Kia Pregio

The Kia Pregio is a rear-wheel drive cabover van and minibus based on the Kia Bongo and manufactured by Kia from November 1995 to 2006. It replaced the previous Bongo-based van, sold as the "Besta" in most markets. At one point, it slotted between the Kia Carens and the larger, front-wheel drive Kia Carnival/Sedona. The long-wheelbase version was known as the Kia Pregio Grand. The Kia Pregio Grand is a best selling van in Latin American countries such as Colombia and Ecuador because of its high passenger capacity in its segment (16-19 passengers).
Overview.
The original Besta had been receiving a lot of complaints due to engine problems, so when a new minivan was developed utilizing the more modern technology of the updated Bongo J2, it was decided to give it a new name. Thus, the Pregio appeared in 1995, with the diesel engine of the Bongo J2. The original Pregio received updates in 1998, 2000, and 2002. From 1997 a 3.0 OHV diesel engine with was also available and in 2001 a 4-speed automatic transmission was added. For export markets, right-hand drive Pregios were built only in panel van form. The front suspension is independent with coil springs and double wishbones, while at the rear a live axle with elliptic leaf springs is found, to save space and to handle heavy loads. Disc brakes up front and drums at the rear were standard in Europe at least.
Late in its life, a intercooled turbodiesel engine of Mitsubishi origins (called TCi) was made available in European market Pregios. This unit could pass Euro III emissions standards for commercial vehicles and the van version could reach a top speed of . While earlier Kias had been using Mazda engineering, Hyundai's 1998 takeover meant that Mitsubishi parts found their way into Kia's vehicles. By late 2003 the Pregio underwent a thorough facelift.
In some markets, such as Brazil, the original Besta had developed a very good reputation and had redefined a minivan market where its only competition was the antediluvian (in production since 1950) Volkswagen Kombi. Thus the new Pregio was marketed as the "Kia Besta GS" in Brazil from August 1997. There was no need to change the name, even though "Besta" means "beast" in most Latin tongues, readily lending itself to jokes. The Besta not only dominated the minivan market; it was Brazil's highest selling import vehicle of all types from 1997 until 2001.
Facelift model.
A different looking Pregio debuted in late 2003, largely a facelift of the first model which could pass stricter European safety demands. It continued until its demise in 2006, due to dropping demand. The Pregio/Pregio Grand was dropped after the 2006 model year to make room for the more passenger-oriented, similarly-sized, short-wheelbase, front-wheel drive Kia Carnival/Sedona (originally the Carnival/Sedona was sold only in long-wheelbase). In South Korea, it was locally manufactured as the Kia Bongo III Coach.
In Indonesia, a locally manufactured coach van version of the Bongo III Coach replaced the Pregio; it was marketed as the Kia Travello.


Mafersa

Mafersa S.A. is a Brazilian manufacturer of passenger rail cars, buses and trolleybuses, and related components. It was founded in 1944 and was located in the city of São Paulo. At the end of 1997 it became a subsidiary of Alstom.
Most of its customers were in Brazil. However, export orders included, in 1990–92, 38 stainless-steel push-pull commuter rail cars for the Virginia Railway Express (10 control cars [cab-equipped trailers] and 28 trailers) and 256 metro-car bodyshells for the Chicago Transit Authority (as a subcontractor to Morrison-Knudsen). In the mid-1980s the company built more than 270 metro cars for Rio de Janeiro and more than 400 for São Paulo, and these were built under license from the Budd Company.
In addition to building new rail vehicles, Mafersa also carried out overhauls of existing rail cars.
In 1997, Mafersa was acquired by Alstom. A subsidiary of Alstom keeping the same name, Mafersa SA, continued producing rail vehicle components (such as wheels and axles), while manufacturing of rail cars also continued but now under the name, "Alstom Transporte do Brazil S.A." Alstom sold the technology and license of Mafersa SA to MWL Brasil Rodas & Eixos Ltda. in November 1999, and this company continued making rail-vehicle components, initially under the Mafersa name.
Buses.
Mafersa entered the field of bus manufacturing in 1985, with development of a bus chassis and a monocoque (or integral) trolleybus. Production of trolleybuses lasted only from 1986 until 1988 and was relatively small, totalling only 85 vehicles, of which 84 were two-axle vehicles and one was articulated. Between the start of production in 1985/86 and 1988 more than 600 diesel buses had been delivered to various cities.


Railway hotel

Railway hotel may refer to:


Dennis Dominator

The Dennis Dominator was Dennis's first rear-engined double-decker bus chassis, it was launched in 1977.
History.
Dennis had been absent from the bus manufacturing market since the last Lolines were produced in 1967. The Dominator was described as bespoke, with numerous options. To some extent it was considered a successor to the Daimler/Leyland Fleetline.
The Dominator was different from the Fleetline in that the radiator was located at the front instead of the offside of the engine compartment.
It was intended to be sold mainly with the Gardner 6LXB engine coupled up to a Voith DIWA transmission and a drop-centre rear axle, but hub-reduction rear axle and other engine options including the Rolls-Royce Eagle, the Cummins L10, the turbocharged Gardner 6LXCT and DAF engines were also available.
United Kingdom.
The largest British customer of the Dennis Dominator was South Yorkshire PTE, with a total of 323 buses being delivered to the company. These included one trolleybus which was built in 1985 for test and evaluation. Many had Rolls-Royce Eagle engines and hub-reduction axles. Most of the SYPTE vehicles received Alexander RH bodywork, these being delivered between 1981–1986, though some were bodied by East Lancs and Northern Counties.
The SYPTE Dominators were delivered in phases to replace Daimler Fleetlines, Leyland Atlanteans, Volvo Ailsa B55s, some of which dated to the early 1970s.
The final batch of Dominators delivered to Sheffield included 20 vehicles fitted with coach seats and were allocated to regionwide express services with the distinctive "Fastline" branding.
The high standard of engineering led to the last Dominators in South Yorkshire remaining in service in Doncaster until July 2006.
The Dominator also appealed to municipal operators such as Leicester City Transport who from 1977 bought 143, mainly with East Lancs bodies although seven had Marshall bodies, all of which were withdrawn from public service by 2005. It was also sold in reasonable numbers to Central Scottish from 1981 with Alexander low-height RL-type bodywork. Other notable Dominator users included Greater Manchester Transport/GM Buses all of which had Northern Counties bodywork, Warrington Borough Transport with East Lancs bodies Merseyside Transport with Willowbrook and Alexander RH bodies and London Transport who took three with Northern Counties bodywork for its new bus evaluation trails in the mid-1980s.
Production of the Dominator was less consistent after bus deregulation in 1986 with production being sporadic during the 1992–96 period. Eight were built in 1992; three in 1993; none in 1994 or 1995; and a final four built in 1996.
London Pride Sightseeing has been a considerable user for the second-hand Dennis Dominators. There are 24 Dennis Dominators, only 4 of them retained their normal mode for weather operations. These buses were withdrawn in 2005. Some were shifted to The Original Tour during the transition in 2001. #203 were shifted to Rome whereas #202 were scrapped. #200 and #201 were sold off to Norway.
Single-deck Dominators.
The Dominator was conceived as a competitor to the Daimler Fleetline and initially customers were generally those who had previously taken double-deck Fleetlines, however the largest component of the all-single deck Darlington Corporation fleet was the single-deck Fleetline SRG6, the rest of its parc in 1977 consisted of 1967 Daimler Roadliners, new Leyland Leopards and 1974 Seddon Pennine RU. So, in 1978, it ordered a single-deck version of the Dominator with an extended-wheelbase, designed for 11-metre coachwork, this was bodied by Marshall and the style, dual door with 46 seats, when exhibited on the Dennis stand at the 1978 Motor Show at the National Exhibition Centre was named Camair 80.
David Cox, then Engineering Director of Merseyside PTE, reviewed it under his alias Midlander for Buses. He commented that the design was nothing like as stylish, but probably cheaper to produce than the original Marshall Camair. He felt that the side-facing bench seats over the front wheel arches, with their deep footstools, gave a rather tunnel-like aspect, and offered his ideas on a tidier layout, but praised the principle of using the same chassis for double and single-deck applications. Darlington took a further nine in the following year. Dennis designated all ten of these SD103A. They were the only customer to place a repeat order (in 1981) for eight outwardly identical vehicles coded SD128A. Darlington's next purchase was to be the only batch of Ward Motors Dalesman GRXI in 1984.
The next customer was the borough of Hartlepool, a neighbouring fleet and another that was all single-deck, they chose East Lancashire Coachbuilders to body their six. Unlike Marshall, East Lancs did not build over the engine compartment, giving an effect reminiscent of Birmingham's single-deck Fleetlines and Great Yarmouth's single-deck Atlanteans, which had been bodied respectively in 1965 and 1967 by Marshall. With dual-doors the Hartlepool buses sat only 43. Hartlepool had never operated Fleetlines of any sort, and had reluctantly switched from Leyland-engined Bristol REs with dual-door Eastern Coach Works bodies to Leyland Nationals before these buses, their first since the 1950s with Gardner engines. They were later to take Leyland National 2s and Dennis Falcons.
A number of chief engineers working for operators in the North of England met regularly at the time at gatherings sponsored by the Traffic Commissioner, as well as Tyne & Wear PTE, United Automobile Services, Northern General Transport Company, Trimdon Motor Services, Cleveland Transit, Darlington and Hartlepool these included Barrow in Furness Borough Transport. They also were all-single deck at the time, but contemplating future double deck orders. So their numbers 18 and 19 carried similar bodies to the Hartlepool buses, but with only a front entry/exit door and 46 seats. These two batches shared the same SD115 type code, and chassis numbers for the two batches comprised a single series. Barrow had a batch of five East Lancs bodied single-deck Fleetlines delivered in 1971, which were 50 seaters with seating above the engine, but since those Barrow Borough Transport had switched to the locally-built Leyland National, it was problems with the Leyland 510 engines on these as well as standardisation with prospective double deckers that led to Barrow's purchase of Dominators. Barrow were to order double deckers in 1984, but these turned out to be Leyland Atlanteans.
The fourth customer was Merthyr Tydfil Transport, another all single-deck fleet, like Hartlepool, no Fleetlines were operated. The fleet consisted of East Lancs-bodied Leopards, Bristol REs with East Lancs and Eastern Coach Works bodies, Leyland Nationals and a batch of Metro-Scanias. Hartlepools single-deck Dominators had its first East Lancs bodies, Merthyr Tydfil's their first Marshall bodies. Their six (coded SD116) had single-door 50 seat Camair 80 coachwork. Like Hartlepool Leyland National 2s followed. Later in life, these buses were sold to the City of Chester, whose General Manager had previously worked at Darlington.
The penultimate customer took their single-deck Dominator, the sole SD130A, some months after the final new customer's batch was delivered but this was no surprise as the job involved was a lot more complex than a bus body. EBB846W was to the bespoke specification of the Tyne and Wear Metropolitan Fire Brigade and the vehicle was constructed by fire-appliance specialists Angloco, it was the fire brigade's number 319, and it was comprehensively fitted-out as a control and communications centre for major incidents. The body was low and angular, looking to be over the bus maximum width of 2.5m. It had two outward-opening doors on the nearside and a single 'passenger' window in mid wheelbase. It was liveried in fire-engine red, the grille was an unadorned mesh affair in an otherwise flat front, featuring a divided flat-glazed windscreen.
The final customer for the single-deck Dominator were a fleet who had Fleetlines, but only double-deckers, this was Swindon based Thamesdown Transport. A proportion of the fleet had to be single-deck because of railway bridges (like Darlington, Swindon was a town built on railways) and prior to 1980 the single deckers were five Weymann-bodied AEC Reliances, three Leyland Leopard PSU4 with Pennine Coachcraft bodies and five late-model coach-seated Eastern Coach Works Bodied Bristol RESL6G. Thamesdown's numbers 1-4 (FAM1-4W) were the only short-wheelbase single-deck Dominators, type SD132B, they had 40 coach seats in 10-metre single-door Marshall Camair 80 bodies. Unlike the other customers, Thamesdown later took substantial numbers of double-deck Dominators.
Only 37 single-deck Dominators were built, all but the show bus in 1979-81. None are known to survive. The Camair 80 body also went on four 1970 Fleetlines for Tayside, Strathclyde PTE's single deck Ailsa, a number of Dennis Falcons and in a unique demountable-body version on Dodge Commando, again for Strathclyde PTE.
G.G. Hillditch, who had been one of the inspirations behind the Dominator and, at the time as General Manager of Leicester City Transport, was the launch customer for the type, had earlier (when General Manager of the Halifax Corporation, Halifax Joint Committee and Todmorden Joint Committee fleets) been one of the customers requesting the SRG6 Fleetline single-decker, but when Leicester required further single deckers from 1980 instead of ordering the Dominator he commissioned the Dennis Falcon H.
Export orders.
The Dominator was also sold to Hong Kong. China Motor Bus put the first Dominator (with East Lancs body) into service in 1979, being followed by six with Alexander RL-type body in 1982, primarily for its route 15 (Central-The Peak). Kowloon Motor Bus bought 40 Duple Metsec bodied Dominators between 1983 and 1984.
One Dominator with East Lancs body and DAF engine was exported as demonstrator for Singapore Bus Service in 1982. It was shipped to Hong Kong after the trial and entered Kowloon Motor Bus' training fleet in 1986.
End of production.
After a production of 1007, the Dominator was replaced by the short-lived longitudinal-engined Dennis Arrow in 1996.
Dominator variants.
Dennis Falcon.
In 1980, Dennis developed the Falcon single-deck bus with longitudinally-mounted rear engine. The Falcon H variant had a horizontal Gardner engine with the Voith gearbox mounted ahead of the rear axle, the later Falcon HC had the Voith transmission mounted behind the rear axle and close-coupled to the Gardner engine. The Falcon V variant had vertical engines.
Dennis Dragon/Condor.
In 1982, a tri-axle version was developed for the Hong Kong market, known as the Dennis Dragon which was sold to Kowloon Motor Bus. The same model was sold to China Motor Bus, but was known as the Condor. They were usually bodied by Duple Metsec. Some were purchased by Stagecoach for its Kenyan and Malawi operations.
Some of these were repatriated to the UK through dealer Ensignbus. They are used for school runs and sightseeing since they have high-capacity.
Dennis Domino.
In 1984, Dennis introduced a midibus chassis which was a scaled down Dominator, it could be fitted with Perkins T6.354 and Avon Maxwell transmission.
It was only sold to two customers, Greater Manchester Transport and South Yorkshire Transport. The Dominos for Greater Manchester Transport were Northern Counties bodied, and South Yorkshire Transport ones were bodied by Optare.


