Everything about Midibus totally explained
A
midibus is a classification of single decker buses which are identified as neither being
minibuses or
full size buses, and can be anywhere between 8m (26 ft.) and 11m (35 ft.) long. While used in many parts of the world, the midibus is perhaps most common in the
UK where operators have found them more
economical, and to have a sufficient number of seats compared to full size single-decker buses.
Midibuses are often
designed to be light weight to save on
fuel (eg. smaller wheels than on larger buses), making them not as durable as heavier 'full size' buses. Some midibuses, such as the
Scania OmniTown, are heavier and therefore more durable. An early unsuccessful attempt at a purpose built midibus was the
Bedford JJL.
Recently
Europe has seen the introduction of the
Alexander Dennis Enviro 300 and
VDL SB200, both predominantly aimed at the UK market which while being full size buses (in the fact that they're about 12m long) are related to midibuses in being light weight. These have been dubbed Super-Midibuses or Maxibuses by some people.
US designation
The term midibus wasn't used commonly in the US. US transit markets simply don't use these smaller and lighter-duty buses except in some specialized uses. San Francisco, for example, has some buses much smaller than its regular Orion transit buses for the routes that include some of the steeper and curvier hills. However, midibuses are simply not used in transit roles in the US as they're in Europe.
In charter / tour roles, there was indeed a gap between a minibus (12-28 seats) and a touring coach (47-50 seats). Several shuttle bus companies such as
Goshen and Crystal have manufactured rear-engined vehicles that has 30-35 seats, but no generic term was ever applied to them. They are usually lumped together with their smaller "minibus" brethrens and called "minibus", or "shuttle bus". The only other alternative was to import a "short" (two-axle) version of European touring coaches, known often as "baby coaches" of about 30 ft long and holds about 30-32 seats.
In early 2000s
ABC Companies
did introduce a "mid-sized coach", the M1000 series, which is based on
Freightliner large truck frame. Compared to regular touring coaches, this mid-sized coach is about half the price (150k USD vs. 300k USD), but offers no luggage space under the cabin (any luggage space must be carved out of the main cabin) and maximum of 40 seats (w/o any luggage). It is also front-engined, making it somewhat noisier than rear-engined vehicles. However, it's based on a reliable chasis, and thus reliability is excellent.
Other manufacturers such as Goshen and Crystal introduced similar vehicles based on other large truck frames, including
GMC.
Makes of midibus
Related buses
Alexander Dennis Enviro 300
VDL SB200Further Information
Get more info on 'Midibus'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://midibus.totallyexplained.com">Midibus Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
