68-742: The Volvo B7TL is a low-floor double-decker bus chassis which was launched in 1999 and replaced the 2-axle version of the Volvo Olympian (its 3-axle version was replaced by the Volvo Super Olympian ). It was built as the British bus operators seemed hesitant to purchase the B7L double decker with a long rear overhang (although some have since entered service in Glasgow , Scotland as 12 m long double deckers). The B7TL chassis
136-409: A hydraulic or pneumatic 'kneeling device', which can be used when the bus is not in motion, tilting it or lowering it at the front axle even further, often down to normal curb height. Depending on how close to the curb the bus is parked and wheelchair design, this can allow wheelchair users to board unaided. Though such technology has been available and in use on high-floor buses since the 1970s, it
204-597: A fleet of Wright Streetlite buses fitted with free WiFi, e-leather seats and USB charging ports. Sapphire branded buses were also previously used on routes 101 in 2014 and 700 in 2017 in the Medway Towns but has since been discontinued on these services in 2022. Arriva Southern Counties operate branded buses on route 9 in Southend which operates between Rayleigh and Shoeburyness . The Optare Versa buses that operate this service are branded as "We're heading to
272-785: A high floor bus where the floor is flat in order to align with the high platforms in certain Bus Rapid Transit systems. Thereby, referring to it as a non-step high floor bus. The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) mandates the use of low-floor or low-entry buses on city bus routes in the Philippines since 2016. Low-floor buses are used on city bus networks in Metro Manila , Metro Cebu and Davao City , and on some provincial routes, and most Point-to-Point Bus services, although older coaches are still largely used for such services. Buses used on
340-651: A large number being purchased by most of the major bus groups such as FirstGroup and Arriva . Travel West Midlands , Travel Coventry and Travel Dundee , part of the National Express Group , purchased over 320 B7TLs from 2000 to 2006, a majority of these being built with Alexander ALX400 bodies, while 112 with Wright Eclipse Gemini bodies and 102 with Plaxton President bodies were also delivered. Translink of Northern Ireland also purchased over 150 B7TLs with Alexander ALX400 bodies for its Ulsterbus and Citybus operations between 2001 and 2006, with
408-464: A low-floor bus "no-step bus (ノーステップバス)". At Enshu Railway Company in Hamamatsu Area, a low-floor bus is called "omnibus (オムニバス)", " cho-teisho bus (超低床バス; very low-floor bus)" and " cho-teisho omnibus (超低床オムニバス; very low-floor omnibus)". Japanese government calls a low-floor bus " cho-teisho non-step bus (超低床ノンステップバス; very low-floor non-step bus)". The term non-step bus may also refer to
476-492: A low-floor bus therefore requires careful design. Low floor configuration is also known to have poor side to side dead load distribution within the chassis due to the asymmetrical off-centre placement of driveline components - mainly engine and transmission. As a result, many of such buses require electronically controlled air suspension to compensate the lopsided configuration. Low-floor buses usually include an area without seating (or seating that folds up) next to at least one of
544-563: A low-floor design. A small number of higher capacity articulated low-floor buses are used to service the city's southern busways. In Sydney , routes may be operated by both high-floor buses and low-entry ones. Selected routes can be set aside specifically for low-entry buses which are considered to be wheelchair-accessible routes. A recent all-low-entry bus network is the Metrobus system. Arriva Medway Towns Arriva Southern Counties Limited , trading as Arriva Southern Counties ,
612-677: A mixture of local and interurban services across Kent and Essex , although operations in Colchester and Southend-on-Sea are localised to each town. In Southend, Arriva Southern Counties operate a local network of services covering Rayleigh , Hadleigh , Rochford and Shoeburyness and in Colchester, they operate a number of local services around the town. In Kent, operations from the company's depots in Northfleet , Gillingham , Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells combine to create
680-724: A network across the northern and western areas of the county. Services are centred in the towns of Dartford , Gravesend , Chatham , Maidstone, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells and also extend to Tenterden , Hawkhurst , Sevenoaks , Orpington , Sittingbourne and Sheerness-on-Sea . The company also operates a small number of branded interurban services. Arriva Southern Counties currently operate Sapphire branded buses in Kent Thameside on routes 480, 490 and 491 which link Temple Hill , Dartford , Bluewater, Greenhithe , Swanscombe , Northfleet , Gravesend , or Valley Drive and Riverview Park . These services are operated using
