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Post by snowman on Sept 5, 2020 6:15:44 GMT
Article on Wrightbus, it appears a hydrogen fuel production plant will be built near Glasgow, also suggests Glasgow is getting 300 hydrogen buses The Green buses in the photo are for First Leeds www.intelligentliving.co/3k-hydrogen-buses-uk-2024/I am wondering if some big Government funding announcement is pending for zero emission buses, but effectively some details are leaking out in advance
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Post by southlondonbus on Sept 5, 2020 19:31:55 GMT
Interesting read. Wrightbus are certainly planning a comeback it seems. I wonder if they will try and get back some of their old clients like Metroline and Go Ahead who were very faithful to the Wright Gemini body.
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Post by SILENCED on Sept 5, 2020 19:43:35 GMT
Interesting read. Wrightbus are certainly planning a comeback it seems. I wonder if they will try and get back some of their old clients like Metroline and Go Ahead who were very faithful to the Wright Gemini body. With the team they now have behind them at Wright's, it is hard to imagine them not being the go to Hydrogen supplier, at least in the short term.
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Post by southlondonbus on Sept 5, 2020 19:51:26 GMT
Might be good to offer a discount to an operator to try and get a garage worth of orders to really see if the technology really could be workable.
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Sept 5, 2020 23:54:41 GMT
Might be good to offer a discount to an operator to try and get a garage worth of orders to really see if the technology really could be workable. I don't think other manufacturers would be happy over that
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Post by busman on Sept 6, 2020 1:29:19 GMT
Article on Wrightbus, it appears a hydrogen fuel production plant will be built near Glasgow, also suggests Glasgow is getting 300 hydrogen buses The Green buses in the photo are for First Leeds www.intelligentliving.co/3k-hydrogen-buses-uk-2024/I am wondering if some big Government funding announcement is pending for zero emission buses, but effectively some details are leaking out in advance It wouldn’t surprise me, as backing hydrogen vehicle innovation seems to fit perfectly into our current political environment. China is leading the way in electric bus technology, but it seems we want to reduce our reliance on China and also boost UK technology as we find our way in a post-Brexit world. Hydrogen is the future diesel and as hydrogen vehicles and infrastructure becomes more commonplace, the barriers around fuel supply and charging stations will reduce. Hope to see the UK government get right behind this and fully support Wrightbus and other British firms.
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Post by LJ17THF on Sept 6, 2020 10:01:06 GMT
Interesting read. Wrightbus are certainly planning a comeback it seems. I wonder if they will try and get back some of their old clients like Metroline and Go Ahead who were very faithful to the Wright Gemini body. In recent years, operators have strayed away from the Wright Gemini, Metroline and Go-Ahead seemed to go to MCV and ADL respectively, however Go-Ahead did have the Wright Streetlite as their SD bus of choice until Wright ran into financial issues. In future years, I can only see them buying Optare and ADL, maybe MCV if they come into the electric bus market.
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Post by southlondonbus on Sept 6, 2020 19:25:00 GMT
Article on Wrightbus, it appears a hydrogen fuel production plant will be built near Glasgow, also suggests Glasgow is getting 300 hydrogen buses The Green buses in the photo are for First Leeds www.intelligentliving.co/3k-hydrogen-buses-uk-2024/I am wondering if some big Government funding announcement is pending for zero emission buses, but effectively some details are leaking out in advance It wouldn’t surprise me, as backing hydrogen vehicle innovation seems to fit perfectly into our current political environment. China is leading the way in electric bus technology, but it seems we want to reduce our reliance on China and also boost UK technology as we find our way in a post-Brexit world. Hydrogen is the future diesel and as hydrogen vehicles and infrastructure becomes more commonplace, the barriers around fuel supply and charging stations will reduce. Hope to see the UK government get right behind this and fully support Wrightbus and other British firms. The creation of a hydrogen plant would be great investment to show that Westminster has an interest in Scotland to try and boost support for the union.
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Post by ADH45258 on Sept 6, 2020 22:49:42 GMT
Interesting read. Wrightbus are certainly planning a comeback it seems. I wonder if they will try and get back some of their old clients like Metroline and Go Ahead who were very faithful to the Wright Gemini body. In recent years, operators have strayed away from the Wright Gemini, Metroline and Go-Ahead seemed to go to MCV and ADL respectively, however Go-Ahead did have the Wright Streetlite as their SD bus of choice until Wright ran into financial issues. In future years, I can only see them buying Optare and ADL, maybe MCV if they come into the electric bus market. If mass hybrid orders were to continue for a while longer, I would expect most operators opting for E40H/MMCs or Smart Hybrid MMCs, alongside some B5LH/Evosetis. It looks like Wright are currently only offering the Streetdeck range (rather than Volvo chassis as well), while very fee batches of Streetdecks have been ordered by London operators. However, with the shift to electric DDs, I think it will take some time to see what the main types are, as more operators may introduce electric options, though I expect ADL will remain as the dominant manufacturer.
