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The engineering that allows articulated buses to bend

129 points CharlesW 2 days ago 62 comments

happytoexplain 1 day ago | parent

I like watching the other half of the bus while riding these. It's a cool effect, seeing the whole "room" oscillate through the "doorway", while I feel like I'm standing still.

Edit: The article has a video of this effect near the bottom.

havnagiggle 1 day ago | parent

The trains around Munich, Germany were fantastic for that effect. 15+ cars long with wide, open pivots.

Lio 1 day ago | parent

Yep I find the Elizabeth Line in London has this effect too.

I find it a bit freaky to be honest but you do get used to it.

Aachen 1 day ago | parent

Most metros are like this no? Not much seating, just articulated open tubes(-in-tubes)

Symbiote 1 day ago | parent

Only if the trains are less than about 25 years old. Before that there were only narrow walkways between carriages.

rob74 1 day ago | parent

I agree that it looks impressive (you just have to catch a time where the train is mostly empty to be able to see end to end), but 15 cars is a bit exaggerated. The U-Bahn trains have 6 cars, the current S-Bahn EMUs have 4 cars (up to three of them can be coupled, but you can't pass from one unit to the next). But the new S-Bahn trains scheduled to be delivered from the end of 2028 will be 200 meters long and have 13 cars (Siemens is apparently not superstitious) where you can indeed walk (and look) from one end to the other: https://press.siemens.com/global/en/pressrelease/germanys-mo...

ortusdux 1 day ago | parent

My college years did not include all that many hangovers, but I distinctly remember not enjoying this effect one morning.

delecti 1 day ago | parent

One silver lining to the bus being packed is standing with one foot on either side of the articulation pivot. Feeling your stance change under you while you're standing still is neat.

doginasuit 1 day ago | parent

The best part is sitting in the swivel part and having the whole bus bend around you.

Reason077 1 day ago | parent

> “The articulated bus is a common sight everywhere”

Certainly not in London where they were famously banned in 2009.

Now days they’re uncommon throughout the UK, with UK cities having a preference for double-deckers. You do see them in use as shuttles at some UK airports, though.

hagbard_c 1 day ago | parent

Why were they banned? They're used in the Netherlands which is rife with small bendy streets so if that was the argument it seems to be somewhat spurious.

tonyedgecombe 1 day ago | parent

There were some fatalities that got a lot of attention in the media. There was also a problem with fare evasion. Some were catching fire as well. A perfect storm of issues.

contingencies 1 day ago | parent

Also don't forget changing anything is a great opportunity for grift and politicking. Test. Evaluate. Plan. Consult. Pilot. Source. Phase out. Phase in. Maintain. A lot of public money to distribute! A lot of project credit-taking and future-progress-aligning to be image-jacked!

sagarm 23 hours ago | parent

So we should never change anything?

contingencies 17 hours ago | parent

So we should just cede management to the AI and get about solely in personal transport that is tracked and logged and authorized at every turn?

skrtskrt 1 day ago | parent

The British press really never misses a chance to do the wrong thing huh.

globular-toast 1 day ago | parent

In this case it was the right thing. Double deckers are better.

I didn't know until now that they're only common in Britain. I guess when travelling you don't notice things like "there aren't many double decker buses".

Symbiote 1 day ago | parent

The right-wing media at the time latched onto them as the cause of all of society's problems, and Boris Johnson promised to get rid of them if he was elected mayor.

In addition to the other reply's issues, they replaced the dirty and stinking but British-made old Routemaster buses, they were much more accessible to the disabled and babies (pushchairs), they were used successfully elsewhere in Europe, and they use more road space which could otherwise contain an important person's car.

I think they're still used in cities outside London, but that's OK since Daily Telegraph journalists never go there.

zarzavat 1 day ago | parent

They sucked basically. A bendy bus takes up twice as much space as a double decker while being half as fun to ride on. Even with double deckers many bus stops operate beyond capacity with multiple buses in contention at a stop, double deckers allow 3 buses to load simultaneously allowing six busloads of people to board in a space that would only allow for 1 bendy bus, essentially tripling the capacity.

They also cause problems for other road users such as cyclists.