Volkswagen LT

The Volkswagen Transporter LT was the largest light commercial panel van produced by Volkswagen (and subsequently Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles as of 1996) from 1975 to 2006. Two generations were produced.
1st generation Transporter LT ("Typ" 28/"Typ" 21).
History.
Volkswagen introduced the Volkswagen Type 2 in 1950 and developed light commercial vehicle versions for German and European markets. The name "Kombi" (the name under which the Type 2 was sold in Brazil) established itself as a concept term to describe an entire light commercial vehicle segment. The automaker introduced the revised Volkswagen Type 2 (T2) in 1967. Commercial customers were shipping heavier and larger-volume freight. The Volkswagen Type 2 platform was also limited by its rear-mounted engine design. A total of 471,221 series 1 LTs were produced between 1975 and 1996.
Design.
The new design specifications for a larger transporter as an additional series ranged from 2.8 tons gross vehicle weight to 3.5 tons. The layout was a conventional rear drive with the engine located above the front axle, in a forward control or 'cab over' design.
The new Volkswagen van was launched in 1975 in Berlin. The name given to Volkswagen's large transporter was as functional as the entire vehicle: it was just called LT, which is simply the abbreviation of "Lasten-Transporter" (that basically means "heavy load transporter" ot "cargo transporter").
The Transporter LT came in three gross vehicle weights, from 2.8 to 3.5 tons (LT 28, LT 31, LT 35), with two wheelbases, two roof options, and with bodywork options as a panel van, a compact, a platform vehicle, and a chassis cab combination.
The design featured a high ratio of utility space to footprint due to its forward control design and overall width of . The compact LT panel van (with a little over four and a half metres in length) offered an interior load length of over three metres and a load area of around 5.5 square metres.
Suspension/Axles.
The LT was equipped with a front axle with independent front wheel suspension. Later options, such as the heavy LT 40 to LT 55, had a solid front axle to achieve increased load-carrying capacity as is common for light trucks.
Facelifts.
The first facelift in 1983 changed mostly the interior, at the same time as the engine cover was changed and the turbo-diesel and inline-6 petrol engines were introduced. A redesigned dashboard was added and various other small things were changed. The undercarriage had an additional third wheelbase as an option for platform-type vehicles, at up to 4.6 metres in length.
Two years later, Volkswagen again increased the gross vehicle weight, with the 5.6 ton LT 55. It was available with a single-tyre rear axle, allowing for more space between rear wheel wells inside the cargo floor. An LT with four-wheel drive that could be enabled from within the cab was also available.
The next facelift in 1986 changed the round headlights to rectangular units, as well as other minor cosmetic retouches.
In Spring 1993, there was again a modest change in the look, with new grey-plastic elements introduced to the radiator grille and in the rear lighting section. The diesel engines were replaced with a more modern version of the same block. The DW (N/A diesel) was replaced by the ACT engine and the DV (turbo-diesel) engines were replaced by the intercooled ACL engine. Additionally, the engine cover was replaced with a new version, that had an opening in the front allowing to check the coolant without having to open the entire engine cover.
Campervan versions.
A touring camper in its various bodywork and fitting options was also produced. The vehicle's width allowed the possibility of beds arranged crosswise. Various Volkswagen-endorsed Westfalia campervan models were available for the LT, including the "Sven Hedin", and a later model, "Florida". The LT was also used by Karmann who produced over 3,000 Karmann LT Distance Wide coachbuilt motorhomes.
Truck cabs.
The "G Series" light truck was a joint venture between Volkswagen and MAN AG, with gross vehicle weights of between six and ten tons. It was built from 1979 until 1993.
Volkswagen's Brazilian plant at Resende has been constructing trucks with weights of between 7 and 35 tons. Even after the launch of the new Volkswagen Constellation in 2006, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has continued to manufacture vehicles incorporating cabs based on the first generation of the LT. The Volkswagen Titan has succeeded in winning the European Cup in the Super Truck Race. Its cab is similarly based on the first generation of the LT's cab.
Rebadging.
In the late eighties, German-built Volkswagen LT and MAN-VW G were sold in Spain as Pegaso Ekus, while Brazilian-built units were marketed in the US as Peterbilt Midrangers.
4x4.
A 4X4 version of the Transporter LT was also produced. Volkswagen had already prepared for this in 1983 with the cab facelift, which incorporated instrumentation lights for the front, centre, and rear differential locks.
Sülzer developed a 6-cylinder, primarily diesel-powered, 4x4 version of the long-wheelbase VW LT, of which 156 were built. These were either LT40 or LT45 (rated 4 or 4.5 tonne). Opposed to the normal LT40 & LT45, the 4x4s only had single wheels on the rear axle. The chassis is lifted, 26mm anti-roll bars are added to cope with body-roll and the axles are replaced. A propshaft driven, rod/shaft controlled transfer box was installed under the vehicle.
The transfer box was a New Process 208, which is propshaft-driven and cable-operated. The same transfer box can also be found in Chevrolet Blazers and Jeep Cherokees. The first six of the Sülzer vehicles are supposed to have had Dana axles. After that production was changed to use the Italian-built Clark-Hurth axles. All 4x4 LTs came as standard with rear and centre locking differentials, with optional front diff-lock also available (until it became standard fitment in 1991).
Due to the change of axles, the 4x4 LTs came with different wheels to the standard LTs. All 4x4 LTs have 6 stud tube type split-rims in 6.5J width. The standard tyre fitment on these wheels is 7.00x16 or 7.50x16.
In 1985 VW took over the production of the 4x4 LT and introduced the DW (2.4 inline-6 N/A diesel) and DV (2.4 inline-6 turbo-diesel) engines to the portfolio. They made another 1250 or so 4x4 LTs. The model portfolio covered only long-wheelbase vehicles. Tintop and hightop as LT40, pickup and double-cab as LT40 or LT45.
In 1991 the naturally aspirated diesel engine was dropped from the 4x4 program as it did not have enough power for the 4x4 drivetrain, with most 4x4 LTs being either the 90 bhp 6-cyl petrol or the 102 bhp 6-cyl D24T. From 1993 on, VW introduced the D24TIC with 95 bhp, but more torque, for the LT (and LT 4x4). At the same time the transfer box was upgraded to the New Process 241.
Steyr-Puch in Austria built the Noriker using VW LT underpinnings in competition with the Sülzer and VW LT 4x4s, but they only were produced in limited numbers.
De Vries also built three VW LT 4x4s on the same principle as Sülzer/VW, one of which was used in the Dakar Rally in 1983.
Out of 5 million Mk1 VW LTs built, only 1,250 featured four-wheel drive.
"Typ" codes.
The Volkswagen ""Typ" codes" for the first generation LT were:
The last first-generation LT was produced in 1996, which corresponds to a British 'P' registration plate. In 21 years, just under 500,000 vehicles were assembled.
Engines.
The petrol engine was a modified Audi 100 VW EA831 2.0 L inline four-cylinder. In 1976 Volkswagen wanted to make a sports coupe and had Porsche design one for them using parts from the VW/Audi group bin with front engine and rear-wheel drive. They did not go with the design as the rest of the range was switching to front-wheel drive i.e. Golf/Polo/Jetta so VW came up with another design (the Scirocco). Porsche then decided to build it anyway in a collaboration with VW culminating in the Porsche 924 running with an VW EA831 Audi 2 L engine with Bosch K-Jetronic injection which is the same basic engine that was in the 2 L petrol LT at the time albeit with a carburetor and a vastly uprated Porsche designed cylinder head. It was rated at 55 kilowatts (75 PS; 74 bhp) and achieved higher torque at lower engine RPMs.
An inline four-cylinder diesel engine by Perkins was available. The 48 kilowatts (65 PS; 64 bhp) 2.7 L diesel was included in the LT range from 1976 onwards.
The Perkins engine was replaced in 1978 with a six-cylinder variant of the Volkswagen Golf diesel. The original 1.6 L four-cylinder engine became the D24 2.4 L six-cylinder, delivering . This engine was also used in a number of Volvo passenger cars.
In December 1982, an upgrade to the LT was introduced. The six-cylinder diesel was available as a turbodiesel, the Volkswagen D24T engine, producing and of torque. In addition, the six-cylinder engine was now also available as a petrol engine. All engines were now mounted with a clear offset alignment that allowed for a flatter engine compartment, which was shifted further to the rear for more space for a third seat in the cab.
In 1992, an overhauled turbo-diesel engine with charge air cooler and was introduced - the Volkswagen D24TIC engine.
Early DV/ACL engine valves are mechanically shimmed; later versions were hydraulically auto-adjusted. The ACL had bigger injectors and the addition of the intercooler. The main block and bottom end remained identical. The head/valve adjusters/injectors/intake manifold and the turbo had variants plus a different sump for the oil to be pumped to the turbo.
Axles.
Turbodiesel axles are reinforced, have the transition to the cardan shaft further ahead, or a shorter shaft.
Axles for single tires cannot be installed in vehicles with twin tires and vice versa.
LT 1 4x4 axles are completely different and cannot be replaced by other LT axles.
A full list of code letter explanations is available on the German VW LT wiki
2nd generation Transporter LT ("Typ" 2D).
History.
In 1996, the joint venture of Volkswagen and Daimler's Mercedes-Benz Commercial introduced the second generation Transporter LT. The Volkswagen version shared the body shell with the new Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. However, the engine and transmission were Volkswagen Group sourced. This deal would continue in the Volkswagen Crafter, a successor to the LT.
The new design incorporated an engine mounted longitudinally beneath a short hood and with rear-wheel drive. The Transporter LT adopted what had become the standard style of construction for bigger transporters. It also included economical direct-injection diesel engines, easy access to the driver cab behind the front axle, and a wide space between the driver and passenger seat.
The range now went from 2.6 to 4.6 tons gross vehicle weight, and the enclosed options of the panel van and compact were available in three wheelbase options. Platform vehicles, crew cabs, and numerous undercarriage options completed the range. A special articulated version of the second generation Transporter LT, the XLT was available through special order.
"Typ" codes.
The Volkswagen ""Typ" codes" for the second generation LT are:
Engines.
Engines included a naturally aspirated engine, as well as three Turbocharged Direct Injection (TDI) diesel engines. These were the inline-five-cylinder TDI used in the Volkswagen Eurovan (Type 2 T4). The performance range for the LT initially went from }. In January 2002, an inline-four-cylinder 2.8 L engine increased power output to , and the maximum torque to .
The 2.8 L engine specifications:
The 2.5 L:
Replacement.
Production ended in September 2006, with about 350,000 LT models produced over nine years. Plans for the third generation of the 'large transporter' from Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles were canceled and later that year, the Volkswagen Crafter was launched.


