- Trailer bus based on Dodge truck
- A trailer bus at Odesa International Airport.
- A Hino Ranger trailer bus with a custom body.
A trailer bus is a trailer vehicle designed specifically for the transportation of passengers (a bus). Trailer buses typically comprise one of two forms:
Although semi-trailer buses are now typically obsolete and have been retired, full trailer buses attached to conventional buses remain in use in limited applications around the world, including as tourist vehicles.
An early trailer bus was designed in Amsterdam in the 1920s as bus designs got longer. As a solution to possible grounding hazards on humped bridges, three prototypes were built in 1924, but proved to be problematic, and later converted to rigid bodies in 1927. [1]
In 1930 Nairn Transport Company which ran 550 miles transport services from Damascus to Baghdad experimented with a trailer bus which was hauled by a Buick Roadster which had a very successful run motivated by this the company later built a customized double-decker trailer bus in 1934 which had carry capacity of 40 passengers divided in first class and normal class. The bus also had reclining seats, onboard kitchen and luggage capacity of approximately 700kgs. The trailer was hauled by a Marion-Herrington 6x6 tractor powered by a 188hp Hercules engine, which helped it cover the route in 24 hours. At that time, it was the longest bus ever made with a length of 80ft and weighed 26 tons, making it one of the first successful trailer bus. [2]
During World War II and in the immediate post-war years, trailer buses were turned to as a simple and economical way of providing bus transport to replace worn out conventional bus fleets. The semi-trailers were basic and uncomfortable, but each could carry more passengers than an ordinary single-decker bus, and nearly as many as a double-decker bus. In India BEST of Mumbai and BMTC of Bangalore had double-decker trailer buses in its fleet during the 1970s and 1980s. [3]
In Australia, 123 semi-trailer type buses were built from 1939. Large purchasers included Parramatta-Ryde Bus Service and Rover Coaches. [4] A 1947 semi-trailer coupled with an American-built 1943 White M3A1 tractor is preserved at the Sydney Bus Museum in Sydney. The Sydney exhibit was the last trailer bus used in NSW, withdrawn in 1977. [5]
Trailer buses were also used in Perth, Western Australia by several private bus companies from 1943 onwards, including Metro Buses (formerly Metropolitan Omnibus), Pioneer Omnibus and Scarborough Bus Services. The units were bodied by various different companies, including Boltons, Campbell & Mannix and Motor Body Builders, a subsidiary of Scarborough Bus Services. From 1958 onwards, many trailer buses passed to the state-owned Metropolitan Transport Trust as the private operators were bought by the Western Australian Government. A number were also purchased by the Western Australian Government Railways from 1945 to 1948, with the trailer bodies built by Fowler Constructions and Campbell & Mannix. [4]
In 1948, ten British-built [6] trailer buses saw service as staff canteens for London Transport (in country green livery) [7] with one passing to the Cobham Bus Museum in 1972.
A large order for 1,175 buses from the Dutch Railways for buses from Crossley included an order for 250 trailer buses, each to carry 52 seated and 28 standing passengers. [8] The tractor units were delivered as short Crossley DD42s, and these were matched in the Netherlands with DAF built trailer chassis fitted with bus bodies.
From 1967 to 1968 the Indian city of Mumbai had double-decker trailer buses with seating capacity of 100 passengers, run by Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport company. The city of Kolkata and Bengaluru also had such buses. [9]
In the late 1980s, a Mexican-built trailer bus was in test service in the Los Angeles / Orange County area of California. In the 1990s, Orange County Transportation Authority used it on two express routes. The trailer buses were known as Superbuses. [10]
Custom motor/trailer units manufactured by Orion Bus Industries were used from 1985 to 2012 on the Niagara Parks Commission People Mover route in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
In Greece trailer buses are still, often used for tours, usually in small villages. Trailer Buses are also used in some kids' attractions. [11]
As early as the mid-1940s, trailer buses began to quickly fall out of favor for a variety of factors: [12]
Trailer buses saw service until at least 1984 in South Africa, [13] possibly due to the rugged terrain in its remote areas, and the availability of specialist bus builders as opposed to truck dealers and basic body builders.
Trailer buses are still in service in Cuba, where they were introduced under the nickname of "camellos" ("camels", from the twin-humped shape of the trailers) during the Special Period after the fall of the Soviet Union. As of 2008 [update] , the trailer buses were being gradually retired from service in Havana, replaced by Chinese-made buses. [14] [15]
Nonetheless, the Munich transit authority ordered a batch of trailer buses from Solaris with deliveries starting in 2013. The buses were intended for service on the city's busiest routes. The advantages of such buses were the ability to attach or detach the trailer depending on demand, spaciousness and flexibility. [16]
Munich is experimenting with “bus trains” on heavily used routes as it electrifies its bus fleet. One design by MVG has solar panels on the roof and the trailer is made by Göppel. The interest is how much of the demand for electricity for interior systems can be supplied by the solar panels. Some are conversions of buses in their fleet. [17] [18]
A bus is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but less than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for charter purposes, or through private ownership. Although the average bus carries between 30 and 100 passengers, some buses have a capacity of up to 300 passengers. The most common type is the single-deck rigid bus, with double-decker and articulated buses carrying larger loads, and midibuses and minibuses carrying smaller loads. Coaches are used for longer-distance services. Many types of buses, such as city transit buses and inter-city coaches, charge a fare. Other types, such as elementary or secondary school buses or shuttle buses within a post-secondary education campus, are free. In many jurisdictions, bus drivers require a special large vehicle licence above and beyond a regular driving licence.