Bendy buses work well if your city has wide straight roads. London's roads are neither.

ajuc 1 day ago | parent

On the other hand if you have trolleybuses (like in my city) the double-deckers are a problem and articulated buses aren't.

zabzonk 1 day ago | parent

in the 1960s, the UK had lots of double-deck trolley buses with few problems - I used to ride them to school.

ajuc 1 day ago | parent

Aren't the hanging lines a problem with double-deckers?

gavinsyancey 1 day ago | parent

Not if you plan for double-deckers and put the lines higher up. And then single-deckers need a longer pickup pole.

zabzonk 15 hours ago | parent

no, not really. occasionally the power pickup thingy would get detached from the overhead wires, but the driver had a big pole to hook them up again.

the trolleys were basically replacements for trams, which needed a lot of street furniture in the form of rails, points, etc. which caused problems for the increasing use of cars. but i always liked them (trolleys).

secretsatan 1 day ago | parent

Any public transport initiative that in any way inconveniences a car driver gets hate in the UK

bell-cot 1 day ago | parent

Call me a fossil, but double-decker busses just seem so much cooler. Without all the added engineering complexity, costs, and footprint.

Aachen 1 day ago | parent

Boarding times though? I agree of course about the cool factor and I was sure to ride one when visiting London, but afaik the slower (dis)embarking times are why double-decked trains are primarily used on intercity trains and not on commuter/local trains or light rail (metro etc.). Typical busses stopping every two minutes are probably similar

Edit: wait, I know one in Germany as well. It's expensive but between Frankfurt airport and another major city, there is a rail line but somehow the bus is significantly faster and they're using double deckers. The front row at the top was, n=3, always free for me (all four seats) so you get a quite unique experience, at least so far as my bus experiences in mainland western Europe go :)

dominotw 1 day ago | parent

> Boarding times though?

cant they just put another entry door?

anewhnaccount2 1 day ago | parent

The original designs had boarding at the back. Don't even have to stop people can just leap on.

adrianmonk 1 day ago | parent

You can, but it's easier to evade fares. The driver can enforce fares better at the door near them.

My local transit agency just stopped allowing rear door boarding, and that was one of the main reasons: https://waypointblog.com/capmetro-is-ending-rear-door-boardi...

dominotw 1 day ago | parent

maybe i dont understand how articulated bus makes boarding faster. If anything it makes it slower compared to double decker .

TuxPowered 1 day ago | parent

Double deckers I’ve seen have just one narrow staircase. You can’t have people go up and down at the same time. Through a door you can move some people in and out at the same time, however it’s rude, but since it’s a door and not a lengthy corridor, you can easily have a group of people go out, let new passengers in, and get in again.

dominotw 20 hours ago | parent

can't they just widen the staricase to match the space in the aisle. Aisles in city buses tend to be very narrow too making ppl bunch up near the driver if one person is standing in aisle in a awkward way. Ppl also bunch up near the driver because if someone has stop coming up they dont want to traverse all the way to the back and then travese out to the door. Some ppl are also anxious about get 'stuck' in middle and missing their stop.

gavinsyancey 1 day ago | parent

Because they're longer, you can fit more doors on the side. If you allow all-door boarding, it's faster.

TuxPowered 1 day ago | parent

The goal of public transportation is to move people fast around the city. Not to have the driver sell the tickets, that’s what the ticket machine is for (both on stations and on board). Anybody using public transportation daily probably has a monthly ticket anyway. And not to provide tourist information.

People want to get to work on time after all. Entering and leaving the tram or bus through all door is a simple way to improve public transports reliability.

bell-cot 1 day ago | parent

> Boarding times though?

Often true. OTOH, the reduced footprint (vs. either 1 articulated or 2 normal busses) can speeds things up, especially on cramped and congested city streets. And if you're getting near gridlock-level congestion, the length of the articulated busses can be like dumping gravel into your system's gearbox.