National Passenger Services

National Passenger Services, d/b/a Stock Transportation, is a Canadian school bus contractor based in Markham, Ontario. The company provides student transportation services for 28 school districts in Ontario, Nova Scotia and Alberta.
Stock Transportation was founded in 1958 by Jeff and Jerry Stock. In July 2002 Stock Transportation was acquired by National Express. That year a number of acquisitions were made such as the purchase of Deluxe Coach Lines and Alouette Bus Lines of North Bay.
The Customer Service Center in North Bay services approximately 100 home to school bus routes.
Operations.
All of National Passenger Service's buses are equipped with Zonar GPS technology which enables their staff to observe real-time the position of all of their bus fleet.
The company has been criticized for its monopolization and for various performance issues, including delays.


Bombardier Flexity Outlook

The Bombardier Flexity Outlook is a series of low-floored, articulated light-rail trams manufactured by Bombardier Transportation. Part of the larger Bombardier Flexity product line (many of which are not low-floor), Flexity Outlook vehicles are modular in design and commonly used throughout Europe.
Types.
Bombardier markets two types or families of designs as "Flexity Outlook".
Eurotram.
The Eurotram was a design of electric tramcars designed by for use on the network of the "Compagnie de Transports Strasbourgeois" (CTS). It is initially contracted to Socimi and ABB. After Socimi went bankrupt, the order for Eurotrams was completed by ABB Group. Later models were manufactured under successor companies Adtranz and Bombardier Inc.
Bombardier began to market this type as Flexity Outlook (E), when they made them until 2004.
Cityrunner.
The more common Cityrunner, which has a more traditional tram design, is used by several cities in Austria (in Innsbruck, Linz and Graz), also Łódź (Poland), Geneva (Switzerland), Eskişehir (Turkey), and Brussels (Belgium), and vehicles for Marseille, (France) Valencia, Alicante (both Spain), Palermo (Italy) and Toronto (Canada) are in the design and production phase. (Although the Toronto Transit Commission has ordered the Flexity Outlook Cityrunner for its legacy system, Metrolinx has ordered the Flexity Freedom for Toronto's new Eglinton Crosstown line that is under construction along Eglinton Avenue in mid-Toronto.)
While most Flexity Outlook trams are bi-directional, the Toronto cars are single-ended in order to meet the operating requirements of that city's legacy streetcar routes. Bombardier has built single-ended Flexity Outlook versions for cities including Graz, Łódź and Milan.
The Flexity Outlook Cityrunner has a modular design, allowing it to be customised for use on networks that require narrow vehicles or nearly unique tight curve radii, down to in the case of Toronto. Toronto's version of the Outlook is gauged to fit its legacy streetcar lines, with a track gauge of .
Its closest competitors are the Citadis from Alstom, the Combino and S70 from Siemens, and Bombardier's other Flexity trams.
Olympic Line.
Bombardier Transportation operated a Flexity Outlook demo system in Vancouver from January 21 to March 21, 2010, coinciding with the 2010 Winter Olympics. The trams were on loan from a fleet of Flexity Outlook series made for the Brussels tram network. The service was called the Olympic Line and used electrified railway right-of-way owned by the City of Vancouver and not part of the regional transit authority (TransLink).
The temporary line operated from Granville Island to near Olympic Village Station on the Canada Line at 2nd Avenue. Service consisted of a link with two stations, with cars operating every 10 minutes.


Guided bus

Guided buses are buses capable of being steered by external means, usually on a dedicated track or roll way that excludes other traffic, permitting the maintenance of schedules even during rush hours. Unlike trolleybuses or rubber-tired trams, for part of their routes guided buses are able to share road space with general traffic along conventional roads, or with conventional buses on standard bus lanes.
Guidance systems can be physical, such as kerbs or guide bars, or remote, such as optical or radio guidance.
Guided buses may be articulated, allowing more passengers, but not as many as light rail or trams that do not also freely navigate public roads.
History.
Precursor to Guided Busways.
The kerb-guided bus (KGB) guidance mechanism is a development of the early flangeways, pre-dating railways. The Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramroad
of 1809 therefore has a claim to be the earliest guided busway. Earlier flangeways existed, but were not for passenger carrying.
Modern guided busways.
There are a few examples of guided buses around the world constructed since 1980.
The first modern guided busway system was opened in 1980 in Essen, Germany. This was initially a demonstration track, but it was periodically expanded and is still in operation as of 2019.
The first guided busway in the United Kingdom was in Birmingham, the Tracline 65, long, experimentally in 1984. It closed in 1987.
Based on the experience in Essen, in 1986 the Government of South Australia opened the O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide. This is a 12-kilometre guided busway.
In Mannheim, Germany, from May 1992 to September 2005 a guided busway shared the tram alignment for a few hundred metres, which allowed buses to avoid a congested stretch of road where there was no space for an extra traffic lane. It was discontinued, as the majority of buses fitted with guide wheels were withdrawn for age reasons. There are no plans to convert newer buses.
The Nagoya Guideway Bus in Nagoya, opened in March 2001 and is the only guided bus line in Japan.
The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway between Cambridge and St Ives, at , is the world's longest guided busway.
Rubber-tyred trams (trolleybuses).
Guided buses are to be distinguished from rubber-tyred systems that cannot run other than along a dedicated trackway, or under fixed overhead power lines.
Guidance systems.
Optical guidance.
Optical guidance relies on the principles of image processing. A camera in the front of the vehicle scans the bands of paint on the ground representing the reference path. The signals obtained by the camera are sent to an onboard computer, which combines them with dynamic parameters of the vehicle (speed, yaw rate, wheel angle). The calculator transmits commands to the guidance motor located on the steering column of the vehicle to control its path in line with that of the reference.
Optical guidance is a means of approaching light rail performance with a fast and economical set-up. It enables buses to have precision-docking capabilities as efficient as those of light rail and reduces dwell times, making it possible to drive the vehicle to a precise point on a platform according to an accurate and reliable trajectory. The distance between the door steps and the platform is optimized not to exceed . Level boarding is then possible, and there is no need to use a mobile ramp for people with mobility impairments.
The Optiguide system, an optical guidance device developed by Siemens Transportation Systems, has been in revenue service since 2001 in Rouen and Nîmes (only at stations), France, and has been fitted to trolleybuses in Castellon (Spain) since June 2008.
Magnetic guidance.
Other experimental systems have non-mechanical guidance, such as sensors or magnets buried in the roadway. In 2004, Stagecoach Group signed a deal with Siemens to develop an optical guidance system for use in the United Kingdom.
Two bus lines in Eindhoven, Netherlands, are used by Phileas vehicles. Line 401 from Eindhoven station to Eindhoven Airport is long, consists largely of concrete bus lanes and has about 30 Phileas stop platforms. Line 402 from Eindhoven station to Veldhoven branches off from line 401 and adds another of bus lanes and about 13 stops.
Some years ago the regional authority for urban transport in the Eindhoven region (SRE) decided to discontinue use of the magnetic guidance system. In 2014 the manufacturer, APTS, was declared bankrupt.
The Douai region in France is developing a public transport network with dedicated infrastructure. The length of the lines will be . The first stage is a line of from Douai via Guesnain to Lewarde, passing close to Waziers, Sin-le-Noble, Dechy and Lambres-lez-Douai. 39 stop platforms will be provided with an average distance between the stops of . A number of stops will be placed on the right-hand side of each lane. Central stops between both lanes will be placed at locations with limited space at the right side. This requires vehicle to have doors on both sides.
On 3 November 2005, a licence and technology transfer agreement was signed between Advanced Public Transport Systems (APTS) and the Korea Railroad Research Institute (KRRI). KRRI was to develop the Korean version of Phileas vehicle by May 2011.
Since June 2013, 3 miles (1.5 miles each way) of the Emerald Express (EmX) BRT in Eugene, Oregon has used magnetic guidance in revenue service on an especially curvy section of the route that also entails small radius S-curves required for docking. The driver controls braking and acceleration.
Kerb guidance.
On kerb-guided buses (KGB) small guide wheels attached to the bus engage vertical kerbs on either side of the guideway. These guide wheels push the steering mechanism of the bus, keeping it centralised on the track. Away from the guideway, the bus is steered in the normal way. The start of the guideway is funnelled from a wide track to guideway width. This system permits high-speed operation on a narrow guideway and precise positioning at boarding platforms, facilitating access for the elderly and disabled. As guide wheels can be inexpensively attached to, and removed from, almost any standard model of bus, kerb guided busway systems are not tied to particular specialised vehicles or equipment suppliers. Characteristically, operators contracted to run services on kerb-guided busways will purchase or lease the vehicles, as second-hand vehicles (with guide wheels removed) have a ready resale market.
The kerb-guided system maintains a narrow track while still enabling buses to pass one another at speed. Consequently, kerb-guided track can be fitted into former double-track rail alignments without the requirement for additional land-take that might have been necessary were a disused railway to be converted into a public highway. Examples include the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway and Leigh-Salford-Manchester Bus Rapid Transit; in both schemes, it has proved possible to provide space for a wide multi-user path for leisure use alongside the kerb-guided double track, all within the boundaries of the disused railway route. Both the Cambridgeshire and Leigh-Salford-Manchester schemes have reported greatly increased levels of patronage (both on the buses themselves and the adjacent paths), high levels of modal transfer of travellers from private car use, and high levels of passenger satisfaction.
Examples of guided busways.
Tram-like guided busways include:


