MAN A95 (Euro 6) – 3-Door Batch

Continued from Page 2

• Lower Deck
• Upper Deck
• Staircase
• Drivers’ Compartment
  • Collision Warning System
  • Anti Fatigue System
• Features In-Depth
  • Wheelchair Bay
  • PIDS
  • Door systems
  • USB Charging Ports
  • APCS​

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Issued faced during revenue service

The 3-Door MAN A95 has had its share of hiccups in the weeks after its debut.

See also: 3-Door MAN A95 bus launches

1. Third door

The third door of the 3-Door MAN A95 is a key design feature, with the LTA hoping that it would reduce dwell time at bus stops and encourage more passengers to move to the rear. Unfortunately, the third door has caused a fair share of problems on revenue service, resulting in buses being taken out of service.

Third door sensor issue

On the first day of revenue service (SG6283Z, 28 January 2021, Bus Service 83), the rearmost exit door appeared to be misconfigured, stopping whenever an alighting passenger triggered the proximity sensor. This safety feature should have been triggered only when the door is closing.

However, it is not clear if this configuration was intentionally designed to prevent alighting commuters from being struck in the head by the opening sliding third door arm.

SG6283Z was scheduled to perform four round trips of Service 83. However, the bus incurred significant delays during the third trip and was subsequently taken out of service when it arrived at Punggol.  The bus only returned to revenue service two days later, on 30 January 2021, with the door sensor issue resolved. The rear door opened fully even if passengers were in the range of the proximity sensor.

Several modifications were made to the third door area, as follows:

• Interior third door proximity sensor re-configured; to be disabled while the door is opening
• Repositioning of advisory stickers “Stand clear of doors”, “Please mind your head” and “No sitting / standing on steps”; shifted to the top right corner of the third door
• Additional foam padding wrapped around third door arm, with edge guards around cornered portions

All 3-Door MAN A95 buses that entered revenue service had no similar sensor issues with the rear door. Thus, it cannot be ascertained if this sensor issue was a design feature or a misconfiguration on this particular bus.

See also: Design modifications to MAN A95 (Euro 6) – 3-Door Batch Buses

Third door out of service

SG6298G and SG6299D were deployed on Service 119 on 7 February 2021. On the first day of service, the third door on SG6299D encountered intermittent issues. Boarding and alighting activities were then confined to the front and middle doors.

Misaligned third door

The third door has also been observed to be misaligned, as documented in this video.

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2. Entrance door

The 3-Door MAN A95 buses are the first production batch of MAN buses to feature electrically-actuated entrance doors for quieter operation. All previous MAN A22, A24 and A95 buses used pneumatically-actuated entrance doors. Electric doors were also used on SG4002G and SG5999Z, which were concept buses.

However, these electric doors have also caused problems, with several bus breakdowns attributed to a malfunction of the entrance door.

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3. Low ground clearance & rear overhang

The suspension ride height on the 3-Door MAN A95 (Euro 6) buses is also adjusted lower than that of other MAN A95 buses. While the reduced ground clearance aids boarding and alighting (especially with the third door), the feature also exacerbates ground strikes due to the reduced approach and departure angles, especially over humps.

The long rear overhang is also at risk of kerb strikes should buses execute sharp turns close to the kerb (e.g. turning out of bus stops). This has been observed to cause problems for the third door should the rear panel get dislodged, which interferes with the movement path of the third door.

 

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A post shared by A Transport Economist (@sg5131k)

To mitigate this issue, in mid-February 2021, some buses have been observed to have a kneeling feature that lowers the suspension at bus stops, and returns it to the normal height after all doors have closed.

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Photo Gallery

Video

Retrieved from Facebook: Eunice Chia-Lim

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Main Article:

• MAN A95

See Also:

• MAN A95 – Lion’s City DD (3-Door) Concept Bus | Land Transport Guru
• 100 Three-door Double-Decker Buses Procured by LTA | Land Transport Guru
• MAN Lion’s City SD – 3-door Concept Bus | Land Transport Guru – MAN A22 low-floor chassis modified as a three-door bus, with alighting steps at the rear

External Links & References:

• Road Traffic (Motor Vehicles, Construction and Use) (Exemption for 3-door Omnibus) Order 2019
• LTA | News Room | News Releases | LTA Awards Contract for 100 Three-Door Buses to Two Tenderers (Accessed 25 Nov 2020)
• LTA to Deploy Three-Door Double-Deck Buses from 2021 – Land Transport Authority (Accessed 11 Jan 2021)
• Land Transport Authority Facebook Post (Accessed 11 Jan 2021)
• 三门双层巴士本月底起陆续开始在公路上载客 – Zaobao (Accessed 11 Jan 2021)

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Page Directory

Page 1:

• Background
• Technical Specifications
• Design Features & Challenges
• Bus Fleet & Deployments
• Exterior write-up

Page 2:

• Lower Deck
• Upper Deck
• Staircase
• Drivers’ Compartment
  • Collision Warning System
  • Anti Fatigue System
• Features In-Depth
  • Wheelchair Bay
  • PIDS
  • Door systems
  • USB Charging Ports
  • APCS

Page 3:

• Issued faced during revenue service
  • Third door issues
  • Entrance door issues
  • Low ground clearance & rear overhang
• Gallery