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Post by snowman on Jul 25, 2017 15:58:56 GMT
Currently in Austria. Fair mixture of buses here. Most are run by Postbus. The ones that run up the valley where we are staying are Mercedes bendybuses, but plenty of 12m buses (and 14-15m buses) seem to operate from nearby Zell am See bus terminal. Today took train to Salzburg. There are a few diesel buses (Man City Lions), but majority of the fleet is trolleybuses. Some are Van Hool, but most of the recent ones are Solaris Trollino 18s. They have 4 doors, all seem to be in use for boarding. The new ones are very quiet, they glide up next to you when you are walking. The older ones have a hum from the motor. Unlike London, doesn't seem to be any opening windows (just a climate control system that works) Haven't uploaded any pics, so here is a couple of web links so you know what I'm talking about, first one is terminus outside rail station, hence all the overhead for each bay, with one of the older ones, second pic is new Solaris one en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybuses_in_Salzburg#/media/File%3ASalzburg_trolleybus.jpgen.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybuses_in_Salzburg#/media/File%3ASalzburg_Solaris_MetroStyle_trolleybus_323_at_Hauptbahnhof%2C_January_2014.jpg
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Post by snoggle on Jul 25, 2017 18:39:54 GMT
Currently in Austria. Fair mixture of buses here. Most are run by Postbus. The ones that run up the valley where we are staying are Mercedes bendybuses, but plenty of 12m buses (and 14-15m buses) seem to operate from nearby Zell am See bus terminal. Today took train to Salzburg. There are a few diesel buses (Man City Lions), but majority of the fleet is trolleybuses. Some are Van Hool, but most of the recent ones are Solaris Trollino 18s. They have 4 doors, all seem to be in use for boarding. The new ones are very quiet, they glide up next to you when you are walking. The older ones have a hum from the motor. Unlike London, doesn't seem to be any opening windows (just a climate control system that works) Haven't uploaded any pics, so here is a couple of web links so you know what I'm talking about, first one is terminus outside rail station, hence all the overhead for each bay, with one of the older ones, second pic is new Solaris one en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybuses_in_Salzburg#/media/File%3ASalzburg_trolleybus.jpgen.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybuses_in_Salzburg#/media/File%3ASalzburg_Solaris_MetroStyle_trolleybus_323_at_Hauptbahnhof%2C_January_2014.jpgAh you're experiencing an effective, efficent and environmentally sympathetic public transport system. Must be a pleasant change to Kingston.
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Post by planesandtrains on Jul 25, 2017 21:09:37 GMT
Currently in Caorle, a holiday town in the Veneto region. Only two big operators round here, ATVO and ACTV. Reasonably efficient network of interurban coaches, A whole bunch of interesting stuff like Irisbus Ares 12.8 (I rode a 15m one on the 'Quickly' branded service to Punta Saboini today', MAN Lions Coaches, Belaus Cygnus's. from Venice to seaside and alpine foothill resorts. The main garage is in San Dona Di Piave and there are outstations in Caorle, Bibione, Lido De Jeselo and Mestre/Venice, however none carry out any maintenance. There is some sought of allocation system, namely the airport express busses from Venice Marcopolo to Pz. Roma, however everywhere else it is random due to the slightly odd outstation system (where a bus finishes for the evening staying overnight before returning the next day) The Lido De Jeselo network is a bit more dense with a selection of Scania Omnicities and MAN Lions Cities plus a few high floor Ivecos. However the allocations here seemed to be non existant with an Belaus Cygnus on the number 8 route there!
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Post by john on Jul 28, 2017 13:03:51 GMT
The joys of staying in Dawlish Warren in Devon for a week. Wish we had these in London
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Post by bn12cny on Aug 3, 2017 15:46:18 GMT
Currently in Thailand, wow I don't know where to start! I flew from Beijing to Bangkok then straight to Phuket where there are no buses just Tuk Tuks which I really are Bedford Rascal Vans with disco inside, unsafe and expensive form of transport or old trucks operating as buses, I just got around using a moped £4 for the day! After few days here at this rubbish city boat to Koh Tao transport on this island is vans or 4 by 4 but the island is small so in general I walked everywhere after diving lessons and relaxation boat to Chumpion. Scania Tri axle double deck coach to Bangkok (8 hrs) arrived in Bangkok what a experience on buses old 1960 style Isuzu buses clogging up the city with river boat taxis everywhere which is a experience and a half, very scary to board and alight. Tomorrow I have 6 hrs in Hong Kong riding around but also I saw a RT in Bangkok registration NML622E which I got a picture off! If you want a unique nostalgic bus experience come to Bangkok there is a variety for all....
