<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2802" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Alok, </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It very much depends on the bus design, and also on the maintenance regime throughout its life.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Most buses in western countries would have an economic life of about 12 years, after which increased maintenance costs make it an increasingly unviable proposition. Nonetheless, there is no reason why they cannot last many more years. For the last decade there has been a thriving business throughout the CIS in buses which have been discarded by European cities, and are shipped out to Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, etc. to get another 3-5 years working life. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Standard bus life in China is 8 years. A fairly respectable 10-metre standard buses costs about $20,000. Engines usually outlast the body. Some cities are now extending bus life to 10 years, but it is not a good proposition to do a major capital overhaul of the vehicle at 8 years to get another 3-5 years out of it. As a very general statement, it is not a problem for Chinese cities to finance bus replacements. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>As I recall most Russian buses of the Soviet era (LAZ, LiAZ) also had 8 year design life. This was based on a strong production sector which churned out fit-for-purpose vehicles. By mid- to late-1990's, it became normal to carry out major capital repair to extend the vehicle life by 4-5 years. This usually cost about 25-30% of the price of a new vehicle. I don't know whether this was normal practice during the Soviet era, I suspect not and that it was a practical way of surviving in the transition years when they had absolutely no money. This never prevented individuals and small companies in rural areas from keeping some buses ticking over for maybe 20 years, but such extreme long life was never practice for city fleets. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>From recollection, Sri Lanka doesn't get too much productivity out of 8 year old buses, a mix of Tatas (?) and Ashok Leylands.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Just because a bus is 8 years old doesn't make it unworkable. However, if normal experience with the bus design and local conditions are that most buses are deadbeat and spend a lot of time off the road by 8 years, then it is reasonable to apply it as a threshold. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>With best wishes, </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Brendan.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>_____________________________________________________________________________________<BR>From Brendan Finn, ETTS Ltd.   e-mail : <A href="mailto:etts@indigo.ie">etts@indigo.ie</A>   tel : +353.87.2530286</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=ajain@kcrc.com href="mailto:ajain@kcrc.com">Jain Alok</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org href="mailto:sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org">Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, February 22, 2006 3:31 AM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [sustran] Re: Chennai battles for sustainable transport</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV>> The total number of buses in Chennai is 2773,<BR>> out of which 1294 are more then 8 years old. That<BR>> means Chennai has only about 1500 workable buses.<BR><BR>Buses more than 8 years old are non-workable? That seems a bit odd. I<BR>have seen buses older than 10 years working perfectly well. In Hong Kong<BR>the useful life of the buses is taken as 14 to 17 years, depending on<BR>the body frame.<BR><BR>Alok<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>