Re: [VIC? NSW?] An idea of mine - express trams

["Bradley Torr" <truenorth@one.net.au.SPAMTRAP>]

Hubert Lam <hubert@imap4.com> wrote in article
<9ch6bo$sim$1@tomahawk.unsw.edu.au>...
> STA should start using double deckers. Instantly double capacity per bus.

Not quite.

The old Public Transport Commission's Leyland Atlantean double-deckers had
a seating capacity of 55, only 12 more than the standard STA Mercedes-Benz
O305 which makes up a large bulk of the current fleet.

I'm not sure about total (seating + standing) capacity.

A small anecdote about trams vs. double-deck buses - when the isolated
Enfield system in Sydney was closed in the late 1940's (what was the
Enfield system is now worked by STA bus routes 462, 464, 465 and 466) the
trams were replaced by double deckers. However, a small problem - the
Burwood Road railway underpass was too low for the deckers. So the new bus
routes had to take a rather circuitous and inconvenient route down
neighbouring streets, away from the busy Burwood railway station and shops
along Burwood Road.

I am led to believe that patronage suffered.

Also, I think double-deckers, by virtue of being heavier and taller, tend
to have slower acceleration, are harder to turn corners and harder to
brake. In Sydney's stop-start traffic, this is a definite disadvantage.

Regards
BT