748-441: A partial low floor may also be referred to as a low-entry bus or seldom a flat-floor bus in some locations. Low floor refers to a bus deck that is accessible from the sidewalk with only a single step with a small height difference, caused solely by the difference between the bus deck and sidewalk. This is distinct from high-floor , a bus deck design that requires climbing one or more steps (now known as step entrance) to access
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#1732786956069816-413: A smaller low floor area with a small underfloor bin for some luggage. Whilst these buses do not provide a full amount of luggage space, they can be used to house more luggage than what can be held inside the bus itself. Another drawback is the arrangement means the section of the bus that is at curb height is very short—consisting of enough space to house the wheelchair area and then rising up, to accommodate
884-785: Is a bus operator in Kent , Essex , Hemel Hempstead , and Watford in England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus . In November 1986, the National Bus Company sold Maidstone & District in a management buyout to Einkorn Limited. In June 1988, New Enterprise Coaches of Tonbridge was purchased, followed in December 1991 by four buses and their associated Kent County Council services from Shearings , and in June 1992 Boro'line Maidstone . In 1990, British Bus purchased
952-669: Is a very low or non-existent availability of high-floor electric buses. The majority of standard and truncated vehicles were and are the Caio Millennium and Millennium BRT "toco" models, on Mercedes-Benz O500U, Scania K270 and K310, Volvo B7RLE and B290RLE and Volkswagen 17.240 and 17.260 chassis. For articulated vehicles, Caio Mondego HA and Millennium BRT vehicles with Mercedes-Benz O500UA and O500UDA chassis were and are used. The Biarticulates were made with Caio TopBus PB and Millennium BRT TopBus bodies on Volvo B360S and B9Salf chassis. In Brisbane , all Translink buses are of
1020-495: Is of significant utility on low-floor vehicles only where it enables less-mobile passengers to board and leave the vehicle without help from others. Many vehicles are also equipped with wheel-chair lifts, or ramps which, when combined with a low floor, can provide a nearly level entry. An implementation of the low floor design exists in Australia where custom coaches make a "hybrid" variant of its CB60 bodywork. These buses combine
1088-508: Is once again owned by Arriva, albeit not under the control of Arriva Southern Counties. In October 2009, the Horsham depot and routes were sold to Metrobus with 19 buses. In March 2015, Network Colchester and Network Harlow operations were taken over from Tellings-Golden Miller , who at the time was an Arriva subsidiary. Both operation companies were rebranded Arriva Colchester and Arriva Harlow respectively. The Medway Towns network
1156-466: Is one of the first cities in India that introduced Low Floor buses. The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, BMTC operates many services using the premium Volvo 8400LE Low-floor buses. These buses are air-conditioned, and offer features such as automatic transmission, kneeling and wheel-chair ramp, typical of modern city buses. They are also fitted with LED display boards as well as ITS to announce
1224-643: Is to allow better placement for the powertrain and other technical equipment in the raised floor section, in addition to allowing a more comfortable ride on rough roads. Some manufacturers use the initials LF or L in their model designations for fully low-floor models (or in the case of German manufacturers, NF or N , based on the German word Niederflur , which means low floor), and in North America buses that are partially low-floor are often also designated LF. In some countries, LE , short for Low Entry ,
1292-403: Is used by some manufacturers in their model designations for low-entry buses. Most bus manufacturers achieve a low floor height by making rear-engined rear-wheel drive buses with independent front suspension , so that no axle is needed to pass under the floor of the front part of passenger compartment, or a lowered front axle. Some full low-floor buses also have a lowered rear axle, while
1360-623: The Cranleigh , Guildford and Woking based operations of Alder Valley followed in 1993 by Colchester Borough Transport and Southend Transport . In April 1995, Einkorn was sold to British Bus, which had purchased Kentish Bus in July 1994 and Londonlinks in 1988. In August 1995, Einkorn was renamed Invictaway . Invictaway was previously the name of the Maidstone & District commuter services to London, which were renamed Green Line at
