Portal:Buses

The Buses Portal

New Routemaster double-decker bus in London, United Kingdom

A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for charter purposes, or through private ownership. Although buses typically carry between 30 and 100 passengers, some buses have a capacity of up to 300 passengers. The most common type is the single-deck rigid bus, with double-decker and articulated buses carrying larger loads, and midibuses and minibuses carrying smaller loads. Coaches are used for longer-distance services. Many types of buses, such as city transit buses and inter-city coaches, charge a fare. Other types, such as elementary or secondary school buses or shuttle buses within a post-secondary education campus, are free. In many jurisdictions, bus drivers require a special large vehicle licence above and beyond a regular driving license.

Buses may be used for scheduled bus transport, scheduled coach transport, school transport, private hire, or tourism; promotional buses may be used for political campaigns and others are privately operated for a wide range of purposes, including rock and pop band tour vehicles.

Horse-drawn omnibuses were used from the 1820s, followed by steam buses in the 1830s, and electric trolleybuses in 1882. The first internal combustion engine buses, or motor buses, were used in 1895. Recently, interest has been growing in hybrid electric buses, fuel cell buses, and electric buses, as well as buses powered by compressed natural gas or biodiesel. As of the 2010s, bus manufacturing is increasingly globalised, with the same designs appearing around the world. (Full article...)

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A Community Transit double-decker bus in Downtown Seattle

Community Transit (CT) is the public transit authority of Snohomish County, Washington, United States, in the Seattle metropolitan area. It operates local bus, paratransit and vanpool service within Snohomish County, excluding the city of Everett (which is served by the separate Everett Transit system). CT is publicly funded, financed through sales taxes, federal grants, and farebox revenue, with an annual operating budget of $248.6 million as of 2025^[update]. In 2025, the system had a ridership of 9,517,700, or about 31,100 per weekday as of the first quarter of 2026, placing it third among transit agencies in the Puget Sound region.

The system, officially the Snohomish County Public Transportation Benefit Area Corporation (SCPTBA), operates a fleet of 257 accessible transit buses, 52 paratransit vehicles, and 333 vanpool vans, maintained at two bus bases in Everett. Service is provided year-round at over 1,600 stops on 33 routes throughout the county public transportation benefit area (PTBA). These include three Swift Bus Rapid Transit lines, local and commuter routes that connect with Link light rail, and service to regional Sound Transit facilities. CT also operates several Sound Transit Express routes that serve Snohomish County, Downtown Seattle, and the Interstate 405 corridor. The agency's microtransit service, Zip Shuttle, operates in four cities. (Full article...)

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A bus driver, bus operator, or bus captain is a person who drives buses for a living. (

