First look at Liverpool’s new ‘glider’ bus
The tram-like bus should make travelling around the city much faster, cheaper, cleaner and reliable
The tram-like bus should make travelling around the city much faster, cheaper, cleaner and reliable
They will fucking do anything but build proper infrastructure...
put that shit on a rail jfc
Tbf, there is a place in public transit infrastructure for busses. Trains are great, but there are routes out there that would be impractical to serve with a full size train or inefficiently expensive to build out tram rails for, but which a bus can serve effectively.
We have the South Lake Union Railcar in Seattle. Nobody rides it. And like I’m not one to blame infrastructure, but you can literally walk faster than it moves. Meanwhile there are shitloads of buses with plenty of ridership. Many fully electric with overhead wire.
Meanwhile bicyclists routinely get their wheels caught in the tracks and eat it.
I can’t imagine the efficiency of rail makes much difference in a city environment. The best argument I’ve heard for rail is that it’s more a commitment to developers that the route won’t be changed any time soon.
I don't think anyone's arguing for no busses. It's more like not only busses.
For long term investment the tram wins out in energy efficiency. If you want the next politician in power to easily be able to remove transit, the bus wins.
By building a tram line you cement into the city that it is now a transit corridor. The city can then develop more densely if needed to increase ridership or make the area more catered to pedestrians.
BRT is also effective. It's rail without the rails. In areas that are car dependent, it's going to be substantially cheaper for cities to build out BRT while expanding the rail lines. In my (us) city, they're building out a pretty substantial BRT while also expanding one of the light rail lines. The BRT network currently in construction is half the price of the current light rail expansion under construction.
Liverpool used to have elevated rail 😔
Buses are a lot more practical for residential areas than trains, and quieter too.
Yes second tier UK city buying a bus requires www.independent.co.uk to run a propaganda piece to celebrate the big W
🤡
A bus that looks like a tram that says "metro" on the front. Still better than a car.
These buses are 18 meter long and made by Van Hool. In Linz (Austria) we have more than 20 of them, but the larger version with 24 meters that can carry up to 180 passengers.
The 24 meter version is running in Trondheim, Norway. They currently have 58 busses, and are planning to increase with more routes. The city has plenty of narrow streets and a few steep hills, but it doesn't seem to be a problem unless the weather is extreme in the winter.
made by Van Hool
Where are they now?
On 10 April 2024, it was announced that Van Hool's trustees had accepted a takeover bid from Netherlands-based bus manufacturer[3] VDL and Germany-based semi-trailer manufacturer Schmitz Cargobull.
Looks like the TVR from Nancy, which was a failure and they're trying to replace it with trolleybusses
But that utter failure of a tram was actually a tramway that would get on wheels instead of rails at some points. This looks more like the Mettis in Metz which are double articulated hybrid buses using dedicated lanes.