Photos of Overseas buses

Basiling

3 Jun 09, 00:01

Today pics are taken at Shenzhen, China. Shenzhen has adopt a new system call "Three Layer Public transport"

First layer is Branch layer, usually start with letter B, service passenger within a small district.

The second layer is Main Line, usually run on main street. ( Actually i don't know how to classify as main line as most bus route in Shenzhen are run on main street........ )

The last one is Express Route, most express route start with letter E, but there are still some express route use regular number like 365....

Superbus

3 Jun 09, 02:39

Much like RapidKL's bus system.

Tempatan (Local) services serves the local district/township/neighbourhood or from these areas to the Bus Hubs/LRT stations. From the Bus Hubs, passengers may hop on the Utama (Mainline) services to the city centre. Ekspres (Express) services serves the outer towns with a direct connection to the city centre.

And needless to say, the Tempatan services starts with T, Utama services with a U and Ekspress with an E.

azharjj

5 Jun 09, 21:39

My trip to UK (2 march to 18 april)

London (12 apr to 18 apr). Sorry if some of the photos are not good

Part 1

More to be continued in Part 2

ZYX2005

8 Jun 09, 11:57

Hi all,

Before we get on with pics of more taiwan Buses, i feel it is more apppropriate to lay out the background of TAIPEI buses. For buses operating elsewhere in tiawan, there was not much research done. apologies.

TAIPEI BUS SYSTEM AND OPERATIONS (THE 15 BUS COMPANIES)
Taipei's was once operated by a mess of bus operators. They sued different prices and fares and tickets on bus services by Company X cannot be used on Company Y.

They reformed early. In the late 1970s commitee meetings were held and it was agreed to standardise bus operations among bus operators. A single ticket system and fare system shall be used. 9we'll come to that)

In terms of revenue distribution, its like Singapore. the revenue is channelled to one regulation body after which the money is dsitributed among the 15 companies "enough to meet thier operational needs".

At present, 15 bus companies operate around Taipei city and the surrounding areas which we refer to as Taipei Prefecture. (we = me)

Below is a list of the 15 bus companies

Some of them are in a joint consortium - which i call the blue and red eagle consortium (named after the nice livery)_

below are the bus companies and some that stand out to me are further explained

zh:å¤§éƒ½æœƒå®¢é�‹ Metropolitan Transit Company (
zh:æ¬£æ¬£å®¢é�‹ Shin-shin Transport
zh:å¤§æœ‰å·´å£« Da you Bus (orange livery)
zh:å¤§å�—æ±½è»Š Da-nan Bus (Yellow livery with company charters pasted in revers thuse forming the short form of the Chiense name for our NTU (in Jurong). as such the name used for this bus company will be..NTU bus hahah
zh:å…‰è�¯å·´å£« Guang-hua Bus
zh:ä¸èˆˆå·´å£« Zhongxing Bus
zh:æŒ‡å�—å®¢é�‹ Zhinan Bus
zh:å�°åŒ—å®¢é�‹ Taipei Bus
zh:ä¸‰é‡�å®¢é�‹ Sanchung Bus
zh:é¦–éƒ½å®¢é�‹ Capital Bus (famous for their Ikarus, orange and beige livery) - older buses have the Capitol bus badge pasted on the front like a mkaker's badge.
zh:æ–°åº—å®¢é�‹ Hsintien Bus
zh:æ¬£å’Œå®¢é�‹ Shinhe Bus
zh:æ·¡æ°´å®¢é�‹ Danshui Bus (Operates around the Damshui area, u will see a series on these buses)
zh:æ�±å�—å®¢é�‹ Southeast Bus
zh:åŸºéš†å®¢é�‹ Keelung Bus (operates around the Jiu Fen area, again hopefully you will see some of these guys) - they operate under the blue eagle consortium
zh:ç¦�å’Œå®¢é�‹ Fu He Bus, has dejoined the joint or union system

I will admit it is confusing and i always never know which bus company the bus belongs to but that will not trouble us. What we strive for is to review the taiwan bus models and have a sense as to what u will see should u go toruing in taiwan (now that is fun!) and their quirky interesting operational ideas and some analysis.

