If you have gotten yourself a copy of The Sunday Times (Singapore Press Holdings), flip to Lifestyle and on page 8 ‘Hot’ section you will find an article on aviation, bus and railway enthusiasts in Singapore.

The press approached my friends last week for an interview and I gave my views on the two hobbies that I have, buses and railway. Credits to the two friends who gave us enthusiasts an opportunity to speak to the general public about our hobbies.

In case you are not residing in Singapore and/or have not gotten a copy, here are the scans courtesy of Wei Xiong.

Among the articles, I feel that the aviation one had been well-written on. Not being biased, furthermore not trying intentionally to lower attention of myself, I feel that aviation fans are those who need the most coverage. Many fans overseas have been caught by police, ‘suspected’ of terrorism activities and spend hours interrogated, problems that bus and railway fans have yet been involved in, at least not in a large scale.

Some points I would like to add on to what was quoted from myself, obviously the papers are not big and not everything can be dissected clearly.

From the train article:

Quote:
“has met female train fans overseas but, even then, “men tend to dominate the group”.”

I have seen train fans in Japan who are female and also seen blogs by some of them. True to say, they like the cute side of trains like advertisements and drawings, especially like the recent Sebu trains that feature Galaxy Railway 999. Such things attract females more than just the electric motor and inverters that are not always the mens’ cup of tea as well.

Quote:
“I think men tend to like trains more. Maybe it’s in the genes.”

True to speak, just like above, genes play a large part. Although there are females who like technical aspect of things, the numbers do not exceed that of men. But think on the bright side, there are less men who like cute things than things cold. So isn’t that an equivalent?

From the bus article:

Quote:
“I will check if the air-conditioner duct is leaking, or if the engine is making noise or emitting too much heat in the carriage, and feedback to the operators.”

By common sense I wouldn’t do that every trip, every day. I would only look out for serious cases of engine malfunction. Ears not only play a good part here but identifying the correct component of error. An ‘engine vibration’ is different from the compressor vibrating, hence this takes experience. So far I have only feedback about serious problems that will lead to operational hazard and they are too kept confidential from others.

Nonetheless because I love the technical aspect and spending so much time on it, feedback to operators is not really the thing to do all the time, cause I came to the understanding that operators cannot tend to every small problem. So in the future if you want to try doing the same thing, think about the money going in to this problem, whether there will be any operational problems arising, before making the move.

Site Admin of Minibus Group, an Administrator of BusInfoHub, several bus enthusiasts and members of Friends of SMRT (FOSMRT) are invited to the launch of Southeast Asia’s first 100% low-floor Mercedes-Benz Citaro (O530) at SMRT Ang Mo Kio Depot on 9th March 2010. This historical moment marks the progress into a new era in Singapore bus industry, a full low floor, accessibility-friendly and *no internal steps bus.

Some quick facts of this bus:
1 driver, 39 passengers (including fold-up seat for two passengers) and 44 standing passengers.
Full low-floor along the corridor of the bus. One step to access rear section seats.
Fully built bodywork by EvoBus AG in Germany. Basically a one-through manufacture.
Large Gorba front display to enable passengers to spot the service number and route details.

Press Release:
SMRT: http://www.smrt.com.sg/Upload/201031010315179993.pdf

Articles written by enthusiasts on the launch:
BusInfoHub (affiliated): http://businfohub.com/cms/articles/specialfeature/smrtcitarolaunch

Photos taken during the event.

Mr Thomas Bauer, Senior Manager, Bus & Coach, Daimler SEA

Mr Wolfgang Huppenbauer, Executive Managing Director, Daimler Bus (Germany)

Mr Michael Gopfarth, CEO, Daimler SEA

Ms Saw Phaik Hwa, President and CEO, SMRT Corporation

Handover of key to Ms Saw.

Handover of Citaro model (scale 1:32) to Ms Saw.

Round of applause as the bus is driven in.

Demonstrating its wheelchair-friendly feature.

Executives from Daimler and SMRT impressed by the bus’ features.

Interior without stairs; guests move quickly towards the rear, demonstrating what the bus is designed to do.

Showcasing its full 11.9-meter length.

Two buses, decades apart. The step-bus Nissan Diesel U31 RCN (JDM: K-U31) and the Mercedes-Benz Citaro (O530).

I am very grateful to FOSMRT liason officer, Vivian, for finding two staff from Daimler Group SEA who could answer my technical questions. Excerpts.

Q: Why is the OM 906 hLA used on the Citaro instead of the OM 457 hLA that present OC500LE buses are using?
A: Citaro buses come with the smaller 906 as it is suited for the bus. The 457 is designed for sub-urban usage and has a larger power, while the 906 is sufficient for city usage.

Q: Fuel consumption wise, would it be lower and more effective than the 457?
A: This has to depend on many conditions. Different routes, different drivers will affect fuel consumption. At this point there cannot be a specific figure other than benchmark ones.

