Electric, Hydrogen & Hybrid Electric Buses in Ireland

I'm a little bit surprised that the NTA have gone with the Electroliner from Wrights. What are the supposed benefits of buying into the Electroliner as opposed to having the 400ER's. I would like to know how much they have jumped up the ranks in terms of quality reliabilty since it is apparently regarded as a improvement when compared with the SG's. Would any of the bus operators in the UK who have bought any of the Electroliners share the same view.

Also what did the NTA find as the main faults of having the 400ER's in their own fleet when they did their review of these buses along with eyeing up both the Electroliner & Optare Metrodecker.

The 400ER's are allocated on a Dublin Bus route near me which is the 4 from Monkstown Avenue to Harristown. I have not travelled on these buses yet.

However when I have seen on them out on the road in Blackrock; I would regard them as having the status of providing the next generation bus fleet that will be provided to us in the future. It's clean, it's inviting & it's looks attractive to the person's eye.

That would be my general impression of what a next generation bus should look like to me in the future when it's being interpreted from BusConnects as it's gradually being promoted to people who live in our cities right around the country.

Would our opinions on the ER's, including my own, give the same weighting if the Electroliner came onto Dublin's streets sometime in the future. If you were looking at the physical features of the Electroliners. Do you think they would hold the same status as the 400ER's if you were using them for the very first time?

How many of the PA or Enviro400ER (is there a difference) fleet is there in service? and why is there still AXs in service with the fleet growing?

A few minor points:

• PA is way to loud
• Leap reader, again badly placed and obstructed by the green rail
• The Stop Button placed so high up on the seats behind the center doors
• Lighting is very bright

DB have no more than 120 in service, and BE only the Galway 40, so despite PA280 having been delivered, there's hardly 160 in service at the moment. Dublin Bus' second allotment is arriving out of order, with Phibsboro's 135~17x and Ringsend's 25x~280 having arrived first.

Never knew they had over 100 in service already. I notice they appear now and again on the 41, given its an airport service I presume they don't have a variant with extra luggage space yet?

Older buses yes but the lighting on the 5Gs was fine. I know its a minor point and Irish Rails ICRs had the very same complaints when they arrived.

I should add I was on 6 this week and 3 had no PA so assuming the driver turned it off. They have been in service for a while and surly there is a volume adjustment, upstairs is much worse.

The center doors closing and the change from a continuous tone is also a big improvement.

The new PAD's have now begun their new rollout in Limerick since Friday.

The September 2021 NTA board meeting minutes mention approval for that, with an initial order of 120 vehicles.

That is a big surprise hearing that Wrights have won this new contract. I have not looked at the full specs of this new of buses yet. The battery ranges that are offered within them do sound impressive for their capability.

However I hope Wrights are able to build a much better bus than the SG's in terms of their build quality. I still rate the VG's & Euro 5 GT's are the more superior double deck bus when you compare them to the SG's.

I still find the SG's not bad to use when I'm using Dublin Bus or GAI. But I still think they maybe a little bit slow on the road for my liking than then the other Gemini buses.

Yep. I think one of the key questions to ask here, solely about Wrights ability to build these new battery electric buses properly, is which operators are saying that they have become a really good purchase for their own fleet while they have acquired them for bus routes within their own operations.

If Wrights can be trusted once again by the NTA to build these new products to a very high standard; their own reputation will improve significantly over the next number of years particularly when Brexit & Climate Change are now with us.

The NTA are a very important customer for Wrights in the Irish market. The NTA must have been very impressed with seeing the potential of the new buses being manufactured in Wrights factory seeing they have the new Hydrogen trial buses for Bus Eireann already.

From the grapevine I believe that it is fair to say that ADL have not covered themselves in glory by any measure with regard to support for the hybrids.

That may be influencing change.

This was in the march edition of the BUSES magazine, still no official announcement as of yet though.

Wonder what will happen to the AXs GAI have on loan from DB for their school time extras considering all DBs AXs have been withdrawn.

I wonder what will happen to those routes too considering they were only supposed to be brought in as extra capacity when social distancing capacity restrictions were in place on public transport and I don't see any plan for them in Bus Connects proposals.