world’s largest bus « The Gondola Project

Posts Tagged: world’s largest bus

23
Jan

2012

World’s Largest Bus – Youngman JNP6250G – 300 Persons

Youngman JNP6250G - world's largest bus in terms of capacity. 300 passengers.

In recent news, various news media outlets (1,2,3) have reported that we’re about to see the world’s largest bus – Youngman JNP6250G in China. The official statistical breakdown of this public transit behemoth is as follows:

300 person capacity (40 seats, 260 standing)
25 meters (standard bus: 12m)
top speed ~80kph

Of course, as soon as this news story went online, the classic age old debate of “my bus is bigger than your bus” soon emerged. The Brazilians and Swiss have chimed in and proved that their bi-articulated buses are similar in length if not longer than their Chinese competitors (Switzerland: 24.7m and Brazil: 28m). Despite such similar bus sizes, the Chinese bus somehow beats their challengers in terms of maximum capacity (300 persons vs the 128 person capacity in Switzerland and 250 person capacity in Brazil). My initial guess for this discrepancy is that loading standards vary dramatically country by country.

28m bi-articulated bus in Curitiba. Image by Chinadaily.

Nevertheless, given the enormous capacity of these buses, it appears that it begins to challenge those coveted numbers seen in LRT systems. Let’s do a quick comparison:

Melbourne’s Bombardier Flexity Swift LRV: 150
Minneapolis’ Bombardier Flexity Swift LR: 180
Calgary Siemens SD160NG: 226

If we directly compared these figures, the Youngman bus holds up to 2x the number of passengers in the Melbourne LRVs.

So I understand that capacity is not the only thing important in building better and faster rapid transit networks. However, since we’re now able to manufacture such large functional modern buses and assuming building BRT infrastructure is more cost-effective than LRT, what’s preventing us from pursuing such transit initiatives in North America? Aesthetics? Comfort? Pride? Environmental concerns?

Want more? Purchase Cable Car Confidential: The Essential Guide to Cable Cars, Urban Gondolas & Cable Propelled Transit and start learning about the world's fastest growing transportation technologies.