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General images

The following are images from various bus-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A ZiU-9 trolleybus in service in Piraeus, Greece, on the large Athens-area trolleybus system. The Russian-built ZiU-9 (also known as the ZiU-682), introduced in 1972, is the most numerous trolleybus model in history, with more than 45,000 built. In the 2000s it was effectively rendered obsolete by low-floor designs. (from Trolleybus)
Image 21937 Chevrolet bodied by Anco in Trondheim with an open cargo area integrated with the body (from Bruck (vehicle))
Image 3The chassis of an Alexander Dennis Enviro500 double-decker bus on display in Hong Kong (from Bus manufacturing)
Image 4Caetano Levante 3 bodied Scania K410EB6 operated by National Express (from Coach (bus))
Image 5A Rocar DAC 217E articulated trolleybus in Bucharest, Romania, in April 2007 (from Trolleybus)
Image 6Yutong City Master in Skopje, North Macedonia (from Double-decker bus)
Image 7Bi-articulated bus in Guatemala City, Guatemala (from Articulated bus)
Image 8Arriva Southend Plaxton Pointer bodied Dennis Dart SLF (from Low-floor bus)
Image 9A Greyhound bus in 1939. (from Intercity bus service)
Image 10A Mercedes-Benz Tourismo in Berlin, Germany (from Coach (bus))
Image 11An Indonesian intercity bus, Sinar Jaya double decker Mercedes-Benz OC 500 RF 2542 bus travelling across Java, connecting Surabaya and Jakarta (from Intercity bus service)
Image 12Trolleybus in Malatya (from Trolleybus)
Image 13MAN A39 in Berlin, Germany (from Double-decker bus)
Image 14A low-entry bus of Volgren CR228L bodied Mercedes-Benz OC500LE in Darwin, Australia (from Low-floor bus)
Image 15Bus stop with timetable attached (from Public transport bus service)
Image 16Preserved 1857 omnibus in Copenhagen, 1986 (from Horse-drawn omnibus)
Image 17Insulated poles, contact shoes, and pull–ropes (from Trolleybus)
Image 18Phileas bus (from Guided bus)
Image 19Trolleybus in Castellón de la Plana (from Trolleybus)
Image 20AEC Routemaster in Sri Lanka (from Double-decker bus)
Image 21A retired bus is used for an ambulance bus in Toronto (2014) (from Bus)
Image 22An Irizar i6 built on a MAN chassis (from Coach (bus))
Image 23French steam bus (from Steam bus)
Image 24Amédée Bollée's L'Obéissante steam bus photographed in 1875 (from Steam bus)
Image 25Volgren Optimus bodied Volvo B8RLEA of Transperth, Perth, Western Australia, Australia, November 2018 (from Articulated bus)
Image 26National Express Caetano Levante bodied Scania K340EB 6x2 with wheelchair lift at Metrocentre bus rally in May 2009 (from Low-floor bus)
Image 27Youngman articulated bus in Ürümqi, China (from Bus)
Image 282003 Volvo 9700S on B12M from Telemark Bilruter, with all doors open. Manual pallet jack is standard equipment for single-person operation. (from Bruck (vehicle))
Image 29SmartRider card for Transperth (from Transit bus)
Image 30A Transit Systems Scania K280UB at Westfield Miranda (from Bus)
Image 31Gillett & Co Steam bus licensed by the Metropolitan Police on 21 Jan 1899 (from Steam bus)
Image 32Solaris Vacanza 13, A 3-axle Solaris coach manufactured between 2001 and 2010 in San Sebastian, Spain (from Coach (bus))
Image 33Spokane Transit Alexander Dennis Enviro500 MMC double-decker bus at Eastern Washington University (from Double-decker bus)
Image 34Many low-floor buses feature extendable ramps. (from Low-floor bus)
Image 35First appearing in London in 1947, the AEC Regent III RT (pictured) was the predecessor to the AEC Routemaster. (from Double-decker bus)
Image 36Bus bunching caused by misaligned bus timetables (from Public transport bus service)
Image 371983 Repstad-bodied Volvo B10M, converted for transport of racing horses (from Bruck (vehicle))
Image 38A 1965 Mercedes-Benz LPO 322 Bruck in Karlskrona, Sweden (2005) (from Bus)
Image 39Arriva Southern Counties Volvo B7TL with TransBus ALX400 bodywork in England (from Double-decker bus)
Image 40Trolleybus on tunnel line in Tateyama (from Trolleybus)
Image 41Bus timetable in Tamil Nadu, India. (from Public transport bus service)
Image 42Cross-sectional diagram of the parallel direction curbs of the bus lane in Essen, Germany (from Guided bus)
Image 43A 1986 van-derived Ford Transit minibus bodied by Carlyle (from Bus manufacturing)
Image 44A Ringtrambus hybrid bus in Belgium (from Bi-articulated bus)
Image 45A BMTC UD SLF bus (from Low-floor bus)
Image 46Pole bases with springs and pneumatic pole lowering cylinders (from Trolleybus)
Image 47BYD B12C01 double-decker bus operating in Santiago, Chile (from Double-decker bus)
Image 48A 1912 Daimler CC Bus, one of five (English) Daimler Company buses exported to Australia (from Bus)
Image 49An articulated Wright Eclipse Fusion, bending as it drives round a corner at the University of Bath, England, May 2008 (from Articulated bus)
Image 50A Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B9TL (from Low-floor bus)

Did you know? – show different entries

... that trolleybuses in Derby (example pictured) last operated in 1967, but there are still five preserved by collectors?

... that Casper the Commuting Cat is a book about the true story of a cat who was a regular bus commuter in Plymouth, England?

... that MASA, formed in 1959, was the second-largest manufacturer of buses in Mexico when it was acquired in 1998 by Volvo?

... that Nepal's first public bus service was founded in 1959 by Karuna Ratna Tuladhar and his brother?

