(12-07-2020, 04:53 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(12-07-2020, 02:09 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I completely agree that frequency is key, but I don't think that smaller buses help that much, it would be nice to have a specific number on operating costs, but given that driver and maintenance will be about the same, and fuel will be a large fraction of a full size bus, I cannot imagine the savings is much, and the operation cost of having to manage a fleet with more than one type of bus isn't free either, it could literally come out negative.
GRT currently already runs a mixed fleet of New Flyer and Nova buses. And the BusPlus fleet has Chevrolet, Ford and GMC chassis with five (!) different coach bodies and three different engines. So, I don't think adding four Grande West buses to the fleet will have that big an impact.
The fuel economy is likely about 20% better -- and the buses will also be less expensive than full-sized ones. I do assume that they are capable of doing a financial analysis on this.
The BusPlus fleet isn't owned/operated by GRT. It's entirely contracted out to private operators. So GRT really only has the two bus types, and lots of the equipment (e.g. engines, HVAC units) are shared between them. I believe they also keep the Cambridge garage (as it's smaller) all single-type to further reduce the amount of complexity.
I do believe that GRT has done the analysis and concluded it was positive or they wouldn't have ordered the buses. But it's also true that GRT tries really hard to standardize, and small buses don't represent nearly the savings that many expect. They're starting with a small pilot and will see how it goes, which I think is a pretty responsible way to look at small buses. It's still important to push back on the persistent myth of large savings to be found just by ordering smaller buses.