Q: In achieving this full low-floor design, the engine has to be shifted to the side. Does this mean more sophistication?
A: Yes, a total new design of the engine mounted on the left is what makes it able to achieve a full low-floor specification.

Q: What is special about the radiator system?
A: The radiator for the Citaro uses a hydraulic driven fan. The radiator is mounted on the outer frame, the intercooler on the inner frame. The fan is driven using hydraulic oil. This is different from magnetic driven ones on the OC500LE.

Q: The OM 906 hLA have more horsepower-per-liter compared to the 457. How different would this be in performance?
A: The 906 would be efficient and depending on its mixture method and its efficiency, it would be as effective as the 457.

Q: In the hot and humid climate of Singapore, does the cooling efficiency of the vehicle need special or larger cooling capacity?
A: The Citaro is sold worldwide. They even operate in Dubai, where its a desert climate. One size fits all.

Q: Gearbox of the vehicle?
A: ZF 6HP592C.

Q: Why not the Ecolife drive-line?
A: The Ecolife is suitable for countries with more terrain, and is fitted with the TopoDyn software system. in Singapore, a conventional drive-line is sufficient.

Q: Air conditioning unit?
A: Konvekta.

Q: Does IFS (Independent Front Suspension) make it a more comfortable ride for this bus?
A: You would have to ride it to find out. Basically it is better than a conventional suspension.

Q: Fuel capacity?
A: About 200 liters.

Regarding the secret of full low-floor…

Longitudinal, side mounted horizontal diesel engine.

Scania, Checkmate.

*No internal steps mean no step(s) along the corridor of the bus.

Minibus Group wishes all folks local and overseas and in Chinese and agricultural countries a prosperous and healthy Lunar New Year ahead!

New arcade rules on KUBs (SBS5126P).

A tour on the Mercedes-Benz O 405 and Dennis Dart was organized by Bus Culture group on 30th January 2010. SBS278S and SBS8009A were chartered. Some photos of the event as follows.

First day of 963R as passengers ask for directions

A clear sky as the Dart is being caught attention of

The side views

The upright inline-6 of the Dennis Dart (Cummins 6BT)…

to the horizontal inline-6 of the Mercedes-Benz O405 (OM447h, 447.908)

Letterings on the original Cummins product

On the way to cross the Yishun Dam

One generation apart; the Mercedes-Benz O 405 G Euro 1

Square butts

Under the Winter Skies

Strong wall of reporters

The unique shape of gear selector on the Dennis Dart

A service that it will probably not run in the future

深夜急行バス, ‘Night Rapid Bus’ which a ride would cost 400 to 1900 yen or more in Tokyo. But in Singapore, its just 170 to 270 yen equivalent (SGD 2.50 – 4). Remember, a cab ride of 18 kilometers can cost JPY 6000 (SGD 90), so bus is still as cheap as here!

The oldest Mercedes-Benz O405 (Pre-Euro) on a sponsored night bus from Tiger Beer.

Two Mercedes-Benz O405 Euro 1 on respective Night Rapid services.

31st December 2009 was also the last day of operations for TVMobile.

Moove Love with fireworks.

Mercedes-Benz OC500LE Euro 5 waiting for clearance to return to depot.

Some trips of the Night Rapid Bus was operated by Bendies, as demonstrated by TIB1202K, a Mercedes Benz O405G Euro 2 ‘Habit’.

Night Rapid = NightRider.

Haha welcome to another episode of the Toaru series! No railgun, no trains, but buses instead!

Did you have a merry christmas? Hope you did, cause I had a sweating afternoon having pictures taken at River Valley, of A Certain SMRT Route Change! Let the pictures ROLL~!

Its EOY 2009 tomorrow but I am not 100% looking forward to it… Call me stupid or childish, but I felt sold-out by the organisers, who contacted me only yesterday to announce that there are no more media passes for some (or majority/all?) of the bloggers, apparently they ran out of passes.

Please, this is foreseeable, contact those who will not get passes (due to dislike of blog/site/really limited number) earlier, instead of two days before the event. It was super disappointing!

I had looked forward to covering EOY 2009 on my site because its going to be the first chance to become more un-bus, well, Minibus Group has always seem to be a bus company, but no, I aim to be a diverse bus company. Sadly the nil-issue of the media pass would mean a big separation from what I have envisioned.

If I see the organisers tomorrow in-person, this feedback is definitely going to them.

Today (20th August) marks the first day a China made citybus is on revenue service in Singapore, with SMRT Buses. Low entry, powered by Cummins ISLe 8.9-liter engine, this bus is fully built in China and shipped as a integral unit.

There were some initial points to be taken, so I rated them on the basis of ten.