... that television dramas have portrayed criminals riding around Weston-super-Mare on an open-top bus?

... that the UFO-like Kielce Bus Station (pictured) has been praised as "one of the most valuable" architectural designs of the last decades of the People's Republic of Poland?

... that residents of Motspur Park feel that the London Buses route K5 should be more frequent?

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Selected image

These are images selected by Wikimedia Commons, as either Quality, Valued, or Featured images.

Image 1An Iveco Crossway of Blaguss, Vienna
Image 2Trolleybuses outside Salzburg Hbf, Austria
Image 3A trolleybus in Brno, Czech Republic
Image 4View from Slussen towards Gamla stan (Old town) and Riddarholmen. In the background Kungsholmen and Stockholm City Hall.
Image 5A bus at the University of Nottingham
Image 6A preserved BVG MAN SD200, operating Berlin bus 218
Image 7A KMB bus, in Hong Kong
Image 8A Mercedes Citaro O530, of the Oxford Bus Company
Image 9An abandoned bus in the Atacama Desert
Image 10A trolleybus in Novosibirsk, Russia
Image 11A Dopravní podnik hlavního města Prahy, Karosa B 732 in Prague
Image 12A Setra S 415 NF of the operator BahnBus Hochstift, in Paderborn bus terminal.
Image 13A Connexionsbuses operated Scania Omnidekka, at Thorpe Arch industrial estate, Wetherby.
Image 14A MAN Lion's City of BSAG, Bremen Hauptbahnhof
Image 15A Leyland Olympian, and the Grade II listed Angel Inn
Image 16A Karosa Bus in Olomouc
Image 17The Agora and de l'Assut de l'Or Bridge – Part of the Arts and Science complex in Valencia
Image 18A preserved Bristol SUS, which was operated by Western National
Image 19An Irisbus Agora Line vehicle in Avignon, France
Image 20Buses in Oslo
Image 21An East Lancs bodied Volvo B10M, owned by Hilton's travel, Newton-Le-Willows
Image 22The freight trolley TG-5, Vinnitsa, Ukraine.

Bus People

Image 1
Robert R. Kiley (September 16, 1935 – August 9, 2016) was an American public transit planner and supervisor known for his ability to rehabilitate transit systems experiencing serious problems. From 2001 to 2006 he was the first commissioner of Transport for London, the public organisation that runs and maintains London's public transport network.

Kiley also worked as a CIA agent, CEO of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, deputy mayor of Boston, chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and president and CEO of the New York City Partnership. He is credited as being the architect of the revival of Boston and New York's ailing public transport systems in the 1970s and 1980s respectively.

Kiley unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Boston in 1983. (Read More)
Image 2
Sir Moir Lockhead OBE DHC (born 25 April 1945 in County Durham, England) is an English businessman. He was Chief Executive and Deputy Chairman of UK transport group FirstGroup. Originally a mechanical engineer, he left school (West Cornforth Secondary Modern) at 15 to become apprentice mechanic in a bus garage in Darlington, before working for a short period as a management trainee with Tarmac. In 1979, he was appointed Chief Engineer of Glasgow City Transport. He joined Grampian Regional Transport in 1985 as General Manager, and went on to lead the successful employee buy-out as GRT Group.

He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1996 for services to the bus industry. He is a past President of the Confederation of Passenger Transport. He was knighted in the 2008 Birthday Honours. In 2009, the University of Aberdeen awarded him a Doctorate honoris causa (DHC). In 2010, he was awarded the VisitScotland Silver Thistle Award for outstanding services to the tourism industry in Scotland.

In 2011, he was appointed Chairman of the Scottish Rugby Union. In 2014, he was re-appointed for a second three-year term. In 2014, he was appointed Chairman of the National Trust for Scotland.

