Last Day Bombardier Jan 2001

[@paulchance3766]

I remember seeing them om a trip to dublin in 1989 and fell in love immediately 😍

[@timexironman100m]

Loved the sound of the detriot diesel in them...two stroke screamer...

[@ClassicTVMan1981X]

But my favorite is the Cummins L10 and Voith used in KC2 thru KC202 and KD146.

[@supafuckinmingster]

no u

[@charlotteclarke4665]

These lasted 20 years in daily service and I've heard of Volvos live for a similar lifespan, yet more modern stuff can barely last 10 years.

[@looneyirish007]

i thought DB uses buses for around 16/18 years before selling them on so to acquire new updated stock?

[@aidan1585]

due to emissions regulations they can't keep buses that were certified in the 1990's/early 2000's in the 2020's... black smoke pluming out of them.... it's not that the new ones aren't reliable, it's all this legislation that throws them out of public (Dublin Bus) use.

[@charlotteclarke4665]

@@aidan1585 They don't give off black smoke, I have had a few older coaches that have run completely healthily with no smoke. I used to often try and get an older 2006 B7R since it ran perfectly without fail but if I ended up with something else like the 2014 B11R it would not always work and twice it had to be completely failed before leaving the depot since it had a no-start condition. I have also heard from multiple automotive experts that buying new vehicles every few years is worse for the environment than keeping the same one well maintained. You could get 2008 - 2014 era buses from London that have been retrofitted to meet Euro 6 specifications that are just as good as a brand new bus for low budget operators like the B9TLs that are alleged to be Voith equipped, but it seems they are just destroying those to somehow let schoolkids "learn about recycling" on field trips. Hence the B9TL now being probably the worst offender for a ridiculously short lifespan right by the 11 year old Scanias. It is a shame there aren't any of these Bombardier around since it is rare to have a two stroke diesel on this side of the Atlantic, I have never seen anything in the UK, it is just Leyland, Gardner, AEC, Cummins and some early Volvos in museums and heritage collections that I have encountered, all four stroke engines and not a single two stroke.

[@aidan1585]

@@charlotteclarke4665 I don't know about you but I remember these buses being pretty smokey... blue/grey and very rarely blackish/dark grey smoke. You are partially right about "I have also heard from multiple automotive experts that buying new vehicles every few years is worse for the environment than keeping the same one well maintained." This is true with an older petrol car, let's say for instance an old 1.8 litre Ford Focus from like... 2002 let's say. But with diesels, it is not safe for the environment... actually, nevermind the environment, our lungs! You may not see the sooty smoke, which is better than it being visible, which is even worse; although, up until Euro 6, diesels were quite dangerous for our health, they may not have been that bad to the old' Ozone but their fumes were very very (very very very....) harmful to us. Since the introduction of Euro 6 for diesels (and petrols!) exhaust fumes have been reduced by a huge amount. Most of these new diesel buses (E400 MMC, Citaro etc...) are polluting about the same particulate matter (about 0.1%!! Literally nothing!) and NOx as Euro 6 diesel cars, which is great! 25/30 years ago, diesel buses and trucks were MUCH MUCH worse polluters than even the biggest of diesel cars with huge diesel V8's. I remember seeing them, horrendous, it turned everybody off diesel cars in general because of the very dirty image constantly sitting in our minds. If the NTA didn't take the Bombardiers or any other pre-Euro certified diesels off the roads (at least out of Dublin Buses' hands) on their own accord, the European Commission or some other organisation associated with the EU would have forced them to sooner or later...

[@steeviebops]

@@looneyirish007 It was as little as 12 years at one stage in the mid-2000s. The NTA have a 14 year rule now but it doesn't seem to be enforced, there's still 2006 AXs in the Dublin Bus fleet, and the 2008 Bus Éireann VWDs are still around as far as I know.