Buses World News

SCHOOL BUS SYSTEMS * USA

* South Carolina - Old school buses

Charleston,SC,USA -WCSC/Live 5 News, by Raphael James -Nov 24, 2014: -- Funding delays mean South Carolina is lagging in efforts to replace aging school buses in a timely manner... With a fleet of buses that are among the oldest in the country, that means some buses taking children to school today may have been ridden by those students' parents or grandparents... State School Superintendent, Mick Zais, testified to the state senate that, "South Carolina maintains the only state run school bus fleet in America. It's also the oldest" fleet in America... The General Assembly provides and maintains buses for every school district in the state. Those buses, aren't always brand spanking new. In fact most of them are not. State law says the bus fleet is to be replaced every 15 years. But Zais says, more than 60% of our buses are over 15 years old... Almost 100 of them are more than 26 years old... He says to replace the more than 3,000 buses statewide that are older than 15 years old would cost the state $273 million. For the past two years he's asked the General Assembly for $34 million and received less than that for buses each time...

Labels: older buses, school buses funds

OLD BUSES * Thailand - Transport flags tough new bus controls

Private buses face tough new controls from the Transport Ministry in an attempt to do away with the decades-old vehicles rattling about Bangkok's streets

Bangkok,Thailand -The Bangkok Post, by AMORNRAT MAHITTHIROOK -17 Feb 2009: -- ...
Deputy Transport Minister Prajak Klaewklaharn said passengers should be able to feel safe in buses which are in good condition... Mr Prajak is about to appoint a team to look into a safe limit on the age of private green mini-buses and larger white-blue buses run under concessions from the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority... Past attempts to set age limits on buses have drawn protests from their operators... Land Transport Department chief Chairat Sa-nguansue said the operators usually recover their investment after their buses have been in service for five to seven years. Mr Chairat said any age limit should not put them at a disadvantage... The release of a Land Transport Department survey which shows only one-third of the 3,154 private buses serving Bangkok are of an appropriate age... More than half are at least 10 years old, with the oldest 54 years old... The BMTA, which awards concessions to private bus companies, has said it had no power to ban buses which pass an annual inspection...

Labels: older buses

OLD BUSES * USA - Maine's public buses aging, at risk of breakdowns

The Portland METRO system is operating 10 1990-vintage buses...

Portland,MN,USA -Associated Press/The Portland Press Herald, by Beth Quimby -February 09, 2009: -- Maine's public bus lines are in danger of service cuts due to an aging bus fleet, public transit operators announced today... Officials from four of the state's largest public transit systems, including Greater Portland METRO, South Portland Bus Service, Lewiston-Auburn's CityLink and Bangor's BAT Community Connector, called on Maine's congressional delegation for more federal funding to replace old buses that are breaking down at increasing rates while ridership continues to grow... Officials estimated 30 percent of the state's transit service buses are operating beyond their useful life, which pushes up maintenance costs and threatens service levels... South Portland Bus Service director Tom Meyers said 43 percent of the city's fleet is more than 12 years old and his repair budget is already $34,000 in the red half-way through the budget year... (Photo: shuttlebus-zoom)

Labels: older buses

Sideline Older Buses -USA - New Emissions Standards Could Do it

A proposed mandate could take away hundreds of school buses that don't meet air quality standards - Buses made before 1987 will have to be permanently parked or replaced

Chico,Redding,CAL,USA -KHSL -4 June 2008: -- ... The Air Resources Board wants school districts to retrofit the filters on their school buses to reduce toxic pollutants emitted into the air by 85 percent. Their goal is to keep students safe... But officials from Shasta High School District say it will cost 15 to 20 thousand dollars to make these modifications on each bus... The District's Director of Transportation Tom Carroll, "we want to provide good, safe, economic service. But mandates like this make it darn near impossible"... The Air Resources Board says there's 300 million dollars in state funding to help pay for these changes...

Labels: older buses

Older School Buses * Canada - Problems with P.E.I. leads gov’t to take fleet off roads

Charlottetown,ÊI,CAN -The Cape Breton Post -7 May 2008: -- The discovery of corrosion on older school buses in Prince Edward Island has led to the 320-bus fleet being pulled from the road, leaving parents to get their children to and from schools across the province for the rest of the week... About a third of the fleet was pulled in for inspections Wednesday... By mid-morning, 16 of 20 buses examined had failed their inspections, while experts from the Island’s Transport Department checked for problems with 84 other vehicles... Andrew Sprague, a spokesman for the department, described the problem as being “unexpected corrosion of the framework of the vehicle.”...

Labels: older buses

Vintage Buses * USA - Return to Yellowstone

There's a new kind of recreational vehicle in Yellowstone National Park...

Yellowstone National Park,USA -Preservation Magazine, by Margaret Foster -June 13, 2007: -- ... After a $1.9 million makeover, eight of the park's yellow tourist buses were back in action last weekend... Manufactured by the White Motor Company, the Model 706 buses were a fixture in Yellowstone and other national parks from 1936 until the 1950s... An Alaska tour company sold its eight buses back to Yellowstone in 2001. Since then, the 13-passenger buses have been updated—new engines, new windows, reupholstered seats, and new convertible tops... (Photo by Jim Peaco/NPS - Outside Old Faithful Inn)

Labels: older buses

The "Beauties" * India - Shall RuleThe Roads...

Welcome to Pune Metropolitan Transport (PMT) System

Pune,India -Mutiny.in, by gentledude -7 June 2007: -- 849 buses,serving a population of 44,85,000 and covering an area of 700 sq.km. Around 144 of them are more than 15 years old... Pune is reportedly having the highest number of two wheelers in India and the number is growing by the day,causing traffic snarls everywhere... Perhaps no other Indian city needs an efficient public transport system at this moment than Pune... But there is some good news too... The city planners have finally woken up to the ground reality of the situation and the old buses are being replaced with new ones and to ease the congestion,they’re experimenting with Bus Rapid Transit System, which has its own problems but may prove to be beneficial in the long run... Hope somebody puts an end to this problem and save Punekars from the obnoxious fumes from the thousands of two wheelers plying on the roads...

Labels: older buses

Anniversary * UK - On the buses...for 100 years

Todmorden,

Halifax,UK -The Halifax Today/Evening Courier -May 2007: -- Four buses might struggle to cope with the estimated 2,500 passengers a day who travel through Todmorden on public transport in 2007... But 100 years ago those four double-deckers, painted a distinctive green and cream, put the town on the map... It was only the second place in the UK, behind Eastbourne, to have a motorised bus service... Now, to celebrate the centenary of Todmord-en's buses, a transport enthusiast, whose dad and uncle worked on the buses, has put together an exhibition exploring their history...

Labels: older buses

Older * USA - School buses get extended use

Pittsburgh,PA,USA -The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, by Craig Smith -Jan 30, 2007: -- School bus operators in Pennsylvania say they might try to keep older buses on the road longer because new emission standards have increased the cost of replacing the vehicles... Bus companies and some school districts that run their bus services must install pollution-control devices on existing vehicles and use cleaner-burning diesel fuel to meet Environmental Protection Agency standards... More retrofitting money might be available for Pennsylvania later this year, said Carol Febbo, chief of the EPA's Energy, Radiation and Indoor Environment Branch. The agency has distributed about $1.1 million for bus projects in Pennsylvania...

Labels: older buses