MTA Regional Bus Operations

MTA Regional Bus Operations (RBO) is the surface transit division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It was created in 2008 to consolidate all bus operations in New York City operated by the MTA. , MTA Regional Bus Operations runs 234 local routes, 71 express routes, and 20 Select Bus Service routes. Its fleet of 5,725 buses is the largest municipal bus fleet in the United States and operates 24/7.
The division comprises two brands: MTA Bus and MTA New York City Bus. While MTA Bus is an amalgamation of former private companies' routes, MTA New York City Bus is composed of public routes that were taken over by the city before 2005. The MTA also operates paratransit services and formerly operated Long Island Bus. , MTA Regional Bus Operations' budgetary burden for expenditures was $773 million.
Brands and service area.
Regional Bus Operations is currently only used in official documentation, and not publicly as a brand. The current public brands are listed below:
The most common scheme is a straight blue stripe across the sides of the bus against a white base, with no colors on the front or back, and black window trim. From 1977 until late 2007 (and still present on much of the fleet), the livery was a full all-around stripe with a black rear, and until late 2010 (and still present on buses repainted during this time), the scheme was a stripe with a blank rear. Buses operated in Select Bus Service bus rapid transit service are wrapped with a light blue-and-white wrap below the windows. In spring 2016, a new livery was introduced based on navy blue, light blue, and yellow, with a mostly blue front and sides, a light blue and yellow wave, and a yellow back. This new livery will gradually replace the blue stripe on a white base livery.
Currently, many RBO's operational changes have been at the management level, with the creation of a unified command center and consolidation of management for all bus operations, with the aim of reducing redundancies in the agency. Other changes have included eliminating the MTA Bus call center, folding it into that of MTA New York City Transit, and the unification of the fare policy for all of the MTA's services.
History.
The history of the MTA's bus operations generally follows the history of the New York City Transit Authority, also known as MTA New York City Transit (NYCT), which was created on June 15, 1953 by the State of New York to take over operations then operated by the New York City Board of Transportation. In 1962 the State established the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA) as a subsidiary of NYCT to take over operations then operated by two private companies, Fifth Avenue Coach Lines, Inc. and Surface Transit, Inc. Both NYCT and MaBSTOA operate service pursuant to a lease agreement with the City of New York.
MTA New York City Bus.
City involvement with surface transit in the city began in September 1919, when Mayor John Francis Hylan, through the New York City Department of Plant and Structures (DP&S), organized private entrepreneurs to operate "emergency" buses to replace four abandoned storage battery streetcar lines: the Madison Street Line, Spring and Delancey Streets Line, Avenue C Line, and Sixth Avenue Ferry Line. Many routes were soon added, replacing lines such as the Brooklyn and North River Line (trolleys) and Queens Bus Lines (buses), and the DP&S also began operating trolleys in Staten Island to replace the Staten Island Midland Railway's system.
Another city acquisition was the Bridge Operating Company, which ran the Williamsburg Bridge Local trolley, acquired in 1921 by the DP&S. Unlike the other lines, this one remained city-operated, and was replaced by the B39 bus route on December 5, 1948, by then transferred to the New York City Board of Transportation.
With the city takeover of the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation's surface subsidiary, the Brooklyn and Queens Transit Corporation, on June 2, 1940, the city gained a large network of trolley and bus lines, covering all of Brooklyn and portions of Queens. On February 23, 1947, the Board of Transportation took over the Staten Island bus network of the Isle Transportation Company. Further acquisitions were made on March 30, 1947, with the North Shore Bus Company in Queens, and September 24, 1948, with the East Side Omnibus Corporation and Comprehensive Omnibus Corporation in Manhattan. The final Brooklyn trolleys were the Church Avenue Line and McDonald Avenue Line, discontinued on October 31, 1956, though the privately operated (by the Queensboro Bridge Railway) Queensboro Bridge Local remained until 1957.
Thus, in the late 1950s, the city operated all local service in Staten Island and Brooklyn, about half the local service in Queens, and several routes in Manhattan. Several private companies operated buses in Queens, and the Avenue B and East Broadway Transit Company operated a small Manhattan system, but by far the largest system was the Fifth Avenue Coach Company and Surface Transit, which operated almost all Manhattan routes and all Bronx routes, plus two into Queens (15 Fifth Avenue - Jackson Heights and TB Triborough Bridge) and one within Queens (16 Elmhurst Crosstown). After a strike in 1962, the city condemned the assets of the bus companies. To facilitate the anticipated sale of the bus service back to private ownership, a new agency, the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA) was formed as a subsidiary of the New York City Transit Authority to operate the former Fifth Avenue Coach Lines, Inc. and Surface Transit, Inc. routes under lease from the city. The final acquisition was in 1980, when MaBSTOA took over operations of the Avenue B & East Broadway Transit Co. Inc.'s routes, using MaBSTOA equipment with Avenue B red route roll signs (NYCTA acquired the 13 Grumman Flxibles that had been assigned to Avenue B and placed them in NYCTA service).
However, in late 1981 the MTA decided to merge the New York City Transit Authority's Surface Division (aka NYCTA Civil Service) with the Manhattan & Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (aka MABSTOA Non Civil Service) into one single entity using the MTA - New York City Transit Authority, or MTA - New York City Bus moniker instead of the former.
Public takeover of the remaining Queens buses, as well as most express routes, was implemented in 2005 and 2006 when the city purchased the assets of seven private bus companies, and entered into an agreement with the new MTA Bus Company for their operation and funding. In 2008, the bus operations of New York City Transit and MTA Bus Company (as well as the now former Long Island Bus division) were merged into a new regional operation, MTA Regional Bus Operations. The New York City Bus and MTA Bus brands continue to be used on all buses, but New York City Transit Authority, Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority, and MTA Bus Company continue to be the legal entities operating the services.
MTA Bus.
MTA Bus Company was established in late 2004 to operate bus services resulting from the city's takeover of the privately operated bus route operations previously administered and subsidized by the NYCDOT.
The routes were taken over on a staggered schedule, beginning with the former Liberty Lines Express bus routes on January 3, 2005, Queens Surface Corporation bus routes on February 27, 2005, New York Bus Service bus routes on July 1, 2005, Command Bus Company bus routes on December 5, 2005, Green Bus Lines bus routes on January 9, 2006, and Jamaica Buses bus routes on January 30, 2006. Triboro Coach Corporation, the final remaining company, ceased operating on February 20, 2006.
Currently, the only NYCDOT-subsidized lines not consolidated into MTA Bus are those run by Academy Bus and formerly by Atlantic Express until their bankruptcy in 2013. Academy Bus previously operated those routes and others until 2001, when Atlantic Express and NYCT took them over. Although the X23, and X24 routes were absorbed by Atlantic Express, the X17J, X21, X22, and X30 routes were absorbed by the New York City Transit Authority. NYCT discontinued service on the X21 months after the takeover. Recently, NYS Assemblyman Lou Tobacco and NYS Senator Andrew Lanza, along with U.S. Congressman Michael E. McMahon and NYC Councilmen Vincent Ignizio and James Oddo have asked the MTA to look into the possible consolidation of the remainder of the NYCDOT routes. In Brooklyn, a company called Private Transportation operates the B110 route; this is franchised but not subsidized by NYCDOT. Atlantic Express also ran the AE7 express route from the Tottenville and Travis neighborhoods of Staten Island in the same manner as the Private Transportation B110 local route. Citing low ridership and increased costs, Atlantic Express canceled the AE7 service on December 31, 2010. Councilmen Ignizio and Oddo as well as Congressman Michael G. Grimm have called on the MTA to revamp that route also.
Merger.
The current system came into being in the mid-2000s following the MTA's assumption, through its subsidiary MTA Bus Company (MTABC), of services previously operated by private carriers under operating authority agreements administered by the New York City Department of Transportation, the successor to the New York City Bureau of Franchises. MTABC operates service pursuant to an agreement with the City of New York under which all expenses of MTABC, less operating revenues, are reimbursed. This brought almost all bus transportation in New York City under its control.
After the bus mergers were completed in 2006, the MTA then moved to streamline its operations through consolidation of management function. To that effect, RBO was officially created in May 2008, with the president of what was then MTA New York City Transit's Department of Buses, Joseph J. Smith, named to lead the consolidated bus operations. MTA Regional Bus also included the MTA Long Island Bus division until December 2011, when its services were transferred to the private operator Veolia Transport.
In 2008, the bus operations of MTA Bus Company and New York City Transit (as well as the now former Long Island Bus division) were merged into a new regional operation, MTA Regional Bus Operations. The MTA Bus brand continues to be used. This brand, and the New York City Bus brand, was removed from buses delivered from 2016 on, and the blue-stripe livery was replaced with a new blue-and-yellow livery. The first order with the new livery, 75 articulated buses for MTA Bus, were delivered in spring and summer 2016.
Until December 31, 2011, MTA Regional Bus Operations also operated Nassau County's bus and paratransit service, formerly known as Long Island Bus. This service was operated by the MTA under an agreement with Nassau County, who owned its facilities and equipment. In 2011, the MTA asked Nassau County to provide more funding for Long Island Bus than they were at the time. The county refused to provide additional funding, and the MTA voted to end operation of the system at the end of 2011. The county then decided to hire Veolia Transport, (now Transdev) a private transportation company, to operate the system in place of the MTA beginning in 2012. The system was then rebranded "Nassau Inter-County Express".
Operations.
