FlybeDash8Q400
Established Member
Hence why I said ‘if a suitable one is available by then’. There is no suitable product yet.There’s not an electric bus on the market that would handle the work on the 100. Not only that, remember that luggage space is needed as well.
I suspect this is largely due to the fact Edinburgh is built on large hills. Most of Glasgow is built on much smaller hills from what I remember.What's the difference between these and the electric vehicles in Greater Glasgow? Electric range is always the issue when discussed in this thread but I haven't particularly noticed Lanarkshire and Inverclyde having the same issue? Maybe I'm just not reading the right threads though.
The beneficial thing here is the 100 is a simple enough route with a generally fixed allocation of buses. Having pantograph chargers at each end could work very well.The Airlink is a heavy load (full buses and luggage) on an intense route (lots of fast running, a few inclines including the sliproad, leaving the airport and gyle underpass) and buses do a lot of miles a day. I'm not sure if electric vehicles would keep up with it YET, unless the charging tech was in place at either end to top up the charge. The XLBs aren't showing any wear yet and passengers still find the 'wow' factor in them, so I don't think the company will change them unless a suitable alternatives comes onto the market.
I agree though the current XLB’s are more than adequate enough for at least another couple of years or so. I don’t think zero emission technology is far away from being practical on the Airlink, but for now there’s no suitable product.