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Standard vanguard

14th April 1978, Page 24
14th April 1978
Page 24
Page 24, 14th April 1978 — Standard vanguard
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

A STANDARD British bus design should follow the German VOV design of the Dutch "five cities" bus, said an engineering director last week.

Harry Taylor of the West. Yorkshire PTE made this suggestion in one of several papers on bus design from both manufacturers' and operators' viewpoints, which elicited lively discussions amongst delegates.

The VOV bus is a standard specification single-deck bus manufactured mainly by Mercedes-Benz, MAN and Magirus-Deutz in West Germany.

First to speak from the floor was David Cox of Merseyside PTE who pointed out that while standardisation was a good idea, it failed to take into account trade union influence in different areas. He was also afraid that it might restrict future design initiative. The only justification for standardisation must be costeffectiveness.

He compared the Leyland National, which is as near a standard city bus design as anything available at present, with a Bristol RE. He suggested that if the National had not been developed and the NBC had continued buying Bristol RE, then over £2 million would have been saved by factors such as longer engine life.

Harry Taylor did not think the National was comparable to the VOV, as it was designed by a manufacturer. He wanted operators to get together to specify buses to the manufacturer.

Allan Westwell of Tayside Regional Transport thought that passengers may well be lost by the expense caused by EEC legislation. He thought that operators should not get carried away by EEC specifications and should choose the cheapest and most cost-effective solution to passenger transport.

He told delegates that his operation had decided to go for 50 per cent simply designed front-engined vehicles and 50 per cent rearengined vehicles. He said that the "simple" front engined vehicles had 90 per cent availability and passengers had not noticed any difference from other buses.

Alternative power sources to the diesel engine were considered at the conference. Electric buses were, in the opinion of most delegates, the most likely vehicles of the future. Alan Wright of the Tyne and Wear PTE thought that lead-acid battery development was "pathetic". He also thought that advantages of new sodium-sulphur batteries might be lost by their operating heat and the need to protect bus passengers from it.

Mr Wright also asked for the development of more efficient heating and ventilating systems, possibly not using the vehicle's coaching system.

Harry Taylor thought that combustion heaters were not the answer to the problem and suggested that with the advent of retarders in bus transmissions, plenty of heat will be available in future.

John Cox of Leyland then presented his paper in which he pointed out to delegates that buses are only a small proportion of his company's production and as such must be looked at in perspective — "the tail can't wag the dog," he said. He thought that these days manufacturers have to look for international markets to survive and spoke of the importance of forthcoming legislation and legislative change. In his opinion the days of bus building as a cottage industry are over. He outlined the many differences between present CoF regs and possible future EEC regulators.

Operators were attacked for undermining a rational attempt at vehicle design by persisting in specifying special requirements such as different seat patterns and bell-push positions, which were expensive to engineer into the basic design. He said that manufa( turers were spending to much time on special requin ments, time which could b spent improving reliability.

The final paper of the syn posium by John Rock ( Metro-Cammell Weyman looked at productive develoi ment of new buses. John Roe thought that the Metrobt and Leyland Titan were tt only two new-generatio vehicles available. He said till the Metrobus and Titan we' total vehicle projects, whil. others were only "Chines copies of what happened b, fore." He also predicted move to electric buses in ti future.

Among the questions fin at the manufacturers was or by S. Hyslop of West Yorl shire PTE. He asked how muc manufacturers consult€ operators when designin vehicles. John Cox answer( the manufacturers did consu operators but "to find thr( operators to agree was quite day".

John Cox later spoke of lo maintenance standards 1 relation to the high price , equipment run by bus oper tors. David Cox of Merseysi( had the final word and sa that low pay was an importa: cause of poor maintenant and that manufacture should build vehicles to st British operating conditions.


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