MK Electric Bus trial at an end

[Bletchleyite]

It seems the trial of induction-charged electric buses on the 7 in MK has come to an end, with a hotch potch of diesel vehicles now appearing on the route (including a decker, which is very rare for MK).

Does anyone know what the outcome of the trial was, i.e. will more routes be rolled out or will another approach be taken, or just revert to diesel?

 

[cnjb8]

It seems the trial of induction-charged electric buses on the 7 in MK has come to an end, with a hotch potch of diesel vehicles now appearing on the route (including a decker, which is very rare for MK).

Does anyone know what the outcome of the trial was, i.e. will more routes be rolled out or will another approach be taken, or just revert to diesel?

There replacements are due from Arriva in Cannock.

 

[Robertj21a]

There replacements are due from Arriva in Cannock.

The ex-Cannock Streetlites should have been there for a couple of weeks now.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The ex-Cannock Streetlites should have been there for a couple of weeks now.

Yep, I believe they have arrived, still carrying TfWM / "n-Bus" validity stickers. But Arriva MK has the same sort of "random bus generator" as Northern has the "random unit generator", so anything can show up anywhere. There's a bit of route branding but they don't stay on routes so they more advertise routes than stay on them.

Does anyone know any more about the outcome of the trial or where the electric buses are now?

 

[eMeS]

During the trial it was quite frequent to see a diesel replacement bus on the route. As for where are they now, my guess is that they are either being examined by experts in battery technology to see if there's any life in the batteries, or are being taken apart to salvage other equipment. I think Civil Engineers Arup were involved in the trial.
Here's a link:-
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705815021104

 

[Bletchleyite]

During the trial it was quite frequent to see a diesel replacement bus on the route

I believe this was less down to unreliability and more down to one too few having been ordered - there was no slack for traffic issues.