Bendy Buses

[owdlad 10]

hi Hazel....ooops that makes you sound like a park...sorry.

anyhow, I think the reason that the bendy buses were free initially is because they couldn't get a fare carrying licence for some reason or another, so had to be run free.

 

owdlad

[Plain Talker 11]

Originally posted by andy1702

I don't remember anything about the doors not closing.

 

I do remember the names though. These were carried by the second generation of bendys in Sheffield. There were 13 all together, but the final 3 were 'Fastline' ones for service elsewhere (either Rotherham or Doncaster I think). They had coach seating and only two doors, while the Sheffield ones had ordinary bus seats and 3 doors. These Sheffield examples were named after clipper ships as they were used on a service known as the City Clipper. One was indeed called Pegasus (I have a feeling it was either 2007 or 2008. Others were called Queen Of Clippers, Cutty Sark and The Great Republic, which was numerically the last of the Sheffield ones, being numbered 2010 by SYT.

 

2010 was also known as 'White Lightning' by some, even though it wasn't white! But that's another story!

 

There was one called "Fiery Cross", which I remember.

 

They had decorative signs on the wall, inside, which said the name of the vehicle, and the name of the school which had chosen that name,

 

the date of the naming was also put on the poster.

 

the names were taken from the names of the clipper ships which were used back-and-forth across the Atlantic as cargo ships.

 

I think that it would be an excellent idea to have the clipper buses making a comeback in Sheffield city centre. (in whatever form.. bendibuses or ordinary, accessible rolling-stock)

 

They'd be very useful for making connections with the widely spread-out landmarks in the city, from the moor to the markets. it would help parents with prams, the elderly and those laden with shopping, as well as people with mobility impairments and/or wheelchair users.

 

It is quite a hike up the hill to the town hall, even from either the bottom of the moor, or, worse, from the markets up to the town hall.

 

PT

[shefflad 10]

I think that it would be an excellent idea to have the clipper buses making a comeback in Sheffield city centre. (in whatever form.. bendibuses or ordinary, accessible rolling-stock)

 

They'd be very useful for making connections with the widely spread-out landmarks in the city, from the moor to the markets. it would help parents with prams, the elderly and those laden with shopping, as well as people with mobility impairments and/or wheelchair users.

 

It is quite a hike up the hill to the town hall, even from either the bottom of the moor, or, worse, from the markets up to the town hall

 

yet again "wheel chair user" comes in to the subject every ones on about bendi buses how good they where what they are like names of them

 

go on ring frist tell them a bus drivers sayin nasty things

well try driving around sheffield all day prams wheel chairs how long have we carryed them they no that you can only carry 2 push chairs or one wheel chair but they look at you like you have asked them for £20 note when you tell them you are full

[Plain Talker 11]

Why have you got such a problem with my saying that the return of the city clipper service would be of great benefit to the city centre?

 

what the heck is so wrong of me, in saying that there are many sectors of the community hou would be helped if the service were revived?

 

You wouldn't be the driver I am forever locking horns with, over the ramps on buses would you?

 

There's one particular one, who persistently refuses to operate the ramp to let me and my chair on, saying "I am not trained to deploy the ramp", despite the fact that, at First's Olive Grove Garage, there is no untrained driver, any more...

 

your nastiness and attitude sounds suspiciously like the attitude from this bloke...

 

ok,

 

Next.... Contributors... (one and all...)

 

your homework tonight is as follows.....

 

how, and why would the whole of the city centre benefit, or not benefit by being regenerated by the reintroduction of the bendibuses/ City Clipper Service... discuss....

 

PT

[andy1702 10]

Ok, as an ex-Sheffield driver and owner of a number of preserved buses in museums (including one of Sheffield's original bendy-buses) I have a few more points to make and a few truths to tell.

 

Firstly, a bendy bus is by far the best way of moving large numbers of people over relatively short distances. Much time is lost with conventional buses in what is known as 'dwell time' at stops while passengers board and alight. This is obviously increased for disabled users / people with luggage / shopping bags etc.

 

A huge amount of time is lost while people make their way up and down stais on a conventional double decker. Even if the driver sets off while the passenger is going up there, people do not tend to come down again until the bus has actually stopped.

 

This dwell time may seem insignificant to most people and I can understand those who are not educated in the subject wondering why this couple of minutes makes a difference.

 

Well..... allow me to explain. One of those new low floor buses everyone wants costs somewhere in the region of £150,000 plus. So obviously the fewer you need to run a service the better.