In January 2011, First Great Western powercar 43160 was named Sir Moir Lockhead as was First ScotRail diesel multiple unit 170401 in March 2011. (Read More)
Image 3
Julian Henry Peddle (born November 1954) is an entrepreneur who has worked in the bus industry since the early 1980s, having owned or part-owned numerous bus companies. He spent 11 years as co-owner of Stevensons of Uttoxeter between 1983 and 1994, having previously been its traffic manager. During the late 1990s and early 2000s he ran Status Group, a group of small bus companies spread across England which included BakerBus, Choice Travel and MK Metro. He was a major shareholder in Tellings-Golden Miller and Centrebus Holdings before their sale to Arriva. (Read More)
Image 4
Samuel Ledgard (1874–1952) was a Leeds entrepreneur who became a major West Yorkshire Independent bus operator. Following his death in 1952, his executors continued to operate the Samuel Ledgard bus company until 1967, when it was acquired by the West Yorkshire Road Car Company. (Read More)
Image 5
Kathleen Andrews (née Smith; May 17, 1940 – November 17, 2013) was a British-Canadian bus driver and transport manager. Her pioneering role as the first female Transit Operator, Dispatcher and Manager in Edmonton, Alberta was later commemorated by the city.

Kathleen Smith grew up in Rochdale, Lancashire and migrated to Edmonton aged 14. She graduated from Ross Sheppard Composite High School in 1959. Following a marriage and subsequent divorce, she sought full-time employment to support her family, which led to joining the Edmonton Transit System (ETS) in 1975. She initially fulfilled the role of Bus Information Clerk, before becoming the first female bus driver that May. After three years, she became the first female Bus Dispatcher, and was eventually promoted to manager of Special Service charter buses. She was commended by the council as being the first female in any significant management capacity in the city. She continued to drive school buses after her retirement from ETS in 1998, and died of cancer in November 2013.

In 2014, the city council created the Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage at a cost of $196 million, covering 500,000 square feet of space and accommodating 300 buses and 700 drivers. The garage did not open officially until February 2020. (Read More)
Image 6
Werner Wolfgang Heubeck (24 October 1923 – 19 October 2009) was a German–British transport executive who was managing director of the Northern Ireland transport companies Ulsterbus and Citybus. (Read More)
Image 7
Karuna Ratna Tuladhar (Nepali: करुणारत्न तुलाधर) (23 October 1920 – 19 July 2008) was a pioneer of Nepalese public transport. He was proprietor of Nepal Transport Service which he and his brother Lupau Ratna Tuladhar founded in 1959. This was Nepal's first public bus service which linked the capital Kathmandu with the railhead of Amlekhganj, 190 kilometers to the south near the Indian border.

The same year, Nepal Transport Service also started the first local shuttle between Kathmandu and Patan (Lalitpur), one of the three cities in the Kathmandu Valley. (Read More)
Image 8
John Greenwood (born 1788, died 1851), transport entrepreneur, was the keeper of a toll-gate in Pendleton on the Manchester to Liverpool turnpike. In 1824 he purchased a horse and a cart with several seats and began an omnibus service, probably the first one in the United Kingdom, between Pendleton and Manchester. His pioneering idea was to offer a service where, unlike with a stagecoach, no prior booking was necessary and the driver would pick up or set down passengers anywhere on request. Later on he added daily services to Buxton, Chester, and Sheffield.

John Greenwood, and a number of competitors, created a network of omnibus services, often acting as feeders to the railways. When he died in 1851 he left a flourishing business to his son, also named John (II) (b. 12 May 1818, d. 21 March 1886), which in that year became the Manchester Carriage Company.

By gestation, and amalgamation, in 1880, this became the Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company, led by John Greenwood (II). Following the council taking control of passenger transport services, in 1903, the residuary operations became The Manchester Carriage Co. (1903) Ltd, led by John Greenwood (III) (b. 1856).

For how this initial service developed, see Timeline of public passenger transport operations in Manchester. (Read More)
Image 9
Ann Heron Gloag DBE (née Souter; born 10 December 1942) is a Scottish businesswoman, activist, and charity campaigner. She is co-founder of the transport company Stagecoach Group.

According to The Sunday Times Rich List in 2024, Gloag and her brother, Sir Brian Souter, are worth £815 million, an increase of £35 million from the previous year.

In 2023, Gloag put Beaufort Castle, her Category A listed residence in the Scottish Highlands, up for sale at £7.5 million. Located near Kiltarlity, 13 miles west of Inverness, the castle was originally built in the 12th century and then rebuilt in 1880. Gloag purchased the historic estate, which includes a 26-bedroom principal property, a chapel, six residential cottages and 127 acres of land, in 1994 for approximately £1.5 million. (Read More)