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<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Dear Todd,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>While you have a point about the various
combinations of fuel / motive power, so many of these appear to 'gimmicks' or
even actively dangerous that they hardly merit serious research. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>There are systems which clearly lead the way.
Arnhem in Holland and Lyons in France use trolleybuses with car engines driving
a generator for the occasional off-wire diversion. San Francisco uses batteries
for the same reason, but given the 21% slopes, I doubt whether they would get a
laden bus up the 1 or 24 routes. And of course Vancouver which has renewed its
large fleet is another system using batteries as the Auxiliary Power
Unit (APU).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>In China Beijing and Guangzhou (both flat cities)
also use battery APUs and, like the others mentioned, are extremely popular
and efficient 'leader' systems.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>In France, Nancy decided to install guided
trolleybuses (steered in the suburbs) and the guidance rail system caused major
problems. Even after months of testing, the guided sections of the system are
slow and noisy. Caen installed a wholly guided system, so they could use a
pantograph to collect the 600V power and the single guidance rail as the
negative earth return. Even they have had a recent spectacular derailment
causing a 2-day suspension of service. These are further examples of 'gimmicks'
just to be different which can be ignored.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Economically, one needs sufficient demand to
justify 6 journeys per hour over most of the system to justify the power supply
infrastructure for trolleybus operation. With APUs short extensions can be tried
without extending the overhead (Guangzhou serves a new suburban bus interchange
successfully in this way with routes 109-112).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Visual Noise as Todd describes it, is not a
negative but rather a positive element. The rails and wires for a tramway show
potential users that there is public transport infrastructure and contribute to
its appeal. (According to the LRTA website, when Liverpool, UK, replaced its
tramway system with diesel buses only 70% of the tram patronage was retained by
public transport). Similarly the overhead wires attract people to trolleybus
routes which in many instances have attracted 16-20% gains in patronage
when replacing diesel buses on the same route. Of course the smooth, silent,
comfortable ride will also be a help in achieving this, so the Chinese
experiments in Shanghai with super-capacitor electric buses which top-up their
charge at every third bus stop may still improve on their diesel
counterparts.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Obviously there will be many lower demand routes
which can only economically be served by hydrocarbon fuelled buses. I am all in
favour of clean, low sulphur diesel fuel. Again, however, the
LPG/CNG/Hydrogen/Hybrid alternatives generally appear 'gimmicky' and in Swiss
and USA cities where there have been spectacular explosions with some of these
alternative fuels they appear to have significant safety drawbacks. Is it really
worth researching modes which fail to achieve their targeted benefits and are
generally avoided by most commercial bus operators? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Richard M Soberman wrote a report considering the
economic aspects of reintroducing trolley buses in Toronto (January 2009), and
while some of his conclusions may be arguable (trolleybuses and their
infrastructure can last three times as long as diesel vehicles) there may be
useful data there. It might also be worth considering management attitudes and
abilities and their impact on the economics of different modes with particular
reference to Edmonton's hasty abandonment of its electric system and tearing
down millions of dollars worth of infrastructure.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Peter Lutman
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<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=edelman@greenidea.eu href="mailto:edelman@greenidea.eu">Todd Edelman,
Green Idea Factory</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">sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A title=simon.bishop@dimts.in
href="mailto:simon.bishop@dimts.in">Simon Bishop</A> ; <A title=cherry@utk.edu
href="mailto:cherry@utk.edu">Chris Cherry</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, June 17, 2009 8:48
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [sustran] Re: Electric Trolley
Buses vs. Diesel</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Hi Chris,<BR><BR>While I am sure your paper will have have
useful results, a comparison between trolley and Diesel buses only seems a
little old fashioned.<BR><BR>Better, it seems, would be one between those with
on- or "off-board" traction, i.e. trolley buses with different sources of
energy AND buses which carry their own engine, or indeed engine and motors.
For the latter I am speaking of course of the various types of Diesel used in
Diesel-engined buses, but also CNG/Bio-methane buses and Diesel-electrics with
and without ultracapacitors. Or even methane-electrics, if they exist. There
are also trolleys with supplemental engines to get through non-wired areas,
but while becoming more common (see Skoda transportation) are not a true
"hybrid". All of these are present in greater or lesser numbers in actual
daily use, and, given the relatively short lifespan of buses, appear as new
solutions so often in cities as to be almost untrackable. <BR><BR>I lived in
San Francisco for a long time and found trolley buses vastly superior in terms
of audible noise compared to the Diesels there, but somewhat inferior in terms
of visual noise, i.e. all the wires and the poles to support them. <BR><BR>I
am also curious about trolley buses and transmission-loss, i.e the relative
energy efficiency of electric-powered buses in regards to the actual physical
location of a power source. This sort of look of course also applies to buses
with on-board power, i.e. is the fuel from recycled waste cooking oil ? (and
how much energy is embedded in that) or imported across vast distances, e.g.
natural gas from Russia to Western Europe....<BR><BR>But also it seems that in
systems with both trolley buses and Diesels, etc. the former would have higher
occupancy rates as they would tend to operate more in central areas. This also
affects effects.<BR><BR>- T<BR><BR><BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>