Performance: 8/10. Cummins engine, powerful on the horsepower band but on the losing start; the torque band. With an advertised 1020Nm it just cannot beat the Mercedes Benz OC500LE in terms of acceleration.
Ride Comfort: 8/10. Ride suspension just feels like a Mercedes Benz O405, stiff but not vibrating when going over humps and drops.
Interior cooling: 7/10. Aircon is sufficient in the forward sections of the bus, but there is lesser wind at the rear.
Interior color: 7/10. Colors are the usual white and grey, but added with green at the lower aircon duct. Not too inspiring.
Seat comfort: 7/10. Big seats and comfortable in that way. But they act more like suction cups.

Total: 37/50.

Some photos to go with.

From the last row of the bus. There are 1+4+24 seats to race for. The last row only contain 4 seats due to radiator intrusion and bigger seats.

The front vestibule of the bus. Two wheelchair cushions with seatbelts, a modern standard adopted by SMRT Buses.

It was difficult to catch this guy (on sensors) in action. Perhaps a top secret project?

Rear-quarter view shows Adblue and Diesel ports. Radiator and access panel are on the right side too.

There were some stuff to note on the dashboard as well. Before alighting at Bedok Interchange on the afternoon trip, I noted that the speedometer has a highest available reading of 140 km/h, the highest speed indicator on citybuses here so far. The tachometer is a usual 0 to 3000 RPM. Fuel was slightly above 1/2, water temperature about 90 degrees. The CAN System screen indicates the postition of bus doors, similar to Mercedes Benz and MAN integral system screens. The mileage is at 2073 kilometers. Fuel consumption is at a rather amazing number… 99L/100km.

This China product definitely does not disappoint me on my first ride… Enjoy your stay here SMB135E.

Add-on: Reviews by other folks in the community;
FS: http://offservice.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/smrt-yutong-2/
Mark: http://thecoloursofmyworld.blogspot.com/2009/08/review-smrts-yutong-zk6126hgc.html

As the title. Many folks like to go down to Shenton Way and Fullerton early in the morning to capture the Premium services, new recently to this transport market here in Singapore. So here are some evening shots of the same bunch of services, in the opposite direction!

Volvo B9TL CDGE. Not Premium service.

No doubt the most powerful 21st Century double deck here. With D9A-300 EC01 (Euro 3) engine. They have wonderfully forgotten about the Tridents.

Coach-type Premium.

Premium 572. Operated by a private hire vehicle.

Vehicle info: Isuzu LT134P Japanese export chassis with SC Auto bodywork. Wheelbase 5700mm. Engine model JDM: 6HK1-TCC/Export: 6HK1E4N (260PS @ 2400RPM/76kgm @ 1450RPM), 7790cc,  Euro 4 rated.
The basic version of the same engine (6HK1-TCN, 240PS) for Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) is rated Heisei 17 (2005) Emissions Regulation, PM10 Reduction version, and mounted on the JDM Isuzu Erga Mio 9-meter class citybus (PDG-LR234J2).
For the LT134P, 5MT (citybus) and 6MT (sightseeing) transmissions are available.

Another plus-point for introducing a Euro 4 cap on these diesel buses; we get chassis built in Japan with the same engine rating as the latest emissions in the country! No more Malaysian or Indonesian built chassis! And no more headache work for me to figure out the JDM version as related to the chassis version. -_-”

Citybus-type Premium.

Premium 531 towards Simei. They did have a Bendy on this route before, after the Simei train accident in early 2008. Only once, wayang show.

The sunlight is as-is, calibrated to show how the darkness is at that time. Not as good as morning, but it is something that few has done yet.

Spotted this rare guest to service 189 while on the way home. TIB838H was the demonstrator ‘bendy bus’ to Trans Island about 15 years ago. It was also the then-longest bus in Singapore, not to forget its the first of many articulated brothers to come to this Southeast Asia nation. Its condition today is already a far cry from when it was introduced; other than a dry sounding engine, there are holes in the joint fabric and sunlight comes through! On shift S103 today.

Another photo of a regular service 189 folk.

Check out the shiny Mercedes front badge! SMB15T is one of the OCs that I prefer on the fleet. After the accident, it seem to have gotten a bit ‘sick’ and has the hottest running engine around in the fleet (while sitting at the rear, it could be hot even in the morning or night). The best got to be SMB16R, but not captured today.

One of two batch 2 OCs on the service today. SMB71E is still quite new and here is a rear quarters view of it.

OC500LE comes in chassis form. But don’t you think its bodywork is a bit too high? I heard its about 3.6 meters. As compared to a shot of a model of a Citaro below, posed with the Hino coach…

The real-deal of the Hino coach is 3360mm. The Citaro can still clear the same amount with the ventilation pod. The Gemilang design for the OC is another 300mm taller than the two…

Small language lesson…

珍客万来 (日本語/Japanese. Pronounced ‘chi-n ki-ya-ku ba-n ra-i’) is sort of a custom phrase (I got the phrase/idea from another website) to describe the appearance of a rare guest. More often seen in literature-oriented media.

