Merit grants
Page 20
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
GOVERNMENT transport grants to local authorities for public transport projects in future will apply only to "major new schemes of exceptional merit", Department of Transport Permanent Secretary Sir Peter Lazarus told MPs last week.
A consultation documentation on the future use of the Transport Supplementary Grant for public transport was planned, but at present it was restricted to projects already underway. These were worth about £45m and mostly comprised bus garages — including those at Bury, Manchester and Garston, Merseyside — and local railway electrification..
Sir Peter was pressed by West Midlands MP David Gilroy Bevan on how the "nowhereto-nowhere" Docklands Light Railway in London could be justified with its negative rate of return, but Sir Peter said it was a "one-off" in special circumstances to generate redevelopment. But Mr Bevan suggested all projects should have an equal rate of return when funds were limited.
Sir Peter told Sidney Bidwell that he was "far from convinced" that cost benefit analysis could set standards for public transport spending. 68T 5.9 which has been derated by Cummins to develop 97kW (130hp) at 2,500rpm in an FFG prototype bus which is to be used on rural and schools service.
CIE is running the Cumminsengined bus in a back-to-back trial with similar chassis fitted with a Mercedes OM 352 engine and Daf DT615, 6.15-litre engine which also has been derated to 100kW at 2,500rpm.
The vehicles are expected to cover about 30,000 miles during the trial.
Both the Daf and Cummins engines drive through an Allison 545 automatic gearbox. The FFG chassis in which the BSeries engine is fitted was originally equipped with a Merceds OM 352 engine and Mercedes gearbox.
Gerry O'Keefe of CIE, who was responsible for fitting the Cummins/Allison replacement drivetrain, says that the installation was relatively straightforward, though all the new engine's auxiliaries are on the opposite side to those of the Mercedes.
Cooling system trials showed that the original radiator did not have to be changed; it provides satisfactory engine cooling for the B Series at ambient temperatures as high as 38 deg C.