Sleeper bus will exit the river and lake luxury soft seat instead

I went to the wholesale market in Guangzhou to go from Xiamen in the evening and lay asleep in the car. I arrived early in the morning the next day. Nothing was lost. Ms. Chen, who is a clothing business, is the best long-distance sleeper bus. The way she traveled, however, maybe a few years later, she couldn't “ride” to Guangzhou by car, because long-distance sleeper buses would slowly “quit the rivers and lakes”.

41 people died in a sleeper accident

The long-distance sleeper bus "exit the rivers and lakes" is the policy cause. This is due to the provisions of Document No. 632 issued by the Ministry of Industry and Public Security. Prior to the revision of the safety technical standards for sleeper buses, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has suspended the application of the “Announcement” for new products of sleeper buses. Since March 1, this year, the production of related sleeper buses has been suspended. , Sales, public security agencies, and traffic management departments have suspended the registration of registration of sleeper buses.

The background for the introduction of the above policies is the “7.22” bus accident that killed 41 people last year. When the vehicle in question was a sleeper bus, the competent authorities considered that there were hidden safety hazards in the sleeper buses and they imposed multiple restrictions on them.

In the industry's opinion, the safety factor of a sleeper bus is indeed worse than that of a seat car: the sleeper cars are relatively high and there is no seat car; when a sleeper car is used, few passengers wear a seat belt when driving; There are all kinds of iron frames inside, and the narrow corridors are inconvenient to walk around. Once an emergency occurs, it is difficult for passengers to evacuate quickly.

The reporter learned from Xiamen Grand Dragon that the company had a total of 6 models of sleeper buses ranging from 12 meters to 13.7 meters in length. However, according to the relevant state regulations, production and sales have been officially suspended from March 1.

“According to the data from previous years, the proportion of sleeper buses in the total sales volume of Dajinlong Highway is not large. The annual sales volume is approximately between 400 and 500 vehicles,” said Qian Yongdong, a product planning engineer at Xiamen Grand Dragon.

Existing long-distance sleeper buses can still be on the road

However, the country currently only suspends the production, sale, and registration of sleeper buses. There is no restriction on long-distance sleeper buses traveling on the road. Therefore, the operating sleeper buses in the passenger transport market can only gradually disappear with the arrival of normal retirement years.

As a long-distance bus leading enterprise in Xiamen, Ludao Changyun currently owns about 110 long-distance sleeper buses and involves several interprovincial transportation lines. Mr. Liu, the assistant to the general manager of the company, said that the relevant policies issued by the relevant state departments have made them very tangled.

"The existence of long-distance sleeper buses certainly has its merits." Mr. Liu believes that if there is no demand for passengers, sleeper buses will not exist. After all, no matter how they say, the seats of the buses are certainly not as comfortable as sleepers. According to the requirements of the relevant departments, the newly added lines are now no longer on the sleeper buses.

Mr. Liu said that according to the regulations, there should be an update of two or thirty passenger buses for the company. The reporter learned that the current state stipulates that the retirement period for operating buses is 8 years, and the time required for compulsory retirement must be scrapped; the non-operating buses should be scrapped for 10 years. The long-distance sleeper buses of the Herons Island Express were recently updated in 2009 and 2010, with about 50 vehicles. In other words, the long-distance sleeper buses of the Ludao Changyun will retire from the stage of history at the latest in six or seven years.

Luxury seat may replace sleeper

Ms. Chen has already taken a seat on the sleeper bus as a clothing businessman who often rushes to Guangzhou and Xiamen. "If you are sitting in a car for about 10 hours, then it's hard to get involved." She believes that although there are sleepers in Guangzhou by train, the train is significantly slower than the car.

Considering that some long-distance passenger transport lines and passenger demand cultivated by sleeper buses still exist, Qian Yongdong said that at present, Daikin Dragon has taken active measures to develop a new type of luxury “generation sleeping car” based on the traditional road passenger car models. The vehicle uses a larger, more comfortable aviation seat with a larger backrest angle, which allows it to lie down and rest. The seat's tilt angle can be up to 140 degrees, enabling more spacious seat space for long-distance travel.

And people in the transport industry also believe that after the sleeper bus has faded, passenger transport companies will most likely introduce luxury soft seats, commercial seats, etc. to replace long-haul roads.