MTA Regional Bus routes are spread out across New York City. However, some bus routes may also operate to areas beyond city limits. The Q5 and Q85 routes cross the Nassau County border to go to the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream. The Q2 and Q110 routes leave Queens as they run along Hempstead Turnpike and onto the Cross Island Parkway, and Belmont Racetrack in Elmont, where they turn-around and re-enter's the city. The Q46 local and QM6 express buses run along Lakeville Road in Lake Success, Nassau County upon entering Long Island Jewish Medical Center and North Shore Towers. The Q113 and Q114 cross into Nassau County between Southeast Queens and Far Rockaway. During peak hours, select Q111 buses run to Cedarhurst in Nassau County. The Bx16 route runs into Westchester County for two blocks in Mount Vernon. The Bx7, Bx9, Bx31 and Bx34 buses make their last stops at the Bronx-Westchester border. BxM3 express buses leave the city as they operate to Getty Square in Yonkers. The Q4, Q12, Q30, Q36, Q43 and Q111 buses make their last stops at the Queens-Nassau border. The S89 is the only route to have a stop outside state borders, terminating at the 34th Street Hudson-Bergen Light Rail station in Bayonne, New Jersey. Some Staten Island express routes run via New Jersey, but do not stop in the state.
Local bus routes are labeled with a number and a prefix identifying the primary borough of operation (B for Brooklyn, Bx for the Bronx, M for Manhattan, Q for Queens, and S for Staten Island). Express bus routes to Manhattan generally use a two-letter prefix with an "M" at the end (e.g. an express route from Brooklyn is prefixed BM; from the Bronx, BxM; from Queens, QM; and from Staten Island, SIM). Exceptions to this rule are seven Brooklyn and Queens express routes operated by New York City Transit, which use an X prefix. Lettered suffixes can be used to designate branches or variants. The two-letter prefixed express system (BM, BxM and QM) was used by the former private carriers.
, MTA Regional Bus Operations' budgetary burden for expenditures was $773 million, which it supports through the collection of taxes and fees.
Local and limited-stop service.
Local and limited-stop buses provide service within a single borough, or in some cases across two. While local buses make all stops along a route, limited-stop buses only make stops at busy transfer points, points of interest, and heavily used roadways. Limited stop service was first attempted with the M4 bus during rush hours in 1973, then expanded to other routes from there. The usual setup is that limited stop service runs the full route, while local services run only in the limited stop area, and the limited stop buses run local at the tail ends of the route not served by locals (similar to the operation of some subway services and the Staten Island Railway). There are also full-route limited-stop buses, with local variants that make limited stops along the entire route; limited-only buses with no local variants under the same route number; and limited-zone buses, with a semi-limited section (with smaller distances between stops than on regular limited routes) near the route's tail ends, and a non-stop section in the middle.
Most Limited-Stop buses flash "LIMITED" or "LIMITED STOPS" on the destination sign. Occasionally, a paper orange and purple "Limited" sign will also be placed at the bottom of the windshield by the bus operator. Dark navy blue "LOCAL" and red "Express" signs also exist.
The following MTA Regional Bus routes run limited stop service (for non-Staten Island routes, where there is a route numbering system, bold indicates no corresponding local service on the limited-stop route, and "italic" indicates no corresponding daytime local service on the limited-stop route):
Select Bus Service.
Select Bus Service (SBS), the brand name for MTA bus rapid transit service, is a variant of Limited-Stop bus service that requires fare payment to be made "before" boarding the bus, at fare payment machines in shelters at designated "stations" (such a shelter is shown to the right). Receipts given for payment of fare are "proof-of-payment" that must be shown to the MTA's fare inspectors upon request. In the event of the fare machine failing to issue a receipt, the bus operator must be notified of the problem. The implementation of this new service is paired with new lane markings and traffic signs that reserve a lane for buses only during the daytime.
Buses used in this service are identifiable with "stations" equipped with ticket machines, and also have a "+selectbusservice" wrap identifying them as such buses. Locations of stops (and in some cases, the local bus stops) were shifted or eliminated where possible to prevent mixing of local bus customers. SBS is offered in conjunction with the NYC DOT and NYS DOT.
Express service.
Express bus service is generally geared towards peak hour commuters from the outer boroughs and neighboring suburbs that lack rail or subway services to and from Midtown Manhattan or Lower Manhattan. Some routes also provide significant off-peak service from early morning to late evening, every day. Routes with daily off-peak service include the BxM1/2, BxM3, BxM4, BxM6, BxM7, BxM8, BxM9, BxM10, BxM11, QM2, QM4, QM5/6, SIM3c, SIM4c, SIM33c, X27 and X28; the SIM1c runs 24 hours a day. 45-foot MCI and Prevost over-the-road coaches are used for express service.
Service originally began on November 3, 1965, on route R8X (later X8, now SIM5) traveling from the South Shore of Staten Island, up Hylan Blvd and Father Capodanno Blvd., into Downtown Brooklyn. In the 1980s, the R8X was renumbered and rerouted from Brooklyn to its current terminal in Lower Manhattan.
Access-A-Ride.
In addition to a 100% accessible bus fleet, New York City Transit also provides paratransit services under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 under the Access-A-Ride brand, for customers who cannot use regular bus or subway service. It services all five boroughs of New York City at all times. The Access-A-Ride paratransit services are provided by various independent contractors, using vehicles owned by the MTA. Although all buses are wheelchair-accessible, these vehicles provide an accessible transport option for MTA riders. The program was created in 1991 after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Bus stops.
Within a service area, bus stops are normally located every two to three city blocks apart; specific guidelines dictate that stops should be placed every . Buses marked Limited-Stop, Select Bus Service, and Express have fewer stops. Stops are located curbside, usually at street intersections, identified by blue signage and shelters. Buses stop either on concrete pads, or designated bus lanes (maroon-red if painted). Some bus stops, particularly along Select Bus Service routes, are designed as bus bulbs.
All bus stops are in effect at all times unless otherwise indicated by signage.
Signage.
Bus stops in New York City are identified by two types of signs:
In addition, Queens buses that run along the border with Nassau County () or within Nassau County () will sometimes share former MTA Long Island Bus-style signage with Nassau Inter-County Express bus service, though many stops on the Q111, Q113, and Q114 routes in Nassau County are either unsigned, or simply signed as "No Stopping Bus Stop". These signs are also made of metal.
The newer signs, used on all New York City Bus-branded routes, were in place by the mid-2000s, while old-style bus stop signs still exist on many MTA Bus-branded routes, showing only the route and not the destination. All bus stop signs within the city borders are maintained by New York City Department of Transportation. The newer signs are made of recyclable ABS plastic that last up to ten years and are easier to maintain then the old metal signs, which last about three years on average. The green plastic pole stands from to high, versus the old metal signs. Both old and new-style stops carry a Guide-A-Ride box that is attached to the center of the pole, providing route maps, schedules and other information. Guide-A-Ride boxes were installed on all NYCT routes by the 1980s. Implementation on MTA Bus Company routes took place in the 2000s for express buses, and in 2012-2014 for local bus routes.
Older signs.
The first metal signs in the city to feature a pictograph of a bus were installed by the Transit Authority in the 1960s. Metal signs in their current design, which are mainly used on MTA Bus-operated routes and at temporary construction-regulation bus stops, were first used in 1976, as part of a pilot program on Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Midtown Manhattan funded by the Urban Mass Transit Administration, and fully implemented in the 1980s.
In its current iteration, the upper portion of the sign is red, reading "NO STANDING" with an arrow identifying the no standing zone. Below on a blue background is a white circle, with a blue pictograph of a bus and wheelchair from the International Symbol of Access. Routes are identified with color-coded labels (see below), but without destinations. Some signs for express-bus service are colored lime-green and read "EXPRESS" at the top. Due to MTA Bus Time coming out, most old-style stops received a timetable box indicating the bus route's map, expected time arrivals, and a code to use on the website or app.
Newer signs.
The modern color-coded lollipop-shaped bus stop signs, which are used at all bus stops on New York City Bus-operated routes as well as at bus stops shared with MTA Bus routes and other companies, were first installed in November 1996 in Jamaica, Queens. They were designed by W.S. Sign Design Corporation. The signs were created following two federal grants given to the MTA and DOT in 1994 totaling $1.5 million, in response to complaints from bus riders that the previous metal signs lacked basic information about bus routes and schedules, and that some signs were often missing entirely. They were based on signs used in London and Paris that had existed since at least the 1950s. The initial program called for the installation of 3,000 signs, of which 2,600 would be in Manhattan, and the remainder in the other boroughs. Initially, prototype signs were installed at selected locations, and then 400 signs started to be installed in December 1996, before being completed in April 1997, with the remaining signs installed by the end of 1997. The signs in Manhattan were installed using the $1 million USDOT grant, while the $500,000 from the Congestion Mitigation Air Quality grant was used for signs in the outer boroughs. The signs were placed at high-ridership bus stops that could not have bus shelters and locations where their durability could be properly tested. If the test was successful, it was expected that a full citywide installation would take six years.
The signs are in violation of the New York State "Vehicle and Traffic Law", Section 1680. The law requires all "traffic control devices" to comply with the U.S. "Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices" (MUTCD) as modified by the NYS " Supplement," and mandates that parking signs must be rectangular rather than circular.
The new bus stop sign features a large circle on top and rectangular color-coded bus route information on the bottom. The bus stop circle also has a pictograph of a bus and ADA wheelchair, in white on a blue background. Hanging off the pole below are rectangular bus route signs, color-coded by type of service. Each has a route number and final destination, usually the neighborhood in which it terminates, though a street or landmark is listed for some routes. Westbound Bx12 local signs, for example, read "Sedgwick Avenue" instead of the neighborhood University Heights. At the bottom of this area is a white rectangle with black text announcing the name of the stop, usually the names of the streets at the intersection. On bus stops that operate at all times of day, an arrow and red text on the bottom of the upper circle indicates the no-standing zone for cars. On stops that only operate part-time, the top route number box will read "NO STANDING", with the top destination box listing the days and/or times of day this is in effect. Some bus routes that run underneath elevated subway lines (such as the Bx9 underneath the Broadway elevated in the Bronx) use metal bus stop signs with a printed image depicting a modern bus sign, affixed to the pillars of the El.
