Gas to go

[Sylvan Loves Buses]

I feel like we should have a dedicated CNG retirement thread now that the Renault's are pretty much gone. I know many people aren't too fond of the CNG buses, but I grew up with them so I still enjoy them over most of the rest of the fleet (excluding the rattling). I could've missed my bus today had I not heard 360 pulling up to the corner before my stop, these buses like the Renault's are what's left of the familiar engine sounds, they too will be missed.

[L94UBbusfan]

I agree. The CNG bus retirements have been lingering around the Renault retirement topic for a while. As you can probably tell by my username I really like the Scania L94UB buses, mainly due to the sound they make, imo them and the 14.5m Scania's are the best sounding buses in the fleet. For me it's a shame they are going. But one thing I won't miss one bit are the rattles. Some don't rattle too bad, but others are just plain awful.

So far, 322, 324-326, 342, 344-346, 352 and 365 have been retired (325 and 346 are still to be confirmed as retired as of August 9 2024). That's 10 already gone  . I'm a little surprised that a fair few of the 34_ buses have been retired earlier than others, but I'd assume the withdrawal order for all CNG buses so far has been based on mechanical issues rather than age.

[Cutepattern1098]

Not too sure if this is the right thread to post but after the Gas buses are gone what would be next? I assume the Irisbuses will go at the same time as the gas buses or soon after. Next in line would be the 2010-2012 Scania tag-axles and artics? I assume those would require and like for like replacement order at the very least.

[Cutepattern1098]

If my own employer is anything to go by it seems we started retiring our own identical Irisbus Agroalines starting last year in favour of Volvo B10BLEs and Mercedes O405NHs form interstate CDC fleets, so the Irisbuses will be retired at t he same time with the Gas buses.

[Sylvan Loves Buses]

Was thinking this myself yesterday when I was riding 481. I would imagine the Euro 5 stuff would be due to go next, but the question I'm more interesting in is what will replace the steertags? They're great high capacity buses (even though no one realises you can have more standing room by lifting the seats in the first half of the bus), but they also present so many problems.
Would we assume they'll just get replaced by 125-150% more standard buses, or might we finally get to expand the artic fleet, electric artics are a thing in Australia right?
Tuggeranong depot was designed for double/bi artics (3 carriages), maybe we could finally see lightrail-like-capacity buses on the rapids too... lol jk, that'll never happen if it hadn't already.

[Bus 400]

We have to remember what stage Woden LR will be up to by the time Stag & artic replacement is due. Which should replace the need for more high capacity buses. 

[Sylvan Loves Buses]

Yes of course I forget, TC doesn't care about Tuggeranong Valley residents.

[triumph]

Yes of course I forget, TC doesn't care about Tuggeranong Valley residents.

Can't quite agree with that. They have the benefit of 3 different route peak services, whereas North of the Lake no longer have direct peak services.

Agreed Light Rail in North of the Lake. It would have provided more political impetus to have started at an extremity such as Tuggeranong and worked in. (Some rural councils have done this with sealing roads.)

My impression is that the nature of local services from Tuggeranong, Woden, Belconnen, and Gungahlin are much the same.

[L94UBbusfan]

after the Gas buses are gone what would be next?

I've been thinking about this too. If the retirements are in order, the diesel MANs should be the first to go, followed closely by the steer-tags, however I did hear somewhere that the steer-tags would go after the CNG buses, and even before in some cases. For what replaces the steer-tags I think it will just be more standard buses. While in theory steer-tags work great on rapid routes with high capacity, that's about all it when it comes to benefits, as they are very hard to use on anything that isn't a high capacity rapid route.

We have to remember what stage Woden LR will be up to by the time Stag & artic replacement is due. Which should replace the need for more high capacity buses.

While stage 2 of light rail will reduce the need for high capacity buses, I doubt it will completely eliminate them being required. There will have to be some new electric artics ordered at some point, but that's something to figure out in 5-10 years, not now.

[Cutepattern1098]

For Tag Axle replacements, Yutong already makes a Tag axle version of the E12 for Scandinavian Markets called the E15.

http://yutongeurobus.se/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Yutong-E15-broschyr-2021-enkel-sid.pdf

[Cutepattern1098]

Was thinking this myself yesterday when I was riding 481. I would imagine the Euro 5 stuff would be due to go next, but the question I'm more interesting in is what will replace the steertags? They're great high capacity buses (even though no one realises you can have more standing room by lifting the seats in the first half of the bus), but they also present so many problems.
Would we assume they'll just get replaced by 125-150% more standard buses, or might we finally get to expand the artic fleet, electric artics are a thing in Australia right?
Tuggeranong depot was designed for double/bi artics (3 carriages), maybe we could finally see lightrail-like-capacity buses on the rapids too... lol jk, that'll never happen if it hadn't already.

the only manufacturers I believe to offer an Electric Articulateds in Australia ATM is Ebusco and Hess. Yutong, Volvo, Mercedes and BYD also makes them for other markets.

[Bus 400]

Bus 349 rego hasn't been renewed for the next 12 months. 

I'm assuming this is the next CNG to go.

[L94UBbusfan]

Bus 349 rego hasn't been renewed for the next 12 months.

I'm assuming this is the next CNG to go.

Geez another 34_ bus retired, they must have something against them.

Interestingly, 346s registration has been renewed. It seems to be the only withdrawn L94 that has had a registration renewal. Could this mean there could be another potential use for it?

[Snorzac]

Both 346 and 325 were parked separately to the rest of the gas retirements, it might be assumed that they were left in a position where gas tanks could be swapped if something else were to have a mechanical failure, potentially this means that 349 had a mechanical failure and 346 may return to service