Yes; ANOTHER gas bus fire!

[doggie015]

"Perth's fleet of gas-fuelled buses may have to be taken off the road if unexplained fires continue to threaten safety.

The warning from the Public Transport Authority comes after a Mercedes-Benz bus caught fire and was badly damaged as it was about to be refuelled at the Welshpool depot on Sunday night.

The bus is one of more than 500 in the Transperth fleet fuelled by compressed natural gas.

It was the third major fire on a gas-fuelled bus in the past four months - with a total damage bill of about $1.5 million - and one of at least 14 fires in the past five years."

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/br ... gas-fleet/

My question to you is: How many more of these will it take before the gas buses are actually pulled off the road?

[Zebedee]

My question to you is: How many more of these will it take before the gas buses are actually pulled off the road?

They've said that the gas powered buses aren't going to be withdrawn. I don't know how many of the entire Transperth fleet are gas powered but I would imagine it's a fairly significant number. Withdrawing all of them from service would create huge holes in the schedules and would stand to cause even more drama and chaos than the occasional one catching fire.

That's not to say they shouldn't do something about that issue - unless of course you count a bus catching fire as a good selling point. After all, we're coming into winter and bus passengers need to keep warm somehow!

I would imagine it'd be like a vehicle recall where they're all taken out of service progressively and upgraded. I heard something on the radio last night on the way home about extra fire suppression systems being fitted, didn't really pay much attention to the meat of the story though.

[Blinky]

They've said that the gas powered buses aren't going to be withdrawn..

The buses are withdrawing themselves one a month it seems.

It was mentioned on talkback radio this morning that if the drivers follwed their own hazzard risk matrix, the buses are now on the highest risk rating. Any other industry would be an immediate off the road order but that would create kaos for commuters.

No injuries sofar, shilby rite [-o<

[robbage]

According to my employer, I have the right to leave my place of work if I believe my health and/or safety are at risk. AFAIK that is straight from Worksafe. I wonder ....

[6stbase]

If this is the one I think it is, I've heard from various sources that this one was an electrical fire & had nothing to do with the previous fires. Apparently the engine was undamaged

[doggie015]

If this is the one I think it is, I've heard from various sources that this one was an electrical fire & had nothing to do with the previous fires. Apparently the engine was undamaged

Hopefully the fire was not caused by a design flaw in all of the gas buses... The last thing we need is MORE danger of spontaneous combustion!

[6stbase]

One of my sources has informed me, that the problem has been found and rectified. I'm not going to say anymore just yet... We'll wait and see if there are any more problems in the near future first.

[slipknot]

I was on the bus the other day and could smell a gas leak. Rang up Transperth and warned them. The bus was radioed and we pulled over.

When the driver couldn't smell a leak, off we went again, although she would periodicity check again for a leak along the way.

Probably wasnt the best idea to use my phone coming to think of it.........