ZYX2005

8 Jun 09, 12:09

TAIPEI BUS FARES

Payment system

AA background check on these showed they sued conductor style punch cards till 1994. at which point OMO (in Singapore terms) was finally started to use.

in 1998, stored value cards were then used to pay for bus fares. However the failure and inaccurarcy rate of this system using very pirmitive RFID technology was very high. Still they tahan using the system until came 2002

In 2002, rhe Smartcard technology too arrived in taiwan. They called their smartcard the Easy Card . the card like Singapore's one interfaces with card readers on baord bus and MRT. One wonders if the name is a copy of our EZ-Link, but anyhow we digressed

Fares
Based on the fact that there were many toll areas along major highways or roads, the fare system used is if you pass one toll area, one pay one section fare. Pass two toll booths, two sections fare. Maximum is 3 sections. In main bus fare jargon essentially what they have adopted is a Zonal fare system where if you cross zones.

Transfer concessions
Of coruse natrually there are transfer concessions when using the easy Card. But these are in the form of capped fares. With Adults paying $8 cap for the whole leg of the journy. and Child with $6 cap. the PIW enjoy a nice $4 cap on fares when trasnfers are made.

Note that our system is rebate where fare is deducted, and theirs is cap.

ZYX

ZYX2005

8 Jun 09, 12:26

Bus service numbers

oohh man now this is a mess.

Now the fact of the matter is, almost all countires in the wolrd name their bus route numbers bby service type and by district type. Like many of the 47x services on korea serve District X or terminate at Int X. not so for TaiPei buses and around the prefecture (ah hem county)

The fact is, taiwan buses are anmed after how many sections they cross (and thus what kind of fare they charge). there is mention of a lianYiang bus system which was reform . I am guessing this is some old bus system which was in use. Under this system the above was adopted.

So Simply
2 digit routes

0 north 0 east 0 west... etc. these ran to taipei Main Station. Much later as the MRT was introduced in the early 90s, bus routes tagged to the MRT line colours. All such routes are 1 section routes.

the more modern bus routes are named after MRT colour line and a digit to signify svc no. Eg if the route is a one section along the Muzhu line (brown line) and its the 9th service to be introduced. its called Brown 9.

And no the EDS do not show brown colour. lol. some funny svc routes like 12 or 14 or 33 are simply feeder routes goign in one section only.

Now this is similiar to Tokyo buses (and u shd know that taipei has many influences from japan)

3 digits routes

Most taiwan buses have 3 digit routes.

ORIGINAL SET
1xx - reacreational bus routes. like our Parks services. these are naturally one section routes for general one section rotues, refer to 2 digit routes.

2xx - crosses two sections (many run into heart of town)
Eg: 220 is a premier svc route using latest buses ever since 1996. 220 once used a renault Agora SLF demonstrator. today 220 has WAB buses.
3xx - crosses three sections

AIR-CON BUS

Oh wow. then came the air-con bus. as they sued different fares (uh we taking before the fare reforms), they had to distinguished out.
So
5xx - one section air-con bus route
6xx - two section air-con bujus route (amny run into heart of town)
Eg: 604 runs to ban Chiao (WoodBridge)
7xx - this one is interesting. a basic reform of services after the LiangYang system was resovled. serveal services of 5xx and 6xx were reformed to two sectional routes.
It is interesting to note that there were no three sectional air-con bus service nos then.
Eg: svc 705 runs to a HSR station and runs across two sections. but it seems that 705 is a rather new service introduced for the HSR feeder services.

8xx - these are bus routes not going in city but in the outskirts and suburbs. They are the taiwan County routes. managed by county transportation department
Eg: Svc 836 which runs in Damshuia nd svc 827 which runs to JiuFen

9xx these are EXPRESS bus routes
Eg svc 902. 902 is now a full WAB service.

MAIN LINE or TRUNK LINE
a simple copy of China bus routes. anmed after the main roads they serve for exmaple XinYi trunk line serves from some sections to XinYi rd then to other sections.

As the MRT system was developed and train lines run paraell to certain roads bus routes were later renamed to be MRT feeders (See two digit nos) Eg: nanjing trunk line was renamed red 25 as it now serves to the MRT red line.

Small buses
Some regons only require small midi bus shuttle bus. these were called the S routes. eg S1

ZYX2005

8 Jun 09, 12:45

Buses

Most of the buses that are around are built after 2000. it seems the oldest bus running on the road is of 1998 make suggesting that their buses expire and get scrap after only 10 years of use.

