[extropy-chat] peak oil schmeak oil

[Alfio Puglisi]

On Sat, 18 Jun 2005, Mike Lorrey wrote:

>--- BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> News item from 10 February 2005
>>
>> Major Milestones Passed
>> The CUTE / ECTOS / STEP fleet has passed two important milestones:
>>     * Just before the end of last year, the total mileage of the 33
>> fuel cell buses amounted to 500.000 km.
>>     * By the middle of January, the vehicles had been running for
>> 40.000 hours since the beginning of operation.
>>
>> All participating cities - Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, London,
>> Luxembourg, Madrid, Perth, Porto, Reykjavik, Stockholm and Stuttgart
>> -
>> are very pleased about the progress of the three projects. Buses and
>> infrastructure continue to operate reliably.
>
>As I am likely the only member of this list who has worked for a bus
>company, I can categorically say that these numbers are TERRIBLE. In
>order for a bus to pay its way, it needs to operate at least 30,000
>passenger miles per week. These buses so far appear to be merely
>feel-good rolling photo-opportunities for politicians to point at.
>500km for 33 fuel cell buses? That is 15km each for last year. 40 hours
>of operation time?

Europeans use a dot to separate thousands. So those numbers are 500,000 km
and 40,000 hours in US notation.

Alfio