Takes 3-4 years to get any bus changes done from consultation to reality, unlike ourselves of yesteryear or other places of today. Anyway, just an enthusiast who writes about London Buses in his own way. Join in on this ride.
This post was supposed to be published a week back but due to complications I couldn't find the time to do so, but I've finally compiled, finished and proofread my post and here it is, it also explains my two week absence. Hope you enjoy reading this post, and stay tuned for possibly more!
Nobina 2056 (BD91713) ?
I took the chance to finally escape London which I wanted to escape for such a long time, but specifically to Europe, such as Rome which I've been before twice and got used to it's atmosphere, but this time instead of Rome or other places in Europe which I haven't visited except for the one I shall mention, I visited my aunt and my cousins up in Oslo (Norway).
I enjoyed having my last thoughts of staying in London and thinking 'good riddance', I had a Ryanair flight which was on-the-floor level cheap. Anyways, I easily got absorbed into the calm atmosphere of the place I lived in with my aunt which was roughly an hour off the city of Oslo by boat and bus, which is divided off by the sea, in the countrysides of Nesodden.
I enjoyed my stay, it was refreshing to take a break from London as much as I am a London bus enthusiast after all, as well as studying which takes off some pain to be relieved of.
Since you're a bus enthusiast, was there anything that remotely piqued your bus enthusiasm during your stay?
Showing the 3 of 6 platforms for the buses, and this is the specified order as usual.
Yes, I had four local routes, and those four were all the routes that serve Nesoddtangen pier which links you to the B10 boat which goes to Aker Brygge, the bottom edge of Oslo. Going back to those four bus routes, they're 560 565 570 & 575. Each parallel one another for a certain distance before being lonely. I'll introduce you to these routes.
As much as I don't like doing these sort of photos, I was in a rush and had to snap this one time occasion I only saw once
Nobina 2056 on the 6th platform, generally for 560 shorts to Skoklefall, is serving as a peak only 1631 to Fjellstrand via Hellvik
Special peak hours shown in blue, though having said that, there's also 1631/1632 which are technical duplicates of these routes in their own ways.
Anyways, all routes are allocated integral Volvo 8900LE's, and the daily routes have a individual frequency of every half hour or every hour. All four routes also arrive at Nesoddtangen at a similar time in order to coincide with the departure of the every 20/30 min B10 boat and all 4 bus routes leave once the B10 finished loading/unloading.
Did I forget to mention, these local routes in the 'countryside' are just Region routes (RuterRegion)? Oh, I also forgot Nobina is the operator to run these routes, they're kinda like our Go-Ahead London, decent when they want but are dominant.
Nobina also have a hold in the City, buses branded as RuterBy, of which I took 'By' as 'City'.
There are other operators, I can name NorgesBuss, netbuss.no and there was one other I forgot.
Nettbus.no 2021 (CV 58616) on Hammersborggata, whilst on 150 to Oslo Bussterminal
There are other examples of routes that run from the region which connect to the city, such as the above, which is presumably allocated Volvo B12BLE 8700LEs as the picture demonstrates, there's another route which caught my attention better, but wasn't able to take a photo of despite seeing it often, and it was the 160 from Rykkinn, allocated Citaros with the Low-Entry spec.
Left bus: UA29147
Right bus: GA10277
Here's a desperate shot taken in Oslo Bussterminal right before I boarded my coach to Oslo Torp (Sandefjord Lufthavn).
I didn't manage to catch the fleetnumber of the 8700LE to the left which as you can see must be charging on fuel, but to the right, and according to the registration, the Urbino 15 LE is a form of gas bus. As I stated earlier, the 150 is generally allocated 8700LEs itself, this scenario I can barely explain as I sometimes did see Urbino 15LE's on the route, which may come down to the typical odd working, that or it's partial allocation.
I didn't quite go around visiting places in Oslo just for holiday, it was just a form of relief from London. Having said that, the only times I did venture out to Oslo was the day I was leaving and for other purposes.
1289 (GA 10669) approaching the Lakkegata skole stop on Trondheimveien
Here, another [Compressed Natural] gas bus, this time in the form of an articulated MAN Lion City G. Looking up on the internet (of course) for research, the 31 was allocated articulated Citaro G's prior to this type.
Another route (30) which is also allocated MAN Lion City Gs of the Compressed Natural Gas nature as opposed to diesel, may have also been allocated Citaros but I haven't found enough proof to cover this statement. A third route, 32, however not allocated the CNG version, but rather, the diesel variant, has it's type stray on to either 30 or 31 (almost strictly CNG models). The CNG Lion City G's are interesting as they're on the ZF gearbox as opposed to the Voith diesels, though it's only my second time being on a CNG bus, the last time was almost a decade back, in Rome on my then local route 105.