Now the pros of this is that the buses do not even emit any exhuast. the impression that taiwan buses are chui is sadly mistaken. the buses are well mainatained and do not have any brake squeals. however due to the current hot summer in taipei, many buses radiators howl and overwork to keep the bus cool.

The buses are evaluated for Quailty of Service. this takes place every two years by the governing body. the buses are then plastered with flowers at the front dash . the more the flower the more higher quality of service. Buses that are brand new naturally have even up to 14 flowers.

Bus drivers are dorn ties and some vests. interestingly enough amny female bus drivers were spotted. All wear uniform.

Paying your fare?

usually what u do first is

1) LOOK OUT FOR BIKE
Ok so there are many bikes in taipei. everyone owns a bike to travel around. and these bikes, they do cut in between the bus and you. As a safety measure, when the door pops open

1) A bus reversing signal is activated to tell bikers to STOP
2) a cute stop sign flaps out from the door and acts as a sign to tell bikers to STOP
2) BOARD AT REAR

Like the japense, because bus is flat fare, you only tap once to baord. a vvery soft low pitch beep indicates you have succesfully paid for your whaterver no of section bus ride.

3) i guess when alighting you alight at the front,.

now do note that boarding at front is allowed.

At night as buses come to a stop, beamer lights switch on to tell bikers to be careful also.

Inside the bus
Each bus is equipped with a TV set (if applicable) all Mobile Tv sets in taiwan are tuend to digital signals much like our TV mobile. even our tour bus ahs it. even the taxis have it.

Each bus has a PIS (passenger information system) . the disdplay used is a standard miedium size LED screen. the screen is spotted to display only Chiense chratcers.

Alternate short working or differnet bus services

Such bus services like say 260 or 262 will have different routing versions. to differentiate the Bus EDS will show in green number for such alterante route

Taiwan EDS and service plates
Most taiwan buses use EDS. However every bus has a plastic desto. Both plastic desto and EDS are used (simply defeats the purpsoe of having the EDS really ...lol). However as notcied when in bright daylight, the worst thing is u cant even see the svc no due to glass flare reflect and the worst thing is green svc number just cant be seen. ghence the need for plastic desto.

EDS formats

Depending on bus make or bus company, front EDS will show

A type) [ From Chiense service no in midle Destination Chiense]
patch scroll - this interesting form of scrolling whereby the english words start to appear in pacthes while majority of the chiense words remain. after the scroll is midway through more of the Englsih sections appear and then finally we have

[ From in Enlgish Svc no Destination : in Enlgish}

B Type [ From: Chiense big words below smaller font Enlish - Svc no - Destination with same format as left side]
these kind of EDS need not scroll

- Note the goign by destinations do not to be seem to be shown on front EDS. A side plastic EDS will show going by places. Soemtimes both front and side owrds are stickered onto bus windows indicating that the bus in use CANNOT DO CAMEO. This is essenatilly same as Korea style.

WAB Services
WAB services are interesting, they call them Bo-Ai routes. the EDS show a heart shape with the word "new" in chiense in the middle. So Somtimes when the EEDS stays on this screen, you have no diea what the svc is.

WAB services use two main bus models, the Daewoo with Scania looking front and the Chiense makes SangYang and King Loong both made out to look alike because they use the same bodywork (haiz)

Wheelchair ramps are mannual oeprated. Buses are clearly indicated by a blue wheelchair logo set in the bus livery of red (for eagle consortium bus companies)

and the normal blue n white Wheelchair logo pasted in middle below where the svc no wd be on EDS. (for other bus co)

amny interesting smaller signs n words are pasted on the rear door which is the baording point for PIW and where the ramp is located on both model. the taiwan WAbs use the same manual fold out ramps as us.

ZYX

ZYX2005

8 Jun 09, 12:55

Taipei Bus fleets n makes

general introduction

most of the buses are bodied in local bodywork. The older bodyworks will feature the ribbed sides features. Our older SBS buses were modelled after these such taiwan buses.

Bus makes are mainly Hinos, (Mianly on the eagle consortium), many Isuzu , many Mitshubsihi Fuso, older Daewoos.

Newer buses
these are mainly of japense makes and many new Daewoo and many many new isuzu LT133 series close to our LT134P cuosins on coaches in Singapore. in fsct they sound alike.

Low floor bus
Taiwan did bring in a Renault Agora low floor bus for trial on Svc 220. it was a CNG bus. bus was exported or scrap soon after

They also brought in the Ikarus 412T series bus. the Ikarus is rare in Asia and in taiwan. because the buses operate on fixed schedules on weekdays, i did not manage to meet any or snap any due to the fact that i was in taipei only on weekends.

