Bus Fire - 20 August 2015

Barry Drive · August 21, 2015, 10:19:08 AM

ACTION Bus on fire at intersection of Clarey Cres & O'Neill St, Spence, blocking road. Please avoid area. Fire Brigade, police at scene.
— ACTPol_Traffic (@ACTPol_Traffic) August 20, 2015

Bus involved was 300.

No photos or news articles found on twitter or elsewhere, which suggests no one was onboard at the time.

So now it's time to start speculating as to whether it will be repaired or written off.

Go:

Bus 400 · August 21, 2015, 12:36:50 PM

Since it sat on the site for 6 odd hours. I'd say it is a write off. When Bus 110 (or whatever PR3 had the minor fire in Theodore). It was gone within an hour or 2 at the road was reopened quickly. But it would depend on what was damaged.

If only the bus had turned past the old Spence West Terminus.......

Barry Drive · August 21, 2015, 01:59:38 PM

It didn't. From all reports, the bus was towed away fairly promptly.

The clean up? That took a while.

Bus 503 · August 21, 2015, 06:58:49 PM

I think it will be repaired. The irises are green buses and they are not on the top priority list of withdrawing, and that would mean one easy access and aircon bus down.

Bus 400 · August 21, 2015, 08:58:18 PM

Quote from: Bus 503 on August 21, 2015, 06:58:49 PM
I think it will be repaired. The irises are green buses and they are not on the top priority list of withdrawing, and that would mean one easy access and aircon bus down.

Anyway, ACTION WILL NOT WITHDRAW MY IRISBUSES OR I WILL GET ANGRY AND SEND THEM AN ANGRY EMAIL!!!!!!! IRISES ARE 2nd ON MY FAVOURITE BUS LIST AND 300 IS ONE OF MY FAVOURITES!!

You might have to start a petition on change.org & send to Shane Ratttenbury.

Just think, it can be a donor bus for 19 other buses (although they might start withdrawing more if they start on one now), it can be used by ACT Police/Fire & Rescue/Ambulance Service/SES as a practice bus. With more & more buses being low floor, the rescue services will require to break up a low floor beyond recognition to evacuate "patients/victims."

King of Buses · August 22, 2015, 04:36:02 PM

300 is visible from Cohen St Bus Station if someone wishes to use their creepily long camera lenses to get a photo of the back of it...

The damage looks...bad. Just not sure if the view I had was deceiving...

The Love Guru · August 22, 2015, 08:53:29 PM

There are plenty of photos of it already. Unfortunately these can't be shared with the board as some members aren't mature enough to keep things under control.
The damage is mainly superficial and should be repairable if parts are available.

Bus 503 · August 22, 2015, 08:55:26 PM

Quote from: The Love Guru on August 22, 2015, 08:53:29 PM
There are plenty of photos of it already. Unfortunately these can't be shared with the board as some members aren't mature enough to keep things under control.
The damage is mainly superficial and should be repairable if parts are available.

Hmmmmmmmm, I think that could be me....

Quote from: Bus 400 on August 21, 2015, 08:58:18 PM
You might have to start a petition on change.org & send to Shane Ratttenbury.

Just think, it can be a donor bus for 19 other buses (although they might start withdrawing more if they start on one now), it can be used by ACT Police/Fire & Rescue/Ambulance Service/SES as a practice bus. With more & more buses being low floor, the rescue services will require to break up a low floor beyond recognition to evacuate "patients/victims."

It depends, these buses are still worth much money, so it would be worth keeping. I saw an iris up for sale a few weeks ago, (attachment attached) and it was worth a fair bit. But it has been up for sale for quite a while. Nobody wants to buy it.

Barry Drive · August 22, 2015, 09:41:50 PM

I was going to post something similar.

Just because someone is trying to sell one for $90K, that doesn't mean that's what their current book value is. I would assume it's much lower, maybe even half that.

The more important questions are what would it cost to repair, and are replacement parts available? There has been discussion in the past that the computers are particularly hard to source. That could be the killer.

Even if parts can be obtained, it still may not be repaired if it would cost more than its (notional) insured value.

Busfanatic101 · September 22, 2015, 05:22:03 PM

I noticed 300 has been withdrawn according to fleetwiki, do we know if it will be used for scrap or parts? I'm surprised they would let a low-floor bus go, but I guess the damage was more than what the bus was worth.

Buzz Killington · September 22, 2015, 08:17:05 PM

It has indeed been withdrawn.

Have a think about the logic of scrapping vs parts. One of those two options would result in the cash value of the salvage. The other would result in useful parts being used to maintain the other nineteen buses in the class, which could (based on the current fleet) be expected to remain in service for the next 10-15 years.