Electronic countdown clocks.
Some bus stops, produced by Data Display and STV Incorporated, feature electronic countdown clocks. In addition to the route and destination, an LED readout in between displays how many stops away or minutes away the next bus is using the MTA's "Bus Time" system. The first two signs of this kind, in Stapleton and New Dorp on Staten Island, were installed in 2013. The Stapleton stop is solar-powered. A third stop was installed near City Hall in Manhattan in 2015. An additional 18 stops in Staten Island and Brooklyn were approved for installation in late 2014, 10 for Queens in 2015, and 100 in Staten Island in 2016, as part of the NYCDOT's plan to install around 350 across the city. In 2018, as part of its Bus Action Plan, the MTA announced that more signs would receive electronic countdown clocks.
Several stops along Select Bus Service routes, such as the B44, B46, M34/M34A, M60, M79, M86, and Q44 employ different countdown clocks that are separate from bus stop signage. These clocks are part of wayfinding information kiosks installed in conjunction with the city's WalkNYC project beginning in 2013. As of 2016, a total of 32 bus stops had one of the two countdown clocks installed. The current countdown clocks are successors to a pilot program on the M15 in 2007, and another on the M34 and M16 buses between 2009 and 2012.
Sign colors.
The signage for routes at bus stops may be given different colors depending on the types of services available at each stop.
Shelters.
The current bus shelters found at many bus stops were designed by Spain-based advertising company Cemusa, as part of a citywide "street furniture" project that also included newsstands, bike shelters, and public toilets. Cemusa was awarded a 20-year contract for 3,300 bus shelters in May 2006, after the project had been receiving design bids going back to the 1990s. As opposed to the city paying Cemusa to install the shelters, the company paid for exclusive rights to advertise on the shelters; in return, the company would share a portion of the ad revenue generated. They replaced the simple old-style shelters, consisting of black-painted metal with glass. The first 24 shelters were installed by December 2006 in Queens.
Designed by British architect Nicholas Grimshaw and his firm Grimshaw Architects, the shelters are constructed of stainless steel, with glass on three sides including the roof and rear. The fourth side consists of an advertising panel. On the non-advertising panel is an insert listing the streets of the intersection where the stop is located on the outer side, and route maps and information also featured on the Guide-A-Ride on its inner face. The shelters come in five sizes (Regular: ; Narrow: ; Short: ; Little: ; and Double: ). All the modern shelters feature benches (many of the old ones did not), and were praised for environmentally friendly construction during their introduction. Several of these shelters, primarily in Manhattan, have since been equipped with LED displays, LCD video advertisement panels, and ad panels with NFC communication technology. Following the acquisition of Cemusa by French advertising firm JCDecaux in 2015, bus shelters are now maintained by JCDecaux.
Late-night Request-A-Stop.
Between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., "Request-a-Stop" service is available as dictated by NYCDOT traffic regulations. If requested by a passenger, the bus operator may discharge passengers at a location along the route that is not a bus stop, as long as it is considered safe. If the location is not "safe" (i.e. it will interfere with traffic flow), the bus operator will discharge passengers at the nearest safe location. Request-A-Stop is not available on Select Bus Service, Express routes, Limited-Stop routes, or overnight bus shuttles. Request-A-Stop was inaugurated on December 5, 1993 in Staten Island, and expanded to other boroughs in 1994.
Fleet.
The fleet consists of over 5,700 buses of various types and models for fixed-route service, making MTA RBO's fleet the largest public bus fleet in the United States. The MTA also has over 2,000 vans and cabs for ADA paratransit service, providing service in New York City, southwestern Nassau County, and the city of Yonkers. All vehicles (except for paratransit cabs) are fully accessible to persons with disabilities. Fixed-route buses are dispatched from 28 garages (20 New York City Bus and 8 MTA Bus) and one annex in New York City.
Several fleet improvements have been introduced over the system's history. The first large order of air conditioned buses began service in 1966. "Kneeling buses" were introduced in 1976, and wheelchair lifts began appearing in 1980. Also in the 1980s, stop-request cords ("bell cords") were replaced by yellow tape strips. However, buses ordered after 2008 feature cords rather than tape strips due to the latter's higher maintenance cost. Articulated buses were introduced in 1996, and have since become prominent in the Bronx and Manhattan. Low-floor buses, designed to speed boarding and alighting and improve riding conditions for elderly and disabled passengers, were first tested in 1997 and have made up most of the new non-express buses ordered since the early 2000s. Most post-2000 orders also feature stop-request buttons located on grab bars. Beginning in 2016, new orders along with buses built after 2011 will be built/retrofitted with Wi-Fi connectivity and USB charging ports.
Starting in 2016, efforts to bring an audio/visual system to the current and future fleet went underway to improve customer service and ADA accessibility thru use of next stop announcements & PSAs. Though the former Long Island Bus Division (now NICE Bus) had already deployed such a system throughout its fleet since the early-2000s, the MTA had only trialed similar systems alongside GPS tracking between 2007 to 2012 on select routes in the New York City Bus system. Current plans include the installation of digital information screens installed throughout the interior of the bus which will provide real-time information such as time, weather, advertisements, & service advisories. The screens are supplied by contract from 3 different vendors and are installed on new bus deliveries starting in 2017 while buses built after 2008 are currently receiving retrofits.
A new livery was also introduced, replacing the blue stripe livery on a white base that had been in use in one variation or another since the late 1970s. The first of these buses entered service in mid-May 2016 on the Q10 route.
Buses operating on clean or alternative fuels also make up a significant portion of the fleet, particularly since the establishment of the MTA's "Clean Fuel Bus" program in June 2000. Buses running compressed natural gas (CNG) were first tested in the early 1990s, and mass-ordered beginning in 1999. Hybrid-electric buses, operating with a combination of diesel and electric power, were introduced in September 1998, and mass-ordered beginning in 2004. Within the current fleet are over 1,600 diesel-electric buses and over 700 buses powered by compressed natural gas, which make up over half of the total fleet. This is the largest fleet of either kind in the United States.
Fares.
Dollar bills and half-dollar coins are not accepted on fixed-route buses or Select Bus Service payment stations, nor are they accepted on buses of the Bee-Line Bus System (Bee-Line) in Westchester County or the Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE) in Nassau County. All fares are in US dollars, and the following fare policy applies to all New York City Transit, MTA Bus, NICE, and Bee-Line (except for the BxM4C) buses. Up to three children who are 5 years old or younger get to ride free provided that they are accompanied by a fare-paying rider.
Fare collection.
In November 1993, a fare system called the MetroCard was introduced, which allows riders to use cards that store the value equal to the amount paid to a subway station booth clerk or vending machine. The MetroCard was enhanced in 1997 to allow passengers to make free transfers between subways and buses within two hours; several MetroCard-only transfers between subway stations were added in 2001. With the addition of unlimited-ride MetroCards in 1998, the New York City Transit system was the last major transit system in the United States with the exception of BART in San Francisco to introduce passes for unlimited bus and rapid transit travel.
Unlimited-ride MetroCards are available for 7-day and 30-day periods. One-day "Fun Pass" and 14-day cards were also introduced, but have since been discontinued.
In April 2016, MTA solicited proposals for a contactless "New Fare Payment System" to replace the MetroCard by 2022. On October 23, 2017, it was announced that the MetroCard would be phased out and replaced by OMNY, a contactless fare payment system also by Cubic, with fare payment being made using Apple Pay, Google Pay, debit/credit cards with near-field communication technology, or radio-frequency identification cards. The announcement calls for the expansion of this system to a general-use electronic fare payment system at 500 subway turnstiles and 600 buses by late 2018, with all buses and subway stations using electronic fare collection by 2020. However, support of the MetroCard is slated to remain until 2023.
Quality of service.
Frequency.
, three-quarters of bus routes provide high-frequency service in at least one direction during rush hours, with buses arriving at least every ten minutes. Of these routes, 54% provide high-frequency service in both directions, while 21% provide service only in the peak direction (toward transit hubs during the morning, and away from these hubs during the evening). One quarter of routes run with headways of more than 10 minutes during rush hours.
Of the five boroughs, the Bronx has the greatest proportion of bus routes with high frequencies in both directions, with 65% of routes running such frequencies . Manhattan has the highest ratio of routes with high frequencies in at least one direction, at 85%. On the other hand, more than 60% of routes on Staten Island, the city's least populous borough, ran with low rush-hour frequencies, marking the highest such ratio in the city. In roughly 28% of the city's neighborhoods, less than half of routes operate at high frequencies in both directions. Neighborhoods outside of each borough's central business districts, as well as off-peak service, are more likely to be subject to low-frequency bus service, despite significant off-peak demand in areas like Forest Hills, Queens, and Sunset Park, Brooklyn. MTA Bus and New York City Bus also have the U.S.'s highest rates of deadhead runs, or "not-in-service" runs without passengers, with a respective 19% and 14% of trips being deadheads.
Buses running off-schedule are also common in the MTA Regional Bus system, with almost one in four buses running either too early or too late to maintain a constant spacing between buses. This is prevalent even on Select Bus Service bus rapid transit routes, where 20% of bus trips do not adhere to their schedules. Some routes suffer from bus bunching. Routes affected by bus bunching may not have any buses in a certain direction for prolonged periods of time, and then several buses will show up within a short time period. In 2017, nearly twelve percent of routes were considered to be bunched on a regular basis, compared to 9.4% in 2015. This phenomenon most affects bus routes within Brooklyn Community Board 5 in East Brooklyn, where 15% of buses are subject to bunching.
Speed.