These are low floor and not WAb. further proof is needed to show they are WAB.

WAb buses
As mentioned Daewoo models with Scania Omnicity like fronts and the Chhiense makes.

Midi bus
mainly jaoense makes. of interest is Hyundai Country

Bodyworks of citybus (All local - except Ikarus)
most midi bus are improted from japan or Korea CBU with integral bodywork. so a Toyota Coaster like say will look like a singapore one. whereby ours is also CBU-integral imported.

Nevertheless the taiwanese are also known to copy many eurpoean and others designs. of note is the Scania omnicity muted fronts, the volgren setra like fronts on some buses and the very japense like Mithsubishi fronts .

Coaches (All local)
Many coaches feature european designs . even the rears some of them look like older Merc trevago, Some fronts look neoplan classic. others look like irizar. its copy copy copy.

Disclaimer - i did not ride any citybus . i only managed to shoot pics.

EDS- EDS was a horror story as usual. All EDS-ed buses had to be shot at 1.60 shutter. I was very glad to be seeing a palstic desto-ed bus coming down the road. lol

ZYX2005

8 Jun 09, 13:01

Bus Advertismeents

Like SSingapore buses, they have paste on ads and see through paste on ads. Msot buses adorns ads. From unvieristy colleges, to woning private propety in China to insuanrce to even PLAYBOY footwear.

Their ads however do not usually advertise sundry items. few electornic ads were seen.
Suffice to say their bus ads are also very nice to snap at.

ZYX2005

8 Jun 09, 13:03

because of my busy schedule, there are no photos today. we aplogise for that. STay tuned ehre for more pics of taiwan buses coming soon.

well it seems my usual website holdiing the pics have gone down. great...(reckon all my Hong Kong pics before r gone. apologies ) think i will try photobucket like most of the folks here...

ZYX

ZYX2005

9 Jun 09, 12:11

deelted post. test only.

ZYX2005

9 Jun 09, 12:55

Damshui Bus interhcnage

Located far from taipei City (Drive 1 hour because peak jams / or if take MRT is 45 mins... and no there is no 3 section (screw it even 4 section t-- trunk bus to ehre from city, there may be some intercity coach svc but it shd be near the coach area which i din expplored. ))) is Damshui, a cutltual and torusit and historical area. Bustling with actitivty we come across the MRT station

Now we know Damshui is the end statiion along the red line so u shall expect to see many red-xx services here. also being a historical site for torusits. there are several torusit themed local mini buses to serve the many sighseeing areas here.

we now proceed over to the bus terminal or Interchnage sarea.

FS-927 (Hino LRK2JMB / local "aero-City" bodywork) on Zhinan Bus Svc Red-27 demonstrates that you do not need the wheel to hit the guiding bumps when parkking to achieve fast passenegr activity before reverse quickly and going off.

593-AC is a Hino ERK2JML with è±�æ¦®è»Šé«” bodywork. The bus is operating with Damshui BBus.

555-FG (Mitshubishi Fuso MK117JL (chassis close to our coach ones) in å•Ÿç« è»Šé«” bodywork) operating a special service. Bus belongs to Damshui bus company.

912-FE (hino ERK2JML - è±�æ¦®è»Šé«” bpdyworks) spotted at Damshui Bus Int doing red-39 under Damshui bus services. its other twin 911-FE does R-39 as well.

FJ-961 is some unknown Hino bus (thanks to the lsit i got they calim this FJ-961 is registered to a Rosa. what?)

Stay tuuned for part 2 (mini buses) and 3 (tram bus) of Damshui photo sets.

ZYX

ZYX2005

10 Jun 09, 15:24

Damshui (Part 2) - the minibuses

historical area damshhui has many tight streets crowded and bustling with shops and people. as such there are the need to run certain bus routes around the place of tight streets with minibuses. If those who ahd been to Otaru Hokkaido, you will understand the ourpose of thse minibuses.

Bus stop poles in taiwan have the bus route detials on them. they seldom paste them on billboards.

Same bus now on service. Service 6

FP-950 is a MMitshubishi BE-439F in your usual Rosa bodywork). It belongs to Zhi nan bus services and is seen here reversing out of the end on berth while some people jaywalk around the bus interchnage.