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Post by SILENCED on Aug 3, 2017 16:12:11 GMT
Currently in Thailand, wow I don't know where to start! I flew from Beijing to Bangkok then straight to Phuket where there are no buses just Tuk Tuks which I really are Bedford Rascal Vans with disco inside, unsafe and expensive form of transport or old trucks operating as buses, I just got around using a moped £4 for the day! After few days here at this rubbish city boat to Koh Tao transport on this island is vans or 4 by 4 but the island is small so in general I walked everywhere after diving lessons and relaxation boat to Chumpion. Scania Tri axle double deck coach to Bangkok (8 hrs) arrived in Bangkok what a experience on buses old 1960 style Isuzu buses clogging up the city with river boat taxis everywhere which is a experience and a half, very scary to board and alight. Tomorrow I have 6 hrs in Hong Kong riding around but also I saw a RT in Bangkok registration NML622E which I got a picture off! If you want a unique nostalgic bus experience come to Bangkok there is a variety for all.... Tuk-tuks are only expensive if you dont barter, or are not very good at it. You start at something crazily low, then agree on about 10% of the original asking price. They expect to get haggled down, and love it when you get a tourist that does not. That was Phuket. In Bangkok they were a rip off, got cheaper prices from the air conned cabs
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Post by bn12cny on Aug 3, 2017 16:25:07 GMT
In regards to barter I do all the time, they hate me!! I barter in Beijing and its funny thinking a Westerner don't know anything then I start to speak in Mandrain which I have learnt! They get shocked!! My trick is always start at 90% of the price and never go in a taxi if they refuse to put on the meter. Simple....
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Post by snowman on Jun 25, 2018 18:43:02 GMT
Just back from 700 mile tour of Ireland.
Dublin has plenty of double decks including some E500s Most of the recent ones are Wrightbus Gemini 3 (with older style front), the old ALX400 are quite rare now. The buses are yellow and dark blue. They have extended the tram network and the trams are long (50m ?) and busy
Also visited Belfast which has strange collection of buses, the latest ones are Wrightbus Painted in Translink pink. There is a huge amount of rebuilding bus stops going on, especially in Titanic Quarter (for new glider bendybuses from September), actually saw one on motorway between Ballymena and Belfast
Out in West of Ireland, most bus services seem to be coaches rather than buses,
Although no British politician will ever say this, the locals in the north, seem to think Ireland will be united in 20-30 years once the old generation of politicians have died off, the people seem to be a lot more forward looking than those in London
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Post by vjaska on Jun 25, 2018 19:04:27 GMT
Just back from 700 mile tour of Ireland. Dublin has plenty of double decks including some E500s Most of the recent ones are Wrightbus Gemini 3 (with older style front), the old ALX400 are quite rare now. The buses are yellow and dark blue. They have extended the tram network and the trams are long (50m ?) and busy Also visited Belfast which has strange collection of buses, the latest ones are Wrightbus Painted in Translink pink. There is a huge amount of rebuilding bus stops going on, especially in Titanic Quarter (for new glider bendybuses from September), actually saw one on motorway between Ballymena and Belfast Out in West of Ireland, most bus services seem to be coaches rather than buses, Although no British politician will ever say this, the locals in the north, seem to think Ireland will be united in 20-30 years once the old generation of politicians have died off, the people seem to be a lot more forward looking than those in London Those Enviro 500’s are nice and are over 10 years old now and are Euro IV B9TL’s. When I went in 2007 to stay with some family in Dublin, they were in the fleet and didn’t look brand new - the fleet back then was more varied with there being plenty of Alexander Belfast Volvo Olympians, loads of ALX400 B7TL’s, the sole batch of ALX400 Tridents, Wright Fusion Artics on the 4, Wright Crusaders & the aforementioned Enviro 500’s on the 46 collection of routes and most buses were specified with bench seats regardless of age up with the last ones being the Enviro 400 B9TL’s. The tram was long back then and it ran to Tallaght at one end which is a town in the mountains - the tram is known as the LUAS.
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Post by YY13VKP on Jun 25, 2018 20:05:28 GMT
Meanwhile here in Croatia...there’s not a bus in sight! Although that could be because I’m staying on an island off Dubrovnik, and seemingly the main way to get around here is by bike or on a moped, and they even have water taxis! We did however have an Arriva Mercedes Tourismo to get to our island though, complete with the new logo too!