1428-725: The Den Oudsten B85/B86 [ nl ] . Other competitors followed suit, with the Orion VI (1995), Nova Bus LF Series (1996, also derived from the Den Oudsten B85), Gillig Low Floor (1997, derived from a shuttle bus design for the Hertz rental car agency), and Neoplan AN440L (1990/94/99). By 2008, most new bus orders in the United States were for low-floor buses. In the capital of this country,
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#17327869560691496-871: The EDSA Busway are usually equipped with 1-2 doors on the left side for boarding at the median stations, although not all units currently have them installed. Low-floor buses often use upholstered coach-style seating in a 2-3, or 2-2 configuration, although plastic seats may be found in some buses. Low-floor wheelchair-accessible buses were first introduced in Singapore in 2006 with 150 Volvo B9TL CDGE buses procured by SBS Transit . These buses were registered SBS7300P - SBS7499A. Volvo B9TL CDGE buses were fully retired in 2023. In 2007, SBS Transit procured 1101 units of low-entry Scania K230UB buses bodied by Gemilang Coachworks of Senai , Malaysia . Afterwards, all new city buses procured by SBS Transit, SMRT Buses and
1564-591: The Eurostar at Ebbsfleet International railway station, and Eurostar passengers are permitted free travel on the service. On 11 February 2008, Arriva began trialling their mobile "m-ticket" system on the Fastrack network before rolling the system out on all Southern Counties services. Go-Ahead London started operating the Fastrack network from 10 November 2024 which will introduce electric buses by April 2025. The locations of Arriva Southern Counties' depots and
1632-657: The Guildford depot closed and operations in Surrey ceased. On that date, 6 routes were taken by Stagecoach South , with routes 36/37 being replaced by a new route 6 and an extension to the existing Route 1. Route A was withdrawn without replacement from 14 November 2021. The depot was leased to Stagecoach South. On 10 November 2024, Go-Ahead London took over the Fastrack routes which will introduce brand new Irizar ie trams by April 2025. Arriva Southern Counties operate
1700-564: The Land Transport Authority are low-floor. Low-floor buses are first adopted in Germany in 1989, and to make them easier to use for wheelchairs and strollers, the minimum ground clearance of the entire vehicle is lowered and the floor is proportionately raised by 30 centimetres (12 in) above the road surface. The Dennis Dart SLF (Super Low Floor) marked the wholesale introduction of single-deck low floor buses in
1768-474: The Optare Alero and Hino Poncho . Accessibility was previously achieved in paratransit type applications, which use small vehicles with the fitment of special lifts. The inception of small low-floor buses has allowed the development of several accessible demand-responsive transport schemes using standard 'off-the-shelf' buses. A disadvantage of the low floor is accommodating the bus's own wheels. With
1836-537: The radiator was mounted on the right side of the engine compartment. It was equipped with Volvo D7C engine and ZF or Voith gearbox. The B7TL was initially available with Alexander ALX400 and Plaxton President bodywork, later followed by East Lancs Vyking and Myllennium Vyking bodies, and also the Wright Eclipse Gemini . The Volvo B7TL was highly popular in the United Kingdom, with
1904-623: The AC volvo bus and MW series are served by the Tata Marcopolo buses operated by WBSTC. AC Marcopolo buses serve the MH series route operated by WBHIDCO and the MB series route operated by BHBL. Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC) also run AC Volvo Bus & Ashok Leylan JanBus. In Japan , a low-floor bus is called "non-step bus (ノンステップバス)". Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation used to calling
1972-809: The Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, since 1997 the legislation governs that all buses of lines of "national" jurisdiction (bus lines that circulate within the capital district and/or cross from here to the suburbs). The first low-floor bus produced in Argentina and marketed in this country was the El Detalle OA105, and the first low-floor bus imported by Argentina was the Marcopolo Torino GV Low-Entry brought from Brazil in 1998. Within Paraguay's public transit system, it
2040-507: The Grays area, partially replacing them by extending route 5 from Southend-on-Sea . Routes 44 and 150, the remaining services in the Grays area, are operated under contract to Thurrock Council . The buses used for these routes were transferred to Southend. As at September 2014, Dartford garage operated London routes 160 , 428 , 492 , B12 , B13 and B15 . Grays garage operated London routes 66 , 346 , 370 , 375 and 499 . As part of
