At 65 feet, this is the longest bus in California
If you live in LA, look out for the new bus on the orange line. It's the longest bus in California. The MetroLiner is 65 feet long, five feet longer than normal buses are allowed to be by law. It had to get a pass as a prototype to drive on California roads. The extra 5 feet allows another 20 passengers to fit in the bus bringing the capacity to 100 people. The bus runs on clean natural gas.
Other countries have longer buses than America. The Metro Liner is an accordion style with just one bend but there are buses with two bends. Those buses can be 88 feet long with a capacity of 300 people. America is far behind in the battle for the longest bus in the world. We need to change the laws. Why stop at 88 feet? Why not a 100 feet bus? 110 feet? We can do it! Below the fold is video of a shorter, accordion MetroLiner.
[Source: LA Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Adam 10:14PM (8/28/2007)
I say a 3 bend bus is physically possible and I agree, it is time America regain its honor, by building a fleet of such buses!
They could be 150 feet long and have a capacity of 500!
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TDIMeister 9:06AM (8/29/2007)
My city in Germany runs a fleet of double-bend buses manufactured by Dutch company Van Hool that are 25 meters (about 82 feet long). The capacity is said to be 184 passengers. I ride this bus regularly, and the use of this massive bus is all the more impressive in a very compact city by North American standards. Being a passenger and watching it slip through traffic with mere inches of clearance to other vehicles and negotiating corner turns are pretty amazing!
Link below contains a picture and some information about the buses.
http://tinyurl.com/3by7qu
North American buses are dinosaurs to the state-of-the-art in Europe, and I can say this as a resident on both sides of the Atlantic AND user of public transport.
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hotstreak 11:05PM (8/29/2007)
I haven't yet riden this new bus. I usually take the orange line twice a month woth friends to get down to hollywood. As of now, they only have one of these 65 ft. long buses.
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Chris M 2:56AM (8/30/2007)
Unfortunately, this does nothing to solve the major problems with bus transit - it still means slow travel with lots of stops, transfers, and long waits. In fact, the transit authorities may decide to reduce frequency on routes to cut labor costs! Of course, that means even more waits and less riders.
What good is such a long bus when most of the seats remain empty?
There is a better answer. See:
http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/prtquick.htm
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