Heating on buses

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RE: Heating on buses

(13/12/2015 18:23)R879 HRF Wrote:  The vast majority of buses saloon heating cannot be controlled by the driver. For example, most enviro models are thermostatically controlled however it is known to be faulty. Stagecoach in Wirral recently had a number of their 62 plate Enviro200s heaters looked at by adl. They've been working for a bit but its still hit and miss. Its the same with the new MMC buses at Stagecoach Wigan for route 34/X34. The driver has no control over the saloon heat, and upstairs blows cold on most of them! Wirrals Enviro300 golds however can be set to hot or cold by the driver, which is great, and so far theyre working.

Its not just an ADL issue though, wrightbus saloon roof heating is generally automatic, such as the wright scania solars, and its usually stuck on in summer and off in winter! Its an ongoing problem, and stagecoach are aware of the problems, especially with introduction of their twitter accounts etc. I seem to remember Laird Street had the same problem with 4400-4422 Enviro400s, and some gained driver heating controls, although still blew cold when set to hot on a number.

When the Hybrid B5s first arrived, saloons where cold and have since been modified so the driver can select the saloon blower temperature.

A lot of older buses, and VDL pulsars, with the heater pipes running along the saloon under the seats, have an on/off valve, and as mentioned some buses have the valve in the engine compartment. However most companies say drivers shouldn't go into the engine compartment, and saloon heating is the responsibility of engineering.

Then shouldn't the engineers set the valves to on in the winter, and when it starts getting warmer in the day to turn them off and turn them on again if they're operating when its getting colder. When its summer, have fewer buses set to on or all off for the night. Then slowly turn them back on. All it probably needs is an engineer/fitter to be at the main bus station. £2 odd is a lot of money for a cold bus journey but made less money by having a man and his spanner.