2108-495: The United Kingdom in 1995, after many small-scale demonstrator usages. Low floor buses were rapidly introduced on high-profile routes, notably becoming a requirement for London Buses contracts. The Optare Solo introduced in 1997 marked another step change with inroads into smaller usages traditionally served by minibuses . The final phase came with low floor double-deckers the Dennis Trident 2 and Volvo B7TL entering
Volvo B7TL - Misplaced Pages Continue
2176-898: The WBSTC. These buses connects places like the Kolkata Airport , Barasat (Capital Town of North Suburb), New Town , Salt Lake , Howrah , Santragachi (a station on the Howrah-Kharagpur railway line), Kudghat and Tollygunge . The road network in Kolkata is vast. Under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, air conditioned buses have been included as a part of travel comfort to commuters. Air-conditioned buses are operated by West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation (WBSTC) directly & through outsourcing. These buses are served by Tata Marcopolo Buses and Volvo Low Floor Buses. The V Series and VS series bus routes are served by
2244-648: The beach" . Arriva Southern Counties currently operate the Colchester park & ride service under contract to Essex County Council . The service operates in a loop between the Park & Ride site next to the A12, Colchester City Centre and Colchester Station . Until February 2022, Arriva Southern Counties operated the Maidstone park & ride under contract to Maidstone Borough Council . The service linked Maidstone Town Centre with two park & ride sites, one on London Road and one on Willington Street. The service
2312-542: The city center. Low-floor buses have become popular on the Structural and Regional Articulation lines, and have been a mandatory model to be purchased for these since 2015. Until then, exceptions for local lines with low-floor buses were rare, but this has been changing since 2019 and especially since 2023. In 2023, the city banned the purchase of new diesel buses. With the mandatory use of electric buses, new buses on local lines are also being made with low floors, as there
2380-558: The company also controls Arriva Guildford & West Surrey, Arriva West Sussex, and Arriva Southend. The Croydon and North Surrey subsidiary was largely transferred to Arriva London . In 2001, the Crawley depot and operations were sold to Metrobus and the depot in Merstham was closed. In August 2004, Arriva Colchester was sold to Tellings-Golden Miller , although with the December 2007, sale of Tellings-Golden Miller, Colchester
2448-502: The conventional buses. A revamp plan is underway to improve bus-shelters in the city and to integrate GPS systems in DTC buses and bus stops so as to provide reliable information about bus arrivals. The Delhi Government decided to expedite this process and procured 6,600 low floor buses for the DTC before commonwealth games in 2010. Kolkata has an extensive network of government run buses. Recently air-conditioned buses have been introduced by
2516-596: The divisions which operate them are: Former depots of Arriva Southern Counties were: Dartford and Grays garages were the only Arriva Southern Counties depots which did not have commercial services and only handled services operated under contract to Transport for London with all buses painted in red Arriva livery. Commercial routes previously operated from Dartford depot before it became an all Transport for London depot were transferred to Northfleet. Grays depot switched to all Transport for London services after Arriva Southend withdrew both commercial routes 373 and 383 in
2584-445: The doors, where wheelchairs , walkers , strollers/prams, and where allowed even bicycles, can be parked. This is sometimes not the only purpose of this area, though, as many operators employ larger standee areas for high occupancy at peak times. Despite the space existing, operators may also insist that only one or two wheelchairs or pushchairs can be accommodated unfolded, due to space/safety concerns. Low floors can be complemented by
2652-923: The end of 2001. The last Volvo B7TLs entered service with First Glasgow with the Wright Eclipse Gemini bodywork in April 2007. Buses built on the B7TL chassis were also popular with Irish operators Dublin Bus purchasing 648 B7TLs built with Alexander ALX400 bodywork between 2000 and 2007, while Bus Éireann also purchased over twenty B7TLs with East Lancs Myllennium Vyking bodies for services in Cork between 2001 and 2004. 150 Volvo B7TLs with Marcopolo Viale bodywork were delivered to Metrobus of Johannesburg , South Africa in 2002, alongside an order for 50 Marcopolo bodied Volvo B7R single deck buses. These were
