Natural gas powered bus!

deRanged

I saw this at the bus station today:

Natural gas powered bus in Cork city by Brian Clayton, on Flickr

its on UK plates so must be newly here I imagine - anyone know anything about it?

two wheels good

Saw one (it?) at Douglas fingerpost this evening - with passengers aboard. Hope it proves to be a success.

Outkast_IRE

Isnt it a bit pointless, just picking another limited fossil fuel?

dj_

It's a lot cleaner than any other fossil fuel so it's better for the environment.

rebel.ranter

Here's a shot of it from the back

Once it doesn't end up like the Dublin Bus hybrid did. :pac:

Outkast_IRE

dj_ wrote: »

It's a lot cleaner than any other fossil fuel so it's better for the environment.

Personally i would of looked for a deal to have a hydrogen fueled bus.
Then set up the initial infrastructure and refueling station required and tried to get some car giant to back it. Lot more long term than natural gas, and it may be a cleaner fuel to burn but some of the methods used to extract the gas such as fracking are more damaging imo than a extra few tonnes of CO2 and other gases

pljudge321

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Personally i would of looked for a deal to have a hydrogen fueled bus.
Then set up the initial infrastructure and refueling station required and tried to get some car giant to back it. Lot more long term than natural gas, and it may be a cleaner fuel to burn but some of the methods used to extract the gas such as fracking are more damaging imo than a extra few tonnes of CO2 and other gases

Hydrogen fueled vehicles are pretty much the most inefficient vehicles imaginable.

kub

deRanged wrote: »

I saw this at the bus station today:

Natural gas powered bus in Cork city by Brian Clayton, on Flickr

its on UK plates so must be newly here I imagine - anyone know anything about it?

You are correct, it is a manufacturer Demo unit. Bus Eireann have this one on trial and MAN are hoping to flog Bus Eireann a few. Interesting route they put it on, the 216, I wonder why it was not put on the 202?

Outkast_IRE

pljudge321 wrote: »

Hydrogen fueled vehicles are pretty much the most inefficient vehicles imaginable.

I dont believe you are correct there since an internal combustion engine is averaging 18-20% efficency http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_combustion_engine

A hydrogen fuel cell is up to 60% efficent with its fuel , and if your going to start to talk about how hydrogen is manufactured , thats coming on leaps and bounds at the moment with alot of new ways to extract it from water being thought up http://www.gizmag.com/sunlght-hydrogen-power/14504/

starch4ser

kub wrote: »

I wonder why it was not put on the 202?

Presumably, they'd like to return it in one piece. :pac:

hoodwinked

kub wrote: »

You are correct, it is a manufacturer Demo unit. Bus Eireann have this one on trial and MAN are hoping to flog Bus Eireann a few. Interesting route they put it on, the 216, I wonder why it was not put on the 202?

probably because the 216 is a short route as in it goes to mount oval and back and thats it!

eth0

They didn't even bother putting Irish plates on it so could be gone very shortly to never return

starch4ser

eth0 wrote: »

They didn't even bother putting Irish plates on it so could be gone very shortly to never return

That bus is a demo bus that's been in every significant British city in the last few years. Either they see some potential for flogging a few of these buses based on that large gas discovery off the Cork coast a while back or they're just getting desperate.

kub

eth0 wrote: »

They didn't even bother putting Irish plates on it so could be gone very shortly to never return

As of today Bus Eireann have a fleet if 1,306 buses, 216 of which are in Cork.
Any manufacturer would sit up and take notice of those figures. AFAIK it will be on trial in Cork for 6 weeks, then its back on the ferry to the UK, so there probably was not much point.

ssimples09

Looks pretty cool, if they are trialing buses which run on natural gas I presume it's only a matter of time before they start running on biogas. Biogas is a much better option than hydrogen for transport fuel in my opinion. It can be made from a process involving grass and we sure have plenty of grass in this country!

magicianz

hoodwinked wrote: »

probably because the 216 is a short route as in it goes to mount oval and back and thats it!

Actually its route changed on 22nd of July )i think that's the date), Its going from CUH to mount oval, via town. As far as I can tell it will go from CUH, down Glasheen road, cross the river next to the church at the end of Bandon road and follow that down across the bridge to western road, out to normal town stop, then normal route from there. There seems to be a change on the return route from mount oval to Douglas though, as I've seen the 216 going down the Rochestown road on the return trip instead of up in Maryborough hill.

http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1341330905-Cork216.pdf is the new timetable

kub

magicianz wrote: »

Actually its route changed on 22nd of July )i think that's the date), Its going from CUH to mount oval, via town. As far as I can tell it will go from CUH, down Glasheen road, cross the river next to the church at the end of Bandon road and follow that down across the bridge to western road, out to normal town stop, then normal route from there. There seems to be a change on the return route from mount oval to Douglas though, as I've seen the 216 going down the Rochestown road on the return trip instead of up in Maryborough hill.

http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1341330905-Cork216.pdf is the new timetable

The reason it is returning back up the Rochestown Road is because of road works up in Moneygurney, so it cannot currently get from Mount Oval to Maryborough Hill.
The folks up in the Maryborough Hill leg of this route have to rely on the Carrigaline buses.