t been leased to any operators yet as far as I can tell.
They have recently amended that law but it doesn’t affect buses just department fleet purchases as they can now buy hybrid vehicles as well as electric.
Been seeing some really nasty graffiti on trains recently because of the GC/Beenleigh lines occupation, with one NGR in particular having about half a carriage covered from floor to ceiling.
This is another issue of these track closures that seems to get lost in the planning process: sets cannot access cleaning facilities.
Reminds me of the period last year where the train wash was inaccessible for an extended period due to CRR works - trains running around absolutely covered in graffiti. Surprising to see that QR seems to just accept it, but I guess there’s not much you can do short of building another train wash facility somewhere else
It’s certainly better to run trains with graffiti over no trains, but it’s still not a fabulous look. At least it is only short term though.
It’s interesting that QR seems to be a lot more relaxed about running trains with Graffiti on compared to Sydney Trains. AFAIK, a unit will be removed from service if it has even a knick of graffiti on it in Sydney.