TeMPOraL 1 day ago | parent

True. While I love our articulated buses in Kraków, if one of these stops mid-turn on an intersection, it blocks 3 out of 4 movement directions.

kergonath 1 day ago | parent

These issues are solved with dedicated bus lanes, which are desirable even for double deckers.

hagbard_c 1 day ago | parent

How about articulated double-decker buses? The one does not need to exclude the other after all. It'd need a large harmonica to deal with hills and bumps or it could have separated top floors with sloping roofs.

bell-cot 1 day ago | parent

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplan_Jumbocruiser

> need a large harmonica to deal

I'd guess you mean "large accordion". Either way, the size & complexity of that joint section may be why the idea never went anywhere.

andrewshadura 1 day ago | parent

How about double-articulated double-deckers?

imtringued 1 day ago | parent

Now I want an articulated double decker trolley bus with an articulated double decker trailer.

kergonath 1 day ago | parent

You have different footprint issues. And a lot of cities seem to have been doing ok with the engineering bit for what, 60 years now?

Double-deckers are cool, I’ll grant you that. And a very nice way to visit a city. But they are far, far less efficient in terms of capacity.

adrianmonk 1 day ago | parent

When I got to where they explained the benefits of having the engine at the very back and the instability of having the back part push the front, I tried to guess how they solved it. I guessed a fancy drive shaft with universal joints so the engine in the back half could drive wheels in the front half.

I guessed wrong. I still like my idea, but their solution is simpler and probably more efficient and more durable too.

simondotau 1 day ago | parent

A more modern solution would be to use electric motors on multiple axles, the power coming from a generator or battery.

ryukafalz 1 day ago | parent

The bus version of an EMU train

BrtByte 1 day ago | parent

I wonder how much extra complexity a driveshaft crossing the articulation joint would introduce

netsharc 1 day ago | parent

Just 2 days ago: one of these buses had an accident that left the front part twisted 180 degrees in relation to the rear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flbaRmGKzPY

The Munich bus-trailer in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IUE-yA8R1A

myself248 1 day ago | parent

This article's byline features one of the most magnificent cases of nominative determinism I've ever seen. I wonder if it's a nom de plume.

readthenotes1 1 day ago | parent

Name chosen on gender change

https://medium.com/@MissMercedes/the-birth-of-mercedes-cb41d...

lowbloodsugar 1 day ago | parent

Unfuckingreadable.

kdkdkdjffj 1 day ago | parent

you are absokutely right

gattis 1 day ago | parent

double length bus has to be one of dumbest ideas i've ever seen. jams up a whole block every time it tries to turn. usually at least half empty and not helping anything. double decker. brits figured it out already.

themadturk 1 day ago | parent

Yeah, double deckers don't work everywhere. Overhead infrastructure isn't always conducive. And I rode one of these for years (it could have been the very bus in the first picture) and they were often full on the suburban runs.

anArbitraryOne 1 day ago | parent

I relate more to the inarticulate bus

AnthonBerg 1 day ago | parent

well spoken are its wheels

anArbitraryOne 13 hours ago | parent

Truly a hub for circular reasoning

AnthonBerg 6 hours ago | parent

Yes! And. Please bear with me:

SONG OF INDRA

Thus indeed, thus is my mind : kine and horses will I win. Have I not drunk of the Soma ?

Like the roaring winds the draughts of Soma have roused me up. Have I not drunk of the Soma ?

The draughts have roused me up, as swift horses a chariot. Have I not drunk of the Soma ?

The hymn has drawn nigh to me, as a lowing cow to her dear calf. Have I not drunk of the Soma ?

As a carpenter a seat for the chariot, round my heart I bend the hymn. Have I not drunk of the Soma ?

Haha, had to. This is such an absurdly beautiful translation of a Vedic hymn by Thomas. Source: page 50: https://archive.org/cors/vedichymns00unse/vedichymns00unse.p...

whatever1 1 day ago | parent

Omg! My whole life I thought that the rear engine articulated buses transferred the torque to the middle axle (the rear axle of the front “bus”)!

BrtByte 1 day ago | parent

Same here :) I always assumed the engine was just placed at the back for packaging reasons and somehow drove the middle axle

lesam 1 day ago | parent

Why is it that this and similar ad-filled pages constantly crash/reload? On mobile safari in reader mode, if it helps. I would have expected reader mode to be more stable since it removes a bunch of junk, but sadly no.

The article seemed cool but I was only able to read 20 seconds at a time between crashes.