Super Swoop Swap

Keep an eye out from today for Plymouth Citybus 91 which has received this experimental application of the swoops livery to see if its saves money. After issues with the swoops peeling off on a few of the earlier applications a new stronger glue has been used recently. This has indeed solved the peeling issues but the raised profile of the stripe has potentially increased the running cost of each bus as it becomes less aerodynamically efficient. In recent wind tunnel experiments performed as part of Go Ahead Groups recent partnership with Williams F1 team it was found that the raised profile of the swoop could in theory cost as much as £5 a day for each bus in extra fuel costs. It might not sound much but over the next couple of years over a hundred buses in the new livery could see a cost of over £500 per day – which adds up over a full year. By simply reversing the swoop the wind tunnel tests reduced this to less than £1 a day per vehicle which is quite a saving.

Of course these wind tunnel experiments may not work out in the real world so 91 will be tested against number 88 with both buses in use on the same duties each day to see if the savings can be achieved and also to see if the cost of reversing the swoops comes to more than the savings in which case then the current swoop application will remain in place.

©B George.

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