 

Now lets think up an imaginary bus route, say from the City to Meadowhall. Allowing for traffic and stopping to pick up passengers this would probably take about 30 mins on average. This makes it a 1 hour round trip for any particular vehicle.

 

Now lets say we want to run every 10 minutes, so that's 6 buses we need to buy. Total = £900,000. But if one breaks down or needs servicing then we need a spare, as our less able bodied friends wouldn't be happy if we just sent along any old ordinary bus when they were expecting a low floor one. That takes the total over the million pound mark to £1,050,000.

 

But if we could shave just 5 mins off the journey each way that would mean a bus could do a round trip in 50 mins and so we would save a vehicle. That's an instant saving of £150,000 for the vehicle, not forgetting saving a drivers wage every day and saving on maintenance time as the mechanics now only have 5 buses and 1 spare to look after rather than the original 6 + spare.

 

So you begin to see why the pressure is on for buses to be driven faster and faster, do you not? The people who write bus timetables don't actually go out on the road in a bus and see how long it takes like they used to. They just see the cost saving and think 5 mins won't matter. Passing the buck instead to the poor old driver to try and keep his bus on time.

 

Of course, with added traffic on the roads these days and more traffic lights, speed humps etc things actually take LONGER than they used to. But the money men sitting in their offices back at the bus company don't think about that. They do however sack drivers who are late.

 

Now if you were driving a bus, how would you feel?

 

If you want a simple measure of how bad things have got, about 30 years ago a mathematical system was devised for scheduling buses that really worked. What they did was to drive around a complete route, never exceeding 30mph. This was usually done in the inspector's van, so you can quite easily do it in your car. Every time a bus stop was passed 30 seconds were added to the recorded time for the journey, as 30 seconds was worked out as the average 'dwell time'.

 

Try doing that on any Sheffield route today and you'll find the modern day timetables are hopelessly unrealistic, resulting in buses turning around part way along their route as they literally meet themselves coming back! Next time you're waiting for that missing bus, that's what happened to it!

 

So what we need are fast buses that can load and unload passengers quickly. Which brings me neatly back to where we started with the bendy bus.

 

And drivers who say they are difficult to drive? It's NONSENSE! If anyone on here doesn't believe me, I'd remind them I have one and they are welcome to have a go themselves!

 

[owdlad 10]

Where are they kept Andy, I might just take you up on that, but not on the roads.

[OneofThree 10]

Yes, when we were young, bendies were great. We always stood on the middle bit where two sections of floor moved independently (or seemed to) and the sides were rubber concertinas.

 

Bring em back, paint them cream and blue and stick the Sheffield coat of Arms on the side.

 

Ah the memories!!

[Ousetunes 10]

I too remember Bendibusses, quite fondly though hopefully not in a perverted fashion. I remember them more in the early eighties when it felt strange for Sheffield to be leading the way in something, especially in public transport.

 

If, as some of you suggest they are no longer in use in Sheffield then it can hardly come as a surprise can it? After all, it's hard enough to negotiate our roads in a citreon C5 than in a half-a-mile long bus!! (<<<Sad attempt at humour!)

[Trekker 10]

The Bendy bus's were much like todays Trams, I liked em.

[mark1971 10]

Originally posted by Lickszz

I not been on a bus for quite a long time but I heard there was now cameras in place. However, the driver does still need to keep an eye on what's happening upstairs so removing these doesn't seem like a great idea.

 

the new deckers do have camera's & they store all recorded info on a hard drive so when criminal damage or vanalism is caused they look back on hard drive to find the culprits then inform the police

[mark1971 10]

Originally posted by Lickszz

What is the story with them, didn't they run in Sheffield for a while and then took them out of service only to put them back in service and use them for the express service to meadowhall? anyways I used to love riding on them, always used to try to get on the middle bits where there was lots of movement. Great stuff. I was only little but when I got on the bus it always seems a mile long walking all the way towards th back...and all those doors with loads of bells to press

 

they finally took them out of service for the last time due to costs of servicing them & repairs,they (mainline) transferred them down south somewhere ( bristol area i think) to do the airport runs

[mr.fogg 11]

Originally posted by mark1971

they finally took them out of service for the last time due to costs of servicing them & repairs,they (mainline) transferred them down south somewhere ( bristol area i think) to do the airport runs

 

They now have them in south London.Three burst into flames in the space of four weeks,so they took them out of service for a time to find out what the trouble was,one week later they were back in service and said it was engine trouble and they had fixed it.