1282 (GA 10676) at Rådhuset (Aker Brygge), with the opposite being a 30 towards Nydalen
I may have been on 30 and 31 (not 32), but only for short distances which were enjoyable and Oslo's own version of the crowded streets of London, it's even 'better' as there's annoying roadworks on the way to get from Rådhuset to Jernbanetorget (Oslo Sentralstasjon), typical of London from my experience. Having mentioned the 30, it's slightly more useful to me back then as compared to 54 (Tjuvholmen [practically Aker Brygge] to Kjelsås stasjon), as 54 turns off somewhere after Burgata (a falling-apart area which has market, where diversity meets), meanwhile the 30 hangs on for a bit on Trondheimveien and turns off at Heimdalsgata, the stop prior to Lakkegata skole which was where I used to go to for certain occasions. The 31 serves there along with express peak hour variant 31E and tram 17 which doesn't serve me purpose as it pops out of nowhere from Jernbanetorget (Oslo Sentralstasjon)..
3039 (DR 16325) at the Burgata stop alongside a 12 to Majorstuen
Compared to 30 and 31, the 54 has diesels, but Urbino 18s. Of course much like the 30-31-32 relationship, 54 has a relationship in terms of allocation, it's shared with 20, 34 and 37 which were all useless to me I'll just say now. These Urbino 18's should be of Euro 6 specification, at least the 20 has, that much I know.
1213 (GA 10645) at Rådhuset (for Aker Brygge)
Aside from the city which I was easily absorbed into and is smaller compared to Rome in terms of road layout, but is sturdier and has variable buildings in age and looks, and much newer compared to London which is typically jam packed and full of people, the part of Oslo I visited pretty much had limited access to regular vehicles, that or they wouldn't just visit some of the parts, as there's roadworks, there's also limited access on some roads as bus/tram-only. Having mentioned that, there's a motorway which directly links from Oslo to Sandefjord Lufthavn (Oslo Torp [Sandefjord] Airport), and there's also decently used ring roads around Oslo despite the low measurable usage in the narrow streets, unlike London of course.
I haven't mentioned what I think of my local route' buses, the Volvo B8RLE 8900LE integral tri-axles with the 350hp D8K engine and the ZF EcoLife 6AP1700B gearbox which provides for a beastly specification on beastly routes which either have the typical insanity of country lanes with hills to spice things up, I've only ever ridden my faraway locals (which I have to walk for ten or so minutes) 560 and 565, the latter having interesting hills and the former solely a country lane thrash route.
I have a video of this type on route 560 which can be seen below or on my YouTube channel (LondonBuses2).
Nobina 2044 BD91702 | Volvo B8RLE 8900LE | 560
I must admit I've never had the opportunity to record one with the usage of kickdown, but I've experienced it in school rush hours (the first week of our Easter, there was still school attendance there), and I must say that was a great one-time experience. This was on route 560 which is one bus more frequent than 565 per hour (560 is 2 bph, 565 3bph) and gets you to Nesoddtangen faster by 8 minutes. Going back to what I mentioned before, the reason I didn't have a chance to take 570/575 was that I didn't know their frequencies at the time and the road they serve close to us is devoid of life, whereas on 560/565, they serve a well used country lane.
All in all I did enjoy my change of pace, especially as I've not been on Lion City's in a long time and specifically not been on an articulated A23 model, and even better, not on the CNG variant with a ZF gearbox applied. I've also never been on any of the Urbino products by the Polish Solaris, and I'll praise that the Urbino 18 is a type that is for a calm route that requires that capacity, basically like a Polish ADL but a milestone better in quality than the actual ADL.
Last but not least, the buses which I never knew were what I know now, Volvo 8900 integrals with the B8RLE chassis and the D8K engine, at first I thought of the type as a Citaro C2 ripoff, then I came to know with the power of the internet that these were B8RLEs, I wouldn't have figured this out as I've not been on or saw clips of B8RLEs before, but now I know, and I know that they're beautiful and powerful beasts on wheels.
I hope I didn't bore you with an experience you probably won't know of or will face, but just to share my time with you in this post, that's it for this post, hope it was worth the read, and as always, enjoy yourselves!
If you want to stay for a bit longer, please do take the time to look at these extra bonus photos.
A B10 boat preparing to dock at this pier
Another 30, Nobina 1269 GA10669 at Heimdalsgata
Tram map at Lakkegata skole
Map of the suburban bus network south of Oslo with a vague reflection of who I am (I hope I don't regret this)
Rushed shot of 2043 (BD91701) about to leave on a 575 short to Flaskebekk
One time us Ticket that can be used like an Oyster
Nobina 2041 (BD91699) and it's driver chilling
Timetables of 31 and express variant 31E
Tram 160 heading to Grefsen St. at Lakkegata skole
Nobina 2042 (BD 91700) approaching Nesodden kirke.
Can barely make it out due to being blurred, GA10676 should be the reg, so should be 1276
A Solaris Urbino 12 diesel, at Jernbanetorget (Oslo Sentralstasjon).
Tram 160 on another day at a similar time, still towards Grefsen St.
Timetable of all 4 bus routes at Nesoddtangen
Tram 17 timetable at Lakkegata skole.
Barely readable timetable of the two routes I used at my closest stop
Elevations of stops 3, 4 & 5.
Elevation of stops 1, 2 & 3.
The rear of the one time use ticket
The rear of a Lion
Tram 133 on route 12 to Kjelsås stasjon, leaving Brugata.
No comments:
Post a Comment