![]() The double decker buses were also better suited to GO Transit’s longer runs between stops. What Makes Double Decker Buses Good For GOįor GO Transit, double decker buses offered the additional capacity of articulated buses without the additional maintenance cost of a longer chassis and articulation joint. Since 2009, nearly 100 have been acquired by the fleet. Ottawa’s OC Transpo started testing similar buses in July 2006, and found they were effective on the agency’s suburban-to-downtown express services, where large crowds of passengers were taken for long distances. In the year 2000, the cities of Victoria and Kelowna imported buses from the United Kingdom as part of their regular transit service, operating through their downtowns and catering to locals and tourists alike. It would be the only bus of its kind in North America until the year 2000, when the Cities of Victoria, Kelowna and Ottawa, along with GO Transit, started to look seriously at double decker operation. The bus was later sold to Gray Line of Victoria, and then to Brampton Transit, where it was used in service. In 1986, the demonstrator was picked up by the City of Vancouver for use as a shuttle at Expo ‘86. In 1984, Leyland Olympian brought over a demonstrator for a trade show in Washington DC. Double Decker Buses Return to CanadaĮven though double decker buses were a rarity in North America, British transportation vehicle manufacturers were interested in cracking the marketplace. Double decker buses would occasionally be found in North American cities, but these were typically limited to special sight-seeing buses (occasionally using double decker buses retired from the United Kingdom). Although double-decker buses were used in the early days of bus transportation in New York City and Toronto, their use fell out of favour, as a standard for single-decker buses was established by General Motors, especially with its New Look. ![]() Double Decker buses can also be found in Asia (especially Hong Kong), Australia, New Zealand, and in the countries of South America. London is famous for its red Routemasters. For mass transit agencies in major cities offering frequent stops, the delays from this could be costly, but it was less of an issue for long distance commuter runs, where stops are fewer and farther between.ĭouble decker buses have long been in regular use in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe. Passengers could theoretically board or disembark from three sets of doors in an articulated bus, whereas passengers needed more time to pass through a double decker’s one or two sets of doors, and more time to navigate the stairway to get to and from their seats. Assuming there was enough clearance beneath bridges along the route, a double-decker bus could carry two bus loads of passengers for less than the price of two buses.Įven though articulated buses proved more likely to have maintenance problems, they had one key advantage over double decker buses: there were more doors. ![]() Double deckers do this by adding space on top. Articulated buses and trailers accomplish this by adding space at the back of the bus. This also reduces congestion on particularly busy routes. More passengers per driver means more revenues for costs incurred, and it enables transit agencies to serve more people while operating fewer vehicles. ![]() The longer or taller buses pack in more passengers per vehicle. Like articulated buses, or add-on trailers, double decker buses are a potential cost-savings measure for busy transit routes. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Double Decker Buses This changed in 2007, when GO Transit looked at double-decker buses as a means of increasing the passenger capacity of its major bus routes. GO Transit is well known for its double-decker passenger rail coaches, but for the first thirty-seven years of its bus operation (starting in 1970), GO Transit’s rubber tired vehicles were more conventional, single-level models.
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