, MTA buses on local buses run at average speeds of , the slowest of any major bus system nationwide. MTA Select Bus Service routes had marginally faster speeds, averaging . The average speed varies between boroughs, with Manhattan having the lowest average local-bus speed () and Staten Island having the highest (). In 2017, sixteen of the seventeen bus routes with average speeds of less than were located in Manhattan. Conversely, eight of the eleven routes with average speeds of more than were located on Staten Island. On average, buses generally spend a little more than half of the trip (54%) in motion, while 22% of the trip is spent at bus stops and 21% is spent idling at red lights.
The Straphangers Campaign, another riders' advocacy group, gives out "Pokey Awards" to the slowest bus routes of each year. The slowest bus routes are typically crosstown bus routes in Manhattan, with 14 of the slowest bus routes in 2017 being crosstown bus routes. In 2017, the slowest bus route was the M42 crosstown bus on 42nd Street, which had an average speed of , approximately a walking pace. This was followed by the M31/M57, M50, and M66 crosstown buses on 57th, 49th/50th, and 65th/66th Streets respectively, all of which averaged less than . Other "winners" of the Pokey Award include the M79 on 79th Street and the M23 on 23rd Street, both of which have now been converted to Select Bus Service routes. However, Select Bus Service routes only serve 12% of all bus riders , and the average bus route is 10% percent slower than it was in the mid-1990s.
A 2015 study found that 35 MTA routes with significant ridership figures had average speeds of less than , and that the M66 crosstown bus had an average speed of . Slow bus rides were not limited to Manhattan routes; the Bx2 bus in the Bronx and the B35 bus in Brooklyn both ran at speeds of less than . In 2018, the riders' advocacy group Bus Turnaround Campaign rated each bus route based on speed and reliability, and gave 75% of city bus routes a "D" or "F" grade. As a result, in early January 2019, mayor Bill de Blasio promised to raise bus speeds by 25% by the next year.
As a result of these slow average speeds, MTA Regional Bus Operations has the highest per-mile operating cost of all city bus systems in the U.S., with a per-mile cost of $30.40. If the operating costs were closer to the U.S. average, MTA buses would have the highest farebox recovery ratio among U.S. cities' bus systems.
Length and winding routes.
Many local New York City Bus and MTA Bus routes take long and winding routes that, in the most extreme cases, take more than two hours to traverse from end to end. Some of the longest routes are in Staten Island, where the average bus line is long. The longest local bus route in the city, the S78, is long and spans the entire length of Staten Island. Brooklyn also has several long bus routes, and the borough hosts three of the city's ten longest routes.
Some local routes divert into neighborhoods and detour down driveways rather than taking a more direct path. These routes then merge onto heavily-congested main corridors. A 2017 report indicated that nearly half of bus routes had at least 10 turns along their routes. The most winding route was the Bx8 bus in the Bronx, with 29 turns.
Starting in 2015, the MTA investigated express bus routes on Staten Island, which were circuitous, duplicative, and infrequent. The MTA proposed replacing all of the existing express bus routes with simpler and shorter variants, a proposal supported by 76% of Staten Island residents who had learned about the study. After hosting several meetings with Staten Island residents, the MTA announced that express bus service to Staten Island was expected to be completely reorganized in August 2018. As part of the redesign, all of the existing bus routes were discontinued and replaced with 21 new routes with a "SIM" prefix. This was followed by the redesign of Bronx local and express routes, which is set to take effect in mid-2020. The redesigns of the Brooklyn and Queens bus networks, initially scheduled for early 2021, were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City.
Ridership.
, MTA bus routes tend to be more heavily used on weekends than on weekdays. Weekday bus ridership in 2017 averaged 1.9 million, while weekend ridership averaged 2.1 million. Express buses had an average weekday ridership of 40,200, while paratransit was used by a mean of 27,900 people each weekday.
Bus ridership has steadily declined through the 2000s and 2010s. From 2008 to 2017, bus ridership declined by more than 100 million. Average weekday bus ridership fell 5.7%, and average weekend bus ridership fell 4%, from 2016 to 2017. The greatest ridership decreases were in Manhattan, where bus ridership declined more than 15% from 2011 to 2016. Ridership decreased less dramatically in Brooklyn and parts of Queens and Staten Island, while ridership increased slightly within the Bronx, southwest Brooklyn, central Queens, and most of Staten Island. Bus lines that ran parallel to subway routes also saw ridership declines. As of 2017, there were thirteen bus routes with at least 20 stops within of a subway station; all saw ridership declines, with each route averaging a 20% loss.
Service improvements.
Bus lanes.
To speed up bus service, the city started installing bus lanes in Downtown Brooklyn and St. George, Staten Island, in 1963. Another bus lane was soon installed along Hillside Avenue in Queens. In 1969, part of 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan also received a bus lane. Additional bus lanes were added in the 1970s and 1980s. Bus lanes now exist on major corridors in all five boroughs, and are especially prevalent on high-volume and Select Bus Service corridors. There are also bus lanes along several highways that lead to Manhattan. The city's bus lane network is about long , representing nearly two percent of the city's of streets.
The bus lane rules are enforced by traffic cameras on gantries above the lanes; photos are taken of vehicles who violate the rules, and these motorists are then fined. Bus lanes have generally increased average bus speeds and reduced travel times where they are installed. However, double-parked vehicles and other obstructions often force buses within buses to merge out of these lanes.
Bus priority signals.
, traffic signal preemption is used on five bus corridors in New York City. Traffic signals with bus preemption allow traffic lights to display a green signal for a longer-than-normal period of time when a bus approaches the intersection. The first corridor to receive traffic signal priority was the Victory Boulevard corridor on Staten Island in 2006, which used infrared detection technology to allow traffic signals to communicate with transponders on buses. Although the system itself was successful, the buses with transponders were reassigned to bus routes in Brooklyn and Queens, rendering the devices useless. Moreover, MTA administrators did not see any cost savings from the program, and employees generally lacked the motivation to maintain the system. In 2008, the Victory Boulevard installation was followed by the Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway corridor (Bx12 bus) in the Bronx, which used GPS transponders aboard buses. Due to both systems' high cost, they were eventually removed from both corridors.
In 2011, Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed that traffic signal priority be installed along 11 bus routes within the following two years. The MTA started testing signal priority along the M15 in Lower Manhattan in 2012. From 2014 to 2016, five Select Bus Service routes received GPS-based traffic signal priority at 260 intersections. They were the M15 in Manhattan; the B44 along Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn; the S79 along Hylan Boulevard on Staten Island; the Bx41 along Webster Avenue in the Bronx; and the B46 along Utica Avenue in Brooklyn. The New York City government subsequently studied four of these routes, and found that all of the routes saw increases in average bus speeds along the portions that had bus priority signals. Speeds on these routes increased by an average of 18%.
Eleven more corridors were set to receive traffic signal priority by July 2017. The number of equipped intersections rose to 500 by March 2018, and was set to increase further to 1,000 intersections by 2020. However, as of that date, traffic signal priority was still in the testing stages, and preemptive traffic signals in New York City were used in much lower proportions than in other major cities. An expansion of traffic signal priority is planned as part of the Bus Action Plan. In January 2019, de Blasio said that the traffic signal priority program would be expanded to 1,200 intersections.
Bus Action Plan.
In April 2018, in response to a citywide transit crisis and complaints about the general quality of MTA bus service, the MTA published a Bus Action Plan detailing 28 suggestions to improve the bus system. Within twelve months, targeted corridor improvements were to be implemented, some bus stops would be removed to speed up service, and off-peak bus service would be expanded on strategic routes. As part of the plan, there will be a system-wide redesign of the bus network by 2021 to improve connectivity and provide more direct service.
Expanding bus priority is also part of the plan. Traffic Signal Priority would be implemented on additional routes, and new bus lanes and queue jump lanes would be instituted. In addition, the MTA would study ways to implement exclusive bus lanes and busways on priority corridors. To ensure that bus lanes are not blocked, dedicated transit-priority traffic teams would be put into place with the NYPD in 2019. Tap readers would be installed by the end of 2020, and all-door boarding would be installed with the introduction of a new contactless payment system that is planned to replace the MetroCard. There would be regular fare enforcement on bus routes to reduce fare evasion.
The plan also contained some improvements to bus riders' experience. All buses delivered after April 2018, as well as 1,000 existing buses, would also receive digital information screens with automated announcements. In addition, by the end of 2018, new bus maps would be designed to make it easier to comprehend the bus network and to provide location-specific maps for neighborhoods in each neighborhood. Although the MTA had already started installing bus stop signs with real-time information, the Action Plan called for more bus shelters to be equipped with these signs. Starting in 2019, the MTA's mobile app would provide real-time seat availability information on selected bus routes. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality, the agency announced its transition to a zero-emissions electric bus fleet. The MTA would also test out a double-decker bus on the redesigned Staten Island bus routes in 2018.
Safety features and customer amenities were installed on new and existing buses as part of the Bus Action Plan. By January 2019, audible "pedestrian turn warning" announcement systems were installed on 617 buses, while cameras were installed on the inside of 3,469 buses and on the outside of 319 buses. Relocated or smaller pillars were installed on most new buses to increase visibility for drivers. Amenities such as USB charging ports, Wi-Fi, and digital information screens were installed on thousands of existing buses, as well as in all new buses. Traffic signal priority systems and automatic passenger counters were both installed in over a thousand buses. In addition, the MTA was planning to buy 248 compressed natural gas buses, 285 diesel-electric hybrid buses, and 60 electric buses in order to reduce energy emissions from the new bus fleet. Ten hybrid and ten electric buses had been tested in 2018.