A semi-trailer truck, is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer attaches to the tractor with a type of hitch called a fifth wheel.
A coach is a type of bus built for longer-distance service, in contrast to transit buses that are typically used within a single metropolitan region. Often used for touring, intercity, and international bus service, coaches are also used for private charter for various purposes. Coaches are also related and fall under a specific category/type of RVs.
A trackless train — or tram, road train, land train, or parking lot train is a road-going articulated vehicle used for the transport of passengers, comprising a driving vehicle pulling one or more carriages connected by drawbar couplings, in the manner of a road-going railway train. Similar vehicles may be used for transport of freight or baggage for short distances, such as at a factory or airport. Often depending on use, land train may or may not be skeuomorphically styled to look like traditional, often steam trains.
Crossley Motors was an English motor vehicle manufacturer based in Manchester, England. It produced approximately 19,000 cars from 1904 until 1938, 5,500 buses from 1926 until 1958, and 21,000 goods and military vehicles from 1914 to 1945.
A trailer is an unpowered vehicle towed by a powered vehicle. It is commonly used for the transport of goods and materials.
A double-decker bus or double-deck bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. Double-deckers are primarily for commuter transport, but open-top models are used as sight-seeing buses for tourists, and there are coaches too for long-distance travel. They appear in many places around the world but are presently most commonly used as mass transport in cities of Britain and Ireland, in Hong Kong, and in Singapore.
An articulated bus, also referred to as a slinky bus, bendy bus, tandem bus, vestibule bus, stretch bus, or an accordion bus, is an articulated vehicle, typically a motor bus or trolleybus, used in public transportation. It is usually a single-decker, and comprises two or more rigid sections linked by a pivoting joint (articulation) enclosed by protective bellows inside and outside and a cover plate on the floor. This allows a longer legal length than rigid-bodied buses, and hence a higher passenger capacity (94–120), while still allowing the bus to maneuver adequately.
Metro Cammell Weymann Ltd. (MCW) was a British bus manufacturer and bus body builder based at Washwood Heath in Birmingham, England. MCW was established in 1932 by Metro-Cammell's bus bodybuilding division and Weymann Motor Bodies to produce bus bodies.
The Volvo Ailsa B55 was a front-engined double-decker bus chassis manufactured in Scotland by Ailsa, Volvo's British subsidiary in which it owned 75%, from 1974 until 1985.
An articulated vehicle is a vehicle which has a permanent or semi-permanent pivot joint in its construction, allowing it to turn more sharply. There are many kinds, from heavy equipment to buses, trams and trains. Steam locomotives were sometimes articulated so the driving wheels could pivot around corners.
A semi-trailer is a trailer without a front axle. The combination of a semi-trailer and a tractor truck is called a semi-trailer truck.
Charles H Roe was a Yorkshire coachbuilding company. It was for most of its life based at Crossgates Carriage Works, in Leeds.
Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is a state-owned road transport corporation in the Indian state of Kerala. It is one of the country's oldest state-run public bus transport services. The corporation is divided into three zones, and its headquarters is in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. Daily scheduled service has increased from 1,200,000 kilometres (750,000 mi) to 1,422,546 kilometres (883,929 mi), using 6,241 buses on 6,389 routes. The corporation transports an average of 3.145 million commuters per day.
The MAN Lion's City is a range of low-floor and low-entry public buses built by German truck and bus manufacturer MAN Truck & Bus since 1996 primarily for the European market, but is also available in chassis-only variants worldwide. The name Lion's City has been used since 2006, when MAN's public bus models which had been marketed separately were gathered into one range, when also most models received a facelift. The first models to be introduced were the 12-metre low-floor intercity bus NÜ xx3 (A20) in 1996, the 12-metre city bus NL xx3 (A21) in 1997 and the articulated NG xx3 (A23) in 1998. As with former MAN bus models the power-rating made up part of the model name, giving the NÜ-series buses with power-ratings of 260 and 310 hp model names NÜ 263 and NÜ 313 respectively. The main production sites are in Starachowice and Sady in Poland, but the models have also been built in Germany, Turkey and Malaysia. Initially most of the midibus variants were manufactured by Göppel Bus in Augsburg, later Nobitz.
A multi-axle bus is a bus or coach that has more than the conventional two axles, usually three, or more rarely, four. Extra axles are usually added for legal weight restriction reasons, or to accommodate different vehicle designs such as articulation, or rarely, to implement trailer buses.
The Leyland Tiger was a heavyweight half-cab single-decker bus and coach chassis built by Leyland Motors between 1927 and 1968, except the period of World War II.
A rigid bus is a vehicle used in public transportation services with a single, rigid chassis. A bus of this type is to be contrasted with an articulated or bi-articulated bus, which will have two or more rigid sections linked by a pivoting joint, also with a trailer bus, which is formed out of a bus bodied semi-trailer pulled by a conventional tractor unit.
A car carrier trailer, also known as a car-carrying trailer, car hauler, or auto transport trailer, is a type of trailer or semi-trailer designed to efficiently transport passenger vehicles via truck.
The AEC Bridgemaster was a front-engined low-height double-decker bus chassis manufactured by AEC.
The last "camello" is expected to go out of service in Havana on Sunday night.