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Post by M1199 on Jul 3, 2018 0:22:45 GMT
Having just got back from spending time in Funchal on the island of Maderia, was amazed to find the cities bus network, the operator being Horarios do Funchal, running a fleet of 2/3's, maybe more of standard, high floor vehicles of 80's/90's vintage! Did feel odd for a few days seeing all these 'old girls' running round town! All seemed to be Volvo's, mainly B10M's & B9M's with the low floor vehicles being B128's all with various types of Camo (I think!) bodywork. Routes I used were the 1 & 2, which along the the 4, were ironically allocated Low Floor B128's, these were also classed as high frequency routes, operating on a 20min frequency! Despite the 1 & 2 being allocated LF vehicles, I did manage to grab 2 odd workings in the shape of the 3 door B10M's, these tackled the hills with ease, much better than the B128's I thought. One of these, 311, had a lovely musical sounding ZF box, loved the 'wooooing' it made going through the gears, especially between 2nd > 3rd. Reminded me of the LLW Dennis Lances we had on the 222 once upon a time! Didn't get time to do any photography, but managed to get a few shots on my phone. www.flickr.com/photos/62959794@N06/albums/72157698635347625Also spend one morning riding around town on one of City Sightseeing's Open Top MAN's Not sure what engine they had under the bonnet, but their Voith gearboxes, whiny retarder and the ticking from the engine as we went on our merry way made them sound very much like a MCW Metrobus!
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Post by 725DYE on Jul 28, 2018 12:15:56 GMT
Just got back home from a fantastic week in Prague, Czechia. Simply a beautiful and characteristic city! Ive always wanted to move to Australia one day but could now honestly also see myself moving to Prague as well. The old town is full of such activity, the shops are brilliant and everything is so cheap . I didn't use any public transport at all - I always say its better to walk around the centre of a city to soak up the culture. Especially in London where the buses are too slow and the tube is too hot . One observation of Prague (and I guess any other similar European city such as Budapest) is that the trams are bloody dangerous! There is literally no organisation of how they operate at all. Sometimes they're segregated from the main traffic, sometimes integrated. Sometimes they operate on the right, sometimes the left. I even walked past a stop where the tram stopped in the middle of the road in line with the pavement One tram almost ran over two of my friends because the bell system made no sense to us at all. These trams simply do not stop for anything! Regardless of this its been a wonderful week and glad to have missed the sweltering heat in London
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Post by busaholic on Jul 28, 2018 12:42:25 GMT
I even walked past a stop where the tram stopped in the middle of the road in line with the pavement As a very young child I watched from my grandmother's flat the trams at Eltham Church tram stop, situated in the middle of the road! Even a 3 and 4 year old who loved the old beasts could see that it was no longer tenable in the early 1950s. Obviously the Czechs see things differently!
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Post by sid on Jul 28, 2018 13:58:17 GMT
I even walked past a stop where the tram stopped in the middle of the road in line with the pavement As a very young child I watched from my grandmother's flat the trams at Eltham Church tram stop, situated in the middle of the road! Even a 3 and 4 year old who loved the old beasts could see that it was no longer tenable in the early 1950s. Obviously the Czechs see things differently! And so do the Aussies, this arrangement works perfectly well in Melbourne. m.youtube.com/watch?v=lDeHPrYxKCcI suspect it's only in 'nanny state' Britain this would be deemed unsafe?
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Post by snoggle on Jul 28, 2018 14:33:41 GMT
Just got back home from a fantastic week in Prague, Czechia. Simply a beautiful and characteristic city! Ive always wanted to move to Australia one day but could now honestly also see myself moving to Prague as well. The old town is full of such activity, the shops are brilliant and everything is so cheap . I didn't use any public transport at all - I always say its better to walk around the centre of a city to soak up the culture. Especially in London where the buses are too slow and the tube is too hot . One observation of Prague (and I guess any other similar European city such as Budapest) is that the trams are bloody dangerous! There is literally no organisation of how they operate at all. Sometimes they're segregated from the main traffic, sometimes integrated. Sometimes they operate on the right, sometimes the left. I even walked past a stop where the tram stopped in the middle of the road in line with the pavement One tram almost ran over two of my friends because the bell system made no sense to us at all. These trams simply do not stop for anything! Regardless of this its been a wonderful week and glad to have missed the sweltering heat in London So it's a proper tram system then!! It may look a bit odd to UK eyes but you'd soon get used to it. Nothing wrong with boarding in the road - it's how it's been done for decades in many systems the world over. It's no different to a bus stop - just that the passenger steps out to the tram rather than the tram veering into the kerb. Furthermore it's actually a good idea that trams have priority and are able to keep moving. Means people can get about!
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