2720-459: The end of 2005, 10 years ahead of the national requirement. London was one of the first major cities in the world to have a fully accessible bus fleet. Due to the deregulated nature of the public transport system in the UK, adoption of the higher cost low floor buses was usually in conjunction with some sort of grant or quality partnership with a local authority , as the profitability of many routes
2788-446: The enforced sale of non-compliant existing vehicles, allowing operators to retain a high floor vehicle until "the end of their economic life". In reality, as the prevalence of low floor buses spreads, combined with grants/incentives, it is likely that the prevalence of high floor vehicles in the national fleet will markedly reduce before all buses were de-registered by 27 October 2014. In the past, in times of reduced economic investment, it
Volvo B7TL - Misplaced Pages Continue
2856-727: The first batch of 20 B7TLs delivered in 2001 marking the return of double-decker buses to Belfast for the first time since 1989. The chassis was especially popular in London , with a total of 2,014 Volvo B7TLs being built for London's bus operators , most being bodied with Alexander ALX400 , Plaxton President , East Lancs Vyking or Wright Eclipse Gemini bodywork. 790 B7TLs were built for Go-Ahead Group companies London General and London Central , while 378 for Arriva London , 308 for Metroline , 278 for First London and 148 for London United were also built. Transport for London noise regulations would put an end to B7TL orders in 2006, and
2924-464: The first low-floor buses to enter service in South Africa as part of a major company modernisation scheme. [REDACTED] Media related to Volvo B7TL at Wikimedia Commons Low-floor bus A low-floor bus is a bus or trolleybus that has no steps between the ground and the floor of the bus at one or more entrances, and low floor for part or all of the passenger cabin. A bus with
2992-747: The halts. The corporation also had tried Mercedes-Benz Low-Floor buses as well as Ashok Leyland ULE coaches, but chose to stick to the Volvo offering. In order to keep the bus ticket prices low, the BMTC operates the majority of their services using Non-Airconditioned Semi-Low Floor (SLF) buses that have a floor height of 650mm as against the 400mm floor height of the true Low-Floor buses. These buses are from Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors, with future procurements planned to be from Eicher (VECV). These cheaper alternative to low-floor buses do not have kneeling or wheel-chair accessible ramps, but they have air suspension and use
3060-401: The interior floor that is placed at a higher height. Being low-floor improves the accessibility of the bus for the public, particularly the elderly and people with disabilities , including those using wheelchairs and walkers . Almost all are rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout . Low-floor buses are generally divided into two major types: fully low-floor buses with a low floor throughout
3128-402: The lack of steps, studies have found the opposite effect in the UK. This is apparently due to the prevailing system of operation where passengers enter and exit through one single front door. It has been suggested that the previous 1980s/90s high floor step entrance buses which featured a centre rail, encouraged a bi-directional flow of entering and exiting passengers simultaneously. The removal of
3196-516: The length of the bus (more popular in Europe ), and low-entry buses with step-free access to only a part of the bus, most commonly between the front door and the middle door (more popular in North America). In North America, both types are commonly called low-floor, as the majority of the vehicle has a low floor, without steps at the doors. The main reason for choosing a low-entry configuration
3264-423: The low floor, the wheels protrude into the passenger cabin, and need to be contained in wheel pockets of waist height, and this occupies space which would otherwise be used for seating. To allow space for technical equipment, many low-floor buses have the seats mounted on podiums, making a small step up from the floor, while others are able to mount the seats directly to the floor, avoiding the step. Seating layout for