Its not the bus inside Youth Park that got into an accident. This morning (6th June) about 1030hrs, TIB609C (service 190) got into an accident with TIB637X (service 167) just outside of Youth Park, Orchard Road. From various sources, it indicated that a taxi had cut into the path of 609C, causing it to brake hard at possibly a very short distance/notice. 637X which was following behind, rear-ended 609C, causing damage to (637X’s) lower front panels and the windscreen. 609C had a burst water tank and dented engine panel. Photos as follows.

Parallel Parking.

One injured passenger being helped on board the ambulance.

Front damage of TIB637X.

Sight of the accident scene from the view of how the vehicles were moving.

When the emergency staff (Gavin XXh, here on mentioned as ‘emergency staff’) from BOCC arrived, he questioned both the bus captains, but I heard him being particularly unfriendly to the China bus captain (who was driving 609C, here on mentioned as ‘China BC’) and possibly a particular SMRT staff on the handphone line (only a guess).  First, emergency staff asked the ‘China BC’ about the accident, then the 637X bus captain (here on mentioned as ‘local BC’). They (emergency staff and local BC) also discussed why 609C was turning out from the slip road/pedestrian crossing and not using the main road that turns into Orchard Turn. During this discussion, the China BC was not with them. The emergency staff also talked to the traffic policewoman who came to the scene and assisted in the investigation. Then, the emergency staff approached my friend (here on mentioned as ‘WJ’) and asked about the details. When WJ mentioned that the bus braked (chinese: 刹车), the emergency staff got agitated and told the China BC that WJ described so, in quite loud a voice. When doing so, the local BC and the China BC were next to him, so was the policewoman. At this point someone called the local BC’s phone, and when the local BC passed the phone to the emergency staff, the emergency staff shouted loudly  ‘I don’t know’ through the phone and ended the call.

The emergency staff then continued to radio back information to Control through his walkie-talkie. A reporter from The Straits Times approached and asked the two BCs about information. The China BC refused to answer, but the local BC said a few sentences, before the emergency staff approached them and refrained the reporter from asking further. The emergency staff then instructed the China BC to move his vehicle off, but as we left the scene, 609C was still not moved and the staff where either on the bus or sitting by the roadside.

Problems detected:

1. Gavin XXh, the emergency staff of SMRT Buses on scene, was unfriendly to his fellow company staff and the public. I am not saying that he should be smiling like a model; no one want accidents to happen. However, he gave me a very bad impression of SMRT Buses handling accidents of this sort. He spoke loudly and rudely to the China BC, who was already in a bad situation which also included language barrier. He also discussed the problem of turning without the presence of the China BC. While asking WJ about the accident, he immediately shot back questions at the China BC with WJ on scene, producing possible animosity between the public (WJ) and the staff (China BC). Furthermore, WJ had helped out the China BC with minor translations after the accident. The emergency staff was also unappreciative of the condition of 609C, whereby its water tank was damaged and water had almost leaked out completely. The vehicle also sat under the sun for about an hour. Without running collant and possibly a broken fanbelt (refer to first photo), the vehicle would be dangerous to move off. The previous time I saw Gavin XXh was at Little India station bus stop on a Sunday last year (2008), where he was acting and talking rudely to the foreign workers who were trying to get on a bus back to the dormitories.

2. The road condition at Orchard Turn is always under high stress. Even at the time when the accident occurred (morning), buses would need to turn from the bus lane used by left turning buses and cut two to three lanes of traffic to reach Orchard Turn. This also poses a question; if buses are allowed to turn this way, across three lanes of traffic. For the same direction, cars would need to wait at a traffic light (which is the same junction as the bus lane/pedestrian crossing) and merge with Orchard Turn traffic.

3. China bus captains are still not well trained the language. When SMRT Buses and SBS Transit bring in these foreign workers, did they really analyse the possible language and cultural barrier, or did they bring in ‘with the trend’? When foreign workers come thousand of kilometers from their homeland, they expect to find a better patch of grass to feed their family back at home. Did we bring in foreign workers just for the fashion, just for the kicks or just for the cost? Did we really treat them equally? Lets not talk only about horrible conditions that shipyard workers have, both in their working environment and dormitories. Bus captains from overseas are facing the same situation now. We are trying to cram more of them in, while depriving locals of possible jobs. Neither did we think of giving them a good life; many of the drivers now live in dormitories as well.

All these may reflect badly of our public transport operators. Be cautioned that what I expressed here is only my views, they have not and will not be submitted to the press and operators. Operators and people who may want to know more shall contact through the usual way; email.

Geylang Lorong 1.

Purple Company the Way? Sorry, all have their flaws…