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Arlington County Pulls Three ART CNG-Hybrid Buses Pending Safety, Accident Investigation

Turbo19

By Turbo19,
in Other Transit Systems

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Turbo19

Turbo19

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ARLINGTON, VA – This morning, an Arlington Transit (ART) CNG electric hybrid bus experienced a braking systems failure while in service on the northbound 45 line, resulting in a three-vehicle accident. The bus was proceeding on a moderate-to-sharp incline on North Barton Street when all its braking systems failed, causing the bus to drift backward into other vehicles.
 
The driver of one of the vehicles was transported to Virginia Hospital for observation as a precautionary measure. No passengers on the bus were injured. Arlington County Police investigators described the damage to the vehicles as minor.
 
Safety is our priority. At this time, the cause of these failures has not been determined; therefore, Arlington County has removed all three of our CNG electric hybrid buses from service pending a complete and thorough investigation of the incident and the vehicle.
 
A representative of the vehicle manufacturer, DesignLine, is onsite, and Arlington has requested that a detailed forensic analysis be conducted in cooperation with Arlington County and our ART operations and maintenance contractor, National Express, to determine the cause and possible remedies.
 
Read More: Source
 
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Orion VII 4 Life

Orion VII 4 Life

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Waiting for Orion VII 4 Life to comment on this. :P Besides that glad no one was killed in this accident. 

And I am HERE. Here they used that shit turbine system, so what did they expect? Designline needs to get their act together and understand that the turbine system is a royal POS if they want business. Can Designline ever get it right with their orders?

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DJ MC

DJ MC

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I hope DesignLine realizes there is a reason why LA Metro stored those gasoline-electric buses they got from NABI. Straight Diesel, CNG, or Hybrid will work a whole lot better then mixed options.

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Orion VII 4 Life

Orion VII 4 Life

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They need to stick to just straight Diesel, HEV and CNG

 

I hope DesignLine realizes there is a reason why LA Metro stored those gasoline-electric buses they got from NABI. Straight Diesel, CNG, or Hybrid will work a whole lot better then mixed options.

100% agreed. If they do, they might have some real potential.

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theaveragejoe

theaveragejoe

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I hope DesignLine realizes there is a reason why LA Metro stored those gasoline-electric buses they got from NABI. Straight Diesel, CNG, or Hybrid will work a whole lot better then mixed options.

 

 

Well BYD got that one

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Orion VII 4 Life

Orion VII 4 Life

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Well BYD got that one

Designline, New Flyer, and others are offering 100% electric buses too, in fact in the US BYD is a very small player in that field and I don't see them growing so fast. There shouldn't be a problem with Designline's electric bus since it doesn't use a turbine.

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theaveragejoe

theaveragejoe

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Designline, New Flyer, and others are offering 100% electric buses too, in fact in the US BYD is a very small player in that field and I don't see them growing so fast. There shouldn't be a problem with Designline's electric bus since it doesn't use a turbine.

 

 

LA is going with BYD though

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Turbo19

Turbo19

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Is it me, or did everyone seem to miss the fact this was an issue with the brakes, not with the turbine system itself.....

Actually it should be interesting to note that these particular Diesel/CNG Hybrid buses utilize a auxiliary power unit, which classifies them as Series Hybrids.

 

Regarding the brakes, there may be some correlation between them and the hybrid system as the bus also uses regenerative braking to power most internal components.

 

Either way, this accident allows more people to share their support (or not) for DesignLine.

 

Personally I'm still support them regardless of this news.

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Cait Sith

Cait Sith

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Is it me, or did everyone seem to miss the fact this was an issue with the brakes, not with the turbine system itself.....

That's worse... as folks on Subchat are saying NJT better be keeping a close eye on those cruisers.

 

Not like Nova, Orion, New Flyer and the others never had brake problems before.

 

Sent from the Sixth Circle of Hell.

 

 

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Turbo19

Turbo19

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Perhaps because (even though they got their problems) they're better buses than the Designline crap?

Unless this incident with the ART bus leads to the retirement of their Designline's that statement isn't all that true.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Turbo19

Turbo19

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rz-001_825x550-300x200.jpg
Three Arlington Transit (ART) buses returned to service today following an investigation stemming from an accident last month.

The county pulled all three of its electric-natural gas hybrid buses from service after one of them suffered an apparent brake failure and rolled backward down N. Barton Street, directly into a car.

A statement from ART reads: “These three buses were thoroughly tested at the Altoona Bus Testing and Research Center before delivery to ART. Braking performance of all three buses was recently retested in varying conditions – and proved excellent… The knowledge acquired from recent testing and data has been applied in a retraining program for ART operators, to insure that safety, mechanical and operational aspects meet our expectations for service quality.”

The hybrids are manufactured by DesignLine and first appeared on Arlington streets last September.

 

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