ZYX

ZYX2005

10 Jun 09, 15:32

Damshui (part 3) - The tram Bus
The name Damshui in chiense chracters stands for still or blend water depending on usage. The buses there however is not so blend or tasteless cause we have.

298-AD is a Hino ERK2JML in è±�æ¦®è»Šé«” bodywork dressed up as a tram ( Zhong Xiing bus). The bus ran on svc 836 that day. because the Damshui area has many historic sites and its a tourist area, we have one of these tram bus.

> notcie the red portion of EDS was suppsoed to coincide with svc no, a programming fault on this bus...

Fisherman's wharf is yet another toourist spot.

An LED screen that which shows when the next bus departs. and currently ads

rear + er.. nearside.

Offside . And what is the EDS showing?

its May 2009 and

"Merry X-mas" ? uuuhhh hallo? and i think the programming error on this EDS? stretch too wide and shifted left. lol

ZYX

ZYX2005

10 Jun 09, 15:40

Let's move away from taipei county and move around taiwan. We visit a town in Taiwan called LuDong

At first i expected nnot to get any pics of buses but seeing it was 930am near the locality train station , we had a tiny burst of traffic just in time for the bus enthusiast..
Lu Dong - Tai Nan

Hey I have no ideas what thhis thing is. Sure looks Fuji heavy indsutries to me. Anyways an attempt to get the EDS in and have the trees and people block me. =/

The ??? Bus in full nearside. EDS of course gone case.

Definitely a Jap bus

howa bout offside pic. wuahahha

ZYX

ZYX2005

10 Jun 09, 15:59

ok ok i see some of u are bored. moving back to taiPei County. hahah..hey a LED @...

Taiwan High Speed rail Shuttle (THSR Shuttle) > TaoYuan HSR Bus Int
Alright then. Most tours to taiwan offered by our dear tour agencies do include HSR rides. and that means bullet train ride. and what does a bbullet train station will have?

A bus interchnage. Nothing less from taiwan's efficient public transport system.

We vist The taoYuan HSR Bus Int

This is not run by THSR bus services but dah its a svc 705 run by U-Bus

Offside. I could not find any sources regards to this bus model. But research on the fellow look alikes in taipei city buses system show that this may be a
Daewoo BC211MA in æˆ�é�‹æ±½è»Š bodywork.
Now I will admit when i first set my eyes on the bus with its volgren like setra combi front, i was thinking a Daewoo bus. it sure soudned like one. can anyone confirm this?

Sign

Toyota Coaster? oon THSR Svc 17 run by the administration who runs the bullet trains..hahah
THSR

Very goodt they even have a coach for the THSR svcs. umm nnotice the yellow and black safety kerb paitining. i dig that. safety first

To be continued

ZYX

jayh272416

10 Jun 09, 18:00

nice pics and info

and the merry christmas pic, left is offisde. LOL.

Basiling

12 Jun 09, 22:50

New Hybrid Bus in Shenzhen

SMRT BUSES LuvER

13 Jun 09, 02:40

Originally posted by Basiling:

New Hybrid Bus in Shenzhen

I suspect that the new SMRT's Yutong demo may look like this..

Basiling

13 Jun 09, 10:25

Originally posted by SMRT BUSES LuvER:

I suspect that the new SMRT's Yutong demo may look like this..

The new bus is from WUZHOULONG, a company which like to copy other companies design........i can find the element of KingLong, Yutong bodywork from the hybrid bus

sgbuses

13 Jun 09, 10:50

Originally posted by ZYX2005:

Before we get on with pics of more taiwan Buses, i feel it is more apppropriate to lay out the background of TAIPEI buses. For buses operating elsewhere in tiawan, there was not much research done. apologies.

There's an interesting feature for Taipei Bus Guides - For individual route pages, they are not listed in linear form. The approximate map diagram of the route is drawn (similiar to the SMRT town/LTA CBD maps) marking the bus stop with a dot. One thing I noticed is that some route maps have branch stops, where the bus deivates from the main route.

SMRT BUSES LuvER

13 Jun 09, 20:58

Originally posted by Basiling:

The new bus is from WUZHOULONG, a company which like to copy other companies design........i can find the element of KingLong, Yutong bodywork from the hybrid bus

Oh ok. :)

TIB537B

13 Jun 09, 22:57

My Malaysia/Malacca trip from 6th to 13th June

@ JB Larkin