3332-698: The luggage bin. These buses also lack the ability to have a center door. Many bus rapid transit systems employ a level boarding by using high-floor buses stopping at "station" style bus stops. Specially raised sections of curb may also be used to achieve accessibility with lesser low floor models, although this is more expensive for the operator, and only attractive for regular busy scheduled routes. For infrequent routes or routes with hail and ride sections, or demand responsive transport , raised curbs would only be feasible in terminuses . Some transit agencies refused to order low-floor buses altogether, such as New Jersey Transit and MUNI owing to terrain conditions in
3400-547: The mass market, even though they were introduced after the Optare Spectra . London Buses was one of the earliest major users of low-floor buses, with the first low-floor single decker vehicles entering service in 1993 and the first low-floor double decker vehicles entering service in 1998. Following withdrawal of older, high-floor vehicles such as the AEC Routemaster , the bus fleet became fully accessible at
3468-436: The pole to allow wheelchair/buggy access created the situation where the quintessentially polite British bus passenger would wait for all passengers to alight before boarding, leading to an increase in dwell times . Moscow was the first city to introduce low floor as the compulsory requirement for the suppliers of the city buses. By 2005 a few hundreds of low-floor buses started intra-metropolitan service. At first, PAZ-3237
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#17327869560693536-535: The rear axle is not an issue on a low-entry bus. Many low-floor buses, including the Irisbus Citelis (also in Skoda 24Tr trolleybus version), have the engine in a vertical cabinet at the rear of the bus. Van Hool have a series of "side-engine mid-drive" buses that puts the engine off to one side of the cabin longitudinally between the first and the second axle, to maximize usable cabin space. The same concept
3604-506: The rear end of the bus. The same applies to trolley buses that are mostly of low-floor design. Other cities that use low-floor buses on the regular routes are Kazan , Sochi , Tyumen , Pskov and more. Most of these vehicles are domestically manufactured by LiAZ , GAZ , KAMAZ and Volgabus . In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act is credited with motivating the development of low-floor buses, directly affecting
3672-408: The regions to the center, or connect two large terminals of two regions passing through the center Regional Articulation, which connect distant neighborhoods to the center without passing through large terminals, or connect two distant neighborhoods passing through important regions. Locations/distributors, which connect neighborhoods to large terminals or stations. None of these lines pass through
3740-566: The same or better seats as those found in the Volvo buses. They also feature manual transmission as against automatic transmission With the introduction of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and the development of dedicated corridors for the service, bus service is set to improve. The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has started introducing air-conditioned buses and brand new low-floor buses (with floor height of 400 mm (15.75 in) and even higher on one third area as against 230 mm (9.06 in) available internationally) on city streets to replace
3808-615: The same time. In July 1996, British Bus was taken over by the Cowie Group . Invictaway was renamed Arriva Southern Counties in April 1998, and Arriva transferred London & Country (also owned by British Bus) to it. The subsidiary operating companies therefore became: Current operations in the South East area are: Many reorganisations of Arriva operations in South East England have followed since and today
3876-558: The same year, the first low floor bus specification was drafted by DPTAC. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 provided for the completion of the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations 2000, which specified that all new public service vehicles over 22 seats should be low floor from 31 December 2000, with smaller vehicles mandated from 1 January 2005. The 2000 regulations do not require retro-fitting of pre-existing vehicles or
3944-558: The service area. DART still has a preference for high floor buses. Although New York City Transit runs some 40-foot low-floors, it originally refused to order low-floor buses, namely D60LFs from New Flyer , after the D60HF, a high floor model, was discontinued mid-delivery. However, they have demonstrated both the D60LF and NovaBus LFSA, the latter of which they have decided to order. Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation Bangalore
4012-613: The standardized design of the Transbus Program , which concluded with the introduction of so-called 'interim' Advanced Design Buses with a lower floor height but which required lifts to board passengers in wheelchairs. The first low-floor (low-entry) buses to be delivered were the New Flyer Low Floor D40LF, to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1991. The New Flyer LF was derived from