Hansom cab

The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn carriage designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safety cab, it was designed to combine speed with safety, with a low centre of gravity for safe cornering. Hansom's original design was modified by John Chapman and several others to improve its practicability, but retained Hansom's name.
"Cab" is a shortening of "cabriolet", reflecting the design of the carriage. It replaced the hackney carriage as a vehicle for hire; with the introduction of clockwork mechanical taximeters to measure fares, the name became "taxicab".
Hansom cabs enjoyed immense popularity as they were fast, light enough to be pulled by a single horse (making the journey cheaper than travelling in a larger four-wheel coach) and were agile enough to steer around horse-drawn vehicles in the notorious traffic jams of nineteenth-century London. There were up to 7500 hansom cabs in use at the height of their popularity and they quickly spread to other cities in the United Kingdom (including Ireland), as well as continental European cities, particularly Paris, Berlin, and St Petersburg. The cab was introduced to other British Empire cities and to the United States during the late 19th century, being most commonly used in New York City.
Design.
The cab, a type of "fly", sat two passengers (three if squeezed in) and a driver who sat on a sprung seat behind the vehicle. The passengers could give their instructions to the driver through a trap door near the rear of the roof. They could pay the driver through this hatch and he would then operate a lever to release the doors so they could alight. In some cabs, the driver could operate a device that balanced the cab and reduced strain on the horse. The passengers were protected from the elements by the cab, and by folding wooden doors that enclosed their feet and legs, protecting their clothes from splashing mud. Later versions also had an up-and-over glass window above the doors to complete the enclosure of the passengers. Additionally, a curved fender mounted forward of the doors protected passengers from the stones thrown up by the hooves of the horse.
Hansom Cab Company.
The Hansom Cab Company was set up to provide transportation in New York City and Miami, New York, in May 1869. The business was located at 133 Water Street (Manhattan), at the offices of Duncan, Sherman & Company, which served as bankers to the firm. The enterprise was organized by Ed W. Brandon who became its president. Two orders for a fleet of cabs were sent to carriage makers in New York City. A fare of thirty cents for a single person was designated for distances up to one mile, and forty cents for two people. A rate of seventy-five cents was determined for one or two persons for a length of time not exceeding one hour.
The cabs were widely used in the United Kingdom until 1908 when Taximeter Cars (petrol cabs) started to be introduced and were rapidly accepted; by the early 1920s horse-drawn cabs had largely been superseded by motor vehicles. The last licence for a horse-drawn cab in London was relinquished in 1947.
A restored hansom cab once owned by Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt is on display at the Remington Carriage Museum in Cardston, Alberta, Canada. There is another surviving example, owned and operated by the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London; in common with other horse-drawn vehicles it is not permitted to enter any of the Royal Parks.
 Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, Leicestershire also have a restored Hansom cab [2].


Toyota JPN Taxi

The Toyota JPN Taxi is a taxicab sold by Toyota Motor Corporation. Toyota Motor East Japan is in charge of manufacturing the car for the Japanese market.
The JPN Taxi is based on the JPN Taxi Concept that was exhibited at the 43rd Tokyo Motor Show in 2013. It is a successor to the Toyota Comfort and the Toyota Crown Sedan.
Design.
The passenger door on the driver's seat side is a hinged door that can easily distinguish the opened and closed state from the front and rear, and prevent the passenger from jumping forward.
The vehicle is based around a "universal design" model. The rear passenger door is an electrical slide door and it is possible to get on and off in a wheelchair. The rear seats also fold up, and a ramp folds out, to accommodate wheelchair passengers.
The powertrain is based on the hybrid system "THS II" and newly adopted "LPG hybrid system" compatible with LPG fuel. The engine uses 1.5L 1NZ-FXP, and an electric water pump that does not require auxiliary belt maintenance.
The battery is nickel hydride. In order to achieve a flat floor, the battery is thin in design and placed under the floor, and the vehicles exterior dimensions are in compliance with the Japanese Government's dimension regulations that allow tax savings for commercial use.
The dashboard and centre console differ from the related Toyota Sienta to allow the fitment of equipment for taxi operation, including an easily-accessible hazard light button on steering wheel at the driver's right thumb.
The rear cargo area is spacious enough to hold two large suitcases or four golf bags, while the passenger compartment offers nine inches of headroom due to its high roof. The vehicle comes equipped with built-in soundproofing and air purification, while the high-end "Takumi" model includes a ceiling-mounted air circulator and a heating system for the rear seats.
Safety.
The JPN Taxi is equipped with 6 SRS (driver, passenger, front side & curtain) airbags as standard as well as Toyota Safety Sense. The JPN Taxi also received a 5-star safety rating from JNCAP.
Production and sales.
From 2017 to 2020, the JPN Taxi was assembled by Toyota Motor East Japan at its Higashi-Fuji plant (Susono, Shizuoka). In December 2020, Toyota Motor East Japan moved the car production to its Miyagi plant (Ōhira, Miyagi).
, the JPN Taxi accounted for around 10% of Tokyo taxis, while the traditional Toyota Comfort model accounted for around 70%. By mid-2020 (as the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were postponed to mid-2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic), Toyota expects the JPN Taxi to account for about one-third of the Tokyo fleet.
It debuted in Hong Kong in July 2018, sold as the Toyota Comfort Hybrid. It was officially launched in January 2019. The car is distributed by Crown Motors. As of May 2019, 17 Comfort Hybrids are in service and are due to replace the Crown LPG taxis used in Hong Kong.
Four of the taxis were brought to Hong Kong initially for research and field testing before they were adopted into service.


Hino Rainbow

The Hino Rainbow (kana:日野・レインボー) is a medium-duty single-decker bus marketed by the Japanese manufacturer Hino since 1980. The range can be built as either a complete bus or a bus chassis. It was also available for the city bus for the midibus and the tourist coach for the minibus. Asia Motors (now Kia Motors) released as a badge engineered version called the Cosmos. It is built by J-Bus.
Rainbow RB/AB (1985-1995).
The Rainbow RB (rear engine)/AB (front engine) was a minibus that was built as the tourist coach.
Rainbow HR (1999-2010).
The Rainbow HR was a rebadged Isuzu Erga-J and a non-step (low-entry) city bus. The HR1J engine is J08C 220ps 6-cylinder 8-litre diesel engine. The HR7J engines J07E 225ps 5-cylinder 7-litre diesel engine with a turbocharger and intercooler.
Rainbow II (2004-2016).
The Rainbow II is a rebadged Isuzu Erga Mio. It is most common available in non-step (low-floor) city buses and they have a rounded roof dome (more rounded than the Rainbow HR) with a double-curvature windscreen and a separately mounted destination blind.
Rainbow (2016-present).
The Rainbow is a rebadged Isuzu Erga Mio. It is completely similar to the Rainbow II, with a rounded roof dome (similar to the Rainbow II), a double-curvature windscreen with a separately mounted destination blind.


Trolleybuses in Quito

The Quito trolleybus system is a bus rapid transit line located in Quito, Ecuador, which opened in 1995 and by 2002 was carrying approximately 220,000 passengers per day. It is managed by an agency of the municipality known as Empresa Metropolitana de Servicios y Administración del Transporte (EMSAT) and is operated by Compañía Trolebús Quito, S.A. The service is named (informally) "El Trole", Spanish for "The Trolley", meaning trolleybus; this name is shown on signage at stops, and is used in publicity and marketing. Before being a subsystem of a larger bus rapid transit system of Quito known as MetrobusQ, "El Trole" was itself a whole system. Its formal name is Corredor Trole or; simply "Trole", currently.
The route.
The trolleybus system is composed of a single 18.7-km line that runs, with a few exceptions, through the part of Ecuador Highway 35 (E 35) that is within Quito. The three segments of E 35 inside Quito are Avenida Diez de Agosto (northern Quito), Calle Guayaquil (center of Quito) and Avenida Pedro Vicente Maldonado (south of Quito). Seven different passenger services, or "circuitos", are operated along the trolleybus route, differing in their terminus locations but overlapping one another.
The initial 11.2-km line opened in three stages between 17 December 1995 and 21 April 1996, and connected the "La "Y"" district, in northern Quito and near Mariscal Sucre International Airport, to the El Recreo shopping mall (Centro Comercial El Recreo), in southern Quito, via the city center. On 30 April 2000, the line was extended south by 5 km to Morán Valverde. On 19 December 2008, it was extended farther south and east, by 2.5 km, to Quitumbe, where it terminates at a large new intercity-bus station. This latest extension brought the length of the full line to 18.7 km.
Between the Machángara River and the Villa Flora stop, the line originally followed separate streets in opposite directions: southbound along Avenida Cardenal Carlos Maria de la Torre and northbound along Avenida Maldonado, but the section along Cardenal de la Torre was closed in 2003, and the route thereafter has followed Avenida Maldonado in both directions along that section.
Operation.
Service is provided by a fleet of 113 articulated trolleybuses, built by Hispano Carrocera and Mercedes-Benz, with electrical equipment by Kiepe Elektrik and AEG/Adtranz. For the first phase, 54 vehicles were delivered in 1995-96. Another 59 very similar vehicles were delivered in 1999-2000 for the system's expansion.
The line operates in dedicated trolleybus-only lanes over almost its entire length, and the trolleybuses are given traffic-signal priority at most intersections. Large terminals, called "Estaciones", are located at the line's two original termini, Estación Norte La "Y" and Estación Sur El Recreo, and also at Morán Valverde and Quitumbe. In between these large terminals are many smaller stations, known as "paradas" (or "stops"), spaced about 550 meters apart, on average. In addition to the traffic separation and signal priority, other features of "El Trole" intended to facilitate fast service—and making the operation similar to many light rail lines—include the arrangements at stops:
The scheduled service frequency is very high at most times, over most of the line, with the headways/intervals being as short as 60 seconds during peak periods. All four of the major "Estaciones" (transfer terminals) are served by several suburban bus routes, "feeding" the trolleybus line, and transfers made there are free.
The original operator of "El Trole" was a department of the municipal government known as Unidad Operadora del Sistema Trolebús (UOST), but around March 2008 operation was transferred to Compañía Trolebús Quito S.A., a newly formed private company that is believed to be still municipally owned.
Stop locations.
These are the stations and stops of the trolleybus line and the street intersections where they are located:
Avenida Diez de Agosto:
Within the "Centro Histórico":
Avenida Maldonado:
Along the route extensions opened in 2000 and 2008, mostly along Av. Hugo Ortiz, Av. Quitumbe Ñan and Av. Cóndor Ñan:


Fairgrounds station (Light RailLink)

Fairgrounds station (formerly Timonium Fairgrounds) is a Baltimore Light Rail station located adjacent to the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, Maryland.
History.
The Northern Central Railway had a Timonium station near the modern location of the Fairgrounds station.
Prior to the opening of the Light Rail in 1992, the location was a park-and-ride lot with express bus service to downtown Baltimore. From 1992 until the opening of the Hunt Valley extension in 1997, the station was the northern terminus of the line. Cromwell (Yellow) service terminates at Fairgrounds during peak hours; a pocket track (at the unfinished Texas station to the north) is used to reverse trains.
Bus connections.
York, Pennsylvania's Rabbit Transit Route 83S stops at Fairgrounds.