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Post by busnetworkexplorer on Sept 7, 2020 23:09:27 GMT
When are the new hydrogen ones coming for 7? Also it will be like what happened with optare MD since metroline ordered a batch now everyone is getting MD's Also what happened to the RV1 Hydrogens since the 444 went
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Post by LJ17THF on Sept 8, 2020 5:40:30 GMT
When are the new hydrogen ones coming for 7? Also it will be like what happened with optare MD since metroline ordered a batch now everyone is getting MD's Also what happened to the RV1 Hydrogens since the 444 went It hasn't been confirmed when the 7 will get its buses, other than it will come in 2021, Metroline will keep their hydrogens, none will go back like the Optare demonstrator. I think all of the ex-RV1 (seems weird to say that) hydrogens have been withdrawn, with the Van-Hools going to Germany somehow (in my opinion, it would have been best to send them up to Aberdeen, as they have the same Van-Hools but tri-axle).
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Post by southlondonbus on Sept 8, 2020 5:56:17 GMT
I think I'd heard on here they would arrive in November for the 7.
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Sept 8, 2020 10:25:37 GMT
When are the new hydrogen ones coming for 7? Also it will be like what happened with optare MD since metroline ordered a batch now everyone is getting MD's Also what happened to the RV1 Hydrogens since the 444 went People just don't order buses just because other companies are ordering them. The 134 got MetroDeckers for comparison purposes, the C3 and 23 got MetroDeckers as It was better suited for their needs while the 200 seems to have got them due to the inability of a BYD to make the turns on the route. Companies do an evaluation prior to ordering buses as to what bus type presents the greater benefits when in service. Obviously the easier to install infrastructure and shorter length of the Metrodecker is likely to appeal in some situations while the faster charging BYD is likely to appeal in other situations.
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Post by ohdear on Sept 9, 2020 0:29:04 GMT
In the excitement over hydrogen buses what is overlooked is the process from the start and not at the end where only water comes from the exhaust. Wright are pushing them because the owner also owns the company that makes the bits and pieces that makes a hydrogen buses work Making and processing the hydrogen is not exactly the answer that everyone thinks it is and the normal electric buses may be more efficient. Make your own minds up and search the internet for hydrogen versus electric - there are some unbiased reports out there.
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Sept 9, 2020 0:56:38 GMT
In the excitement over hydrogen buses what is overlooked is the process from the start and not at the end where only water comes from the exhaust. Wright are pushing them because the owner also owns the company that makes the bits and pieces that makes a hydrogen buses work Making and processing the hydrogen is not exactly the answer that everyone thinks it is and the normal electric buses may be more efficient. Make your own minds up and search the internet for hydrogen versus electric - there are some unbiased reports out there. I think Hydrogen is not quite there yet, it's extremely inefficient to store and the fuel itself is still explosive. These buses have been trialled since 2003, it's now 2020 and we are still trialling the vehicles. Hybrids first got trialled in 2005 and were being ordered for routes by 2010. Electrics were trialled in 2013 and are now the norm, and have been since last year. Hydrogen extraction itself relies on electricity to be green, the process requires more electricity to be put in at the moment than amount of electricity the Hydrogen can then generate later on. It's going to be hard to combat that as each time energy is transferred, energy is lost. The less energy transfers mean more energy is preserved. It's no surprise why at the moment most of the world's Hydrogen is obtained from Crude oil, however we all know the issues associated there. Electricity being directly stored on the bus is likely to use less electricity overall as electrical energy won't be lost along the way in the electrolysis process. You're right about Wright/Bamford pushing Hydrogens for that reason. Mr Bamford owns Ryse Hydrogen and no surprise that with increased sales of Hydrogen buses, both of Bamford's companies will benefit. However it's telling that they're the only manufacturer at the moment pushing Hydrogens over electric vehicles. Alexander Dennis have a Hydrogen vehicle on offer too, but it doesn't yet seem complete and ADL seem to want demand to exist before finishing off development. Wright have realised that the market is demanding an electric vehicle, no matter how much they push Hydrogen so have finally started developing one of their own. Hydrogen is also extremely inefficient to store, the RV1s buses did initially have range issues until they got extra tanks put on them. Electricity is more efficient to store, however is less environmentally friendly to store depending on how batteries are disposed at the end of their life. However with range, there's only so much tanks and batteries you can add to a vehicle until you can't do so anymore so both vehicles have issues here. Another issue Hydrogen presents is the fuelling situation, fuelling stations need constant maintenance for Hydrogen to meet safety standards due to the nature of the fuel. As it's also a gas it's harder to store large amounts of it without abnormally huge tanks. Look at all the time it's taken for a single fueling station to be fitted at PV, it required a whole tender to go out and bids reviewed before it could be installed. London has currently only got two Hydrogen capable garages, PV and LI, and the station at LI I have heard is to be decommissioned shortly. If Hydrogens did stand a realistic chance of being the future I'm sure equal investment would have been placed in it just like electrics have received. Off the top of my head I can think of RA, Q, NX, AV, S, PB, HT, NP and WH all capable already with SI, BN, BK, RM and AL all confirmed for them too. I think it's quite clear where the future is heading now. However whether it's the short term future or long term future remains to be seen.
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