[sustran] Re: Fw: [cai-asia] Will maintenance keep 15-year oldpublictransport buses clean?

[Walter Hook]

I am not an expert in this, but i do know that in most US cities transit
authorities receiving money from the US Federal Transit Admin must use
buses 10 years old or younger, after which they are sold to a company in
LA that parks them on a huge lot and sells them to smaller towns and
foreign countries.  What FTA says is that some 10 year old buses that
are well maintained are no more polluting than much newer buses, and
that the 10 year cut off is arbitrary and that simply testing the
tailpipe emissions and having road worthiness testing would be more
efficient, but enforcement of such measures seems to be beyond the
capacity of many countries and I would assume this includes the
Philippines, hence the need for a sub-optimal age restriction.  They can
probably resell the vehicles outside Manila where there are lower
concentrations of ambient air pollution. 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org] On
Behalf Of Brendan Finn
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 4:00 AM
To: Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport
Subject: [sustran] Re: Fw: [cai-asia] Will maintenance keep 15-year
oldpublictransport buses clean?
 
Dear Aurora,
 
In my opinion, the simple answer is that a good preventive maintenance
regime will keep the buses a lot cleaner than they would be in the
absence of such a regime. I don't know what you define as "clean", I
would take the benchmark as the performance you should expect in the
first five years if the vehicle is maintained in line with the
manufacturer's recommendations. 
 
I presume the scenario refers either to an existing stock of buses or to
a proposal to buy in second-hand vehicles which are being replaced in
another country (perhaps currently 10-15 years old), and that there is
concern locally about the future emissions based on past experience with
the operators. At the risk of interfering where I don't know the
context, I would suggest that there are five factors which could assure
good performance from older vehicles : 
 
a) Clearly defined emission standards which are practical, realistic,
and measurable
b) An enforcement regime that can detect violating vehicles and impose
escalating penalties on their owners
c) A regime of preventive maintenance within the operating companies
that supports a vehicle throughout its working life (provide some
technical assistance if needed)
d) Sufficiently strong incentives for companies to include
emissions-related work and testing within such a regime
e) Incentives for operating companies to replace their vehicles when
good maintenance can no longer possible keep them within specifications
(and, of course, ensure that these vehicles are scrapped rather than
sold on somewhere else)
 
On one issue I would be cautious. In some places I have seen the
arguments about old or clean buses used as a pretext for other actions.
For example, I have seen it used to drive small operating companies and
owner-drivers off the road to the advantage of the state-owned
enterprises, and in other cases as criteria on routes tenders to quite
effectively eliminate the competition in the pre-qualification stages. I
think it is important to keep the agenda 'clean' as well as the buses!
 
If you assemble the various inputs into a briefing note, I would be
interested to receive it.
 
With best wishes, 
 
 
Brendan Finn. 
________________________________________________________________________
_____________
>From Brendan Finn, ETTS Ltd.   e-mail : etts at indigo.ie   tel :
+353.87.2530286
----- Original Message ----- 
From: aables at adb.org 
To: sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org 
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 3:40 AM
Subject: [sustran] Fw: [cai-asia] Will maintenance keep 15-year old
publictransport buses clean?
 
Dear SUSTRAN friends, 
We thought you might have something to say on this topic. Please see
below. 
Best regards, 
Au 
Aurora Fe Ables
Transport Researcher
Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia)
Asian Development Bank
Tel (632) 632-4444 ext. 70820
Fax (632) 636-2381
Email aables at adb.org
http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia

www.adb.org 

----- Forwarded by Aurora Ables/Consultants/ADB on 01-02-2006 11:27 AM
----- 

gbathan at adb.org 
01-02-2006 10:40 AM 

Please respond to
cai-asia at lists.worldbank.org

To
"Clean Air Initiative -- Asia" <cai-asia at lists.worldbank.org> 

cc
hfabian at adb.org, "Bebet Gozun" <bggozun at hotmail.com>, chuizenga at adb.org,
majero at adb.org, mrco at adb.org, aables at adb.org 

Subject
[cai-asia] Will maintenance keep 15-year old public transport buses
clean?
 

 
 




Dear friends, 

In a stakeholder meeting held in the Philippines last week, CAI-Asia was
asked to request inputs through the listserv to the question -- "Will
vehicle maintenance ensure that 15-year old public transport buses
remain non-polluting?" 15 years here means 15 years from the date of
engine manufacture. 

Your inputs would be greatly appreciated. 

Glynda 
Glynda Bathan
Coordinator
Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia)
Asian Development Bank
Tel (632) 632-5151
Fax (632) 636-2381
http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia

www.adb.org 
Aurora Fe Ables
Transport Researcher
Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia)
Asian Development Bank
Tel (632) 632-4444 ext. 70820
Fax (632) 636-2381
Email aables at adb.org
http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia

www.adb.org 

  _____  



================================================================
SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred,
equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries
(the 'Global South'). Because of the history of the list, the main focus
is on urban transport policy in Asia.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20060201/ac02e429/attachment-0001.html
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 1763 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20060201/ac02e429/attachment-0001.gif