4080-1151: The type was superseded in London by both the Volvo B9TL and the later Volvo B5LH . Smaller orders from operators outside London include Lothian Buses , who ordered a total of 132 B7TLs, the first seven being delivered with Plaxton President bodywork in 2000, followed by 125 more being delivered with Wright bodies between 2005 and 2006. Arriva UK Bus also ordered small quantities of B7TLs for its operations outside London, including 20 with Alexander ALX400 bodywork and 20 with Plaxton President bodywork for Arriva Yorkshire delivered between 2000 and 2001, 49 ALX400s for Arriva Medway Towns in 2004 as part of Operation Overdrive , and 30 ALX400s for Arriva Merseyside in 2006. East Yorkshire Motor Services ordered 36 B7TLs with Plaxton President bodywork from 2000 to 2003, six of these being delivered to their Manchester subsidiary Finglands Coachways , before later ordering 18 more B7TLs with Wright bodies from 2005 to 2006. Southern Vectis ordered seven Volvo B7TLs with Plaxton President bodywork at
4148-436: Was also utilized by Volvo on their B9S articulated chassis. For smaller buses, such as midibuses , the low-floor capability is achieved by placing the front wheels ahead of the entrance. One of the last types of buses to gain low-floor accessibility as standard was the minibus , where a similar front-wheel arrangement allows around 12 seats and a wheelchair space to be accommodated in very small low-floor minibuses , such as
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#17327869560694216-718: Was designed by the Leyland Product Developments consultancy based at the Leyland Technical Centre. It was initially built in Irvine, North Ayrshire , Scotland. In 2000, production was gradually transferred to Sweden. In mid-2004, production of the MkII version of the B7TL was started. Like the Olympian , the B7TL features a transversely-mounted rear engine and a shorter rear overhang , but
4284-408: Was not high enough to justify conversion based purely on increased revenue. It has been reported however that adoption of so-called Easy Access buses does have a positive effect of ridership and revenue levels. Under the Transport Act 1985 the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) (or commonly DiPTAC) was established to provide independent consultation on accessibility issues. In
4352-439: Was not uncommon for service buses to be used for 15 to 20 years. While some coaches have been produced with a small front low floor section at the driver's level, most coaches in the UK are being made accessible through the use of wheelchair lifts , with the 2005 Caetano Levante being one of the largest introductions. While another widely stated benefit of low floor buses is quicker boarding for able-bodied passengers due to
4420-404: Was not until 2012 that the first low-floor bus in the country were added to its fleet, being a 1999 Marcopolo Viale imported used from Argentina. In São Paulo, low-floor buses began to become popular in the 2000s with the creation of the so-called Sistema Interligado (Interconnected System, in English) which divided bus routes into so-called lines: Structural, which connect the large terminals of
4488-476: Was selected for the city centre, while LiAZ-5292 were chosen to serve city outskirts. Later the articulated version of the latter, specifically designed for Moscow, the LiAZ-6213 was introduced. In St.Petersburg the transition to low-floor-only city bus services was completed only by 2021. Besides LiAZ-5292 and LiAZ-6213 and other full low-floor models that account for 85% of the city buses, there are also semi low-floor buses in service, with elevated floor in
4556-470: Was upgraded in a £10 million investment marketed as Operation Overdrive . In April 2021, Arriva announced the Sheerness depot would close in July 2021, with routes 360, 361 and 367 being withdrawn and re-tendered by Kent County Council . All three routes transferred to Chalkwell Coaches on Monday 12 July 2021. On 31 October 2021, routes 306 and 308 from Northfleet depot were withdrawn. Both were taken over by Redroute Buses . On 18 December 2021,
4624-403: Was withdrawn in February 2022 due to reduced passenger numbers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic . Arriva Southern Counties operated the Fastrack busway scheme in the Thames Gateway area of Kent on behalf of Kent County Council , Prologis and Amazon . Arriva Southern Counties currently operated the following three Fastrack services: Since November 2007, Route B has connected with
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