LOW FLOOR

In public transportation, 'low-floor' is a term describing vehicles such as buses, trolleybuses, and trams whose passenger compartment has a floor which is considerably lower than that of traditional models. A recent development in the transport industry, vehicles of this type have a stepless entry and usually have an area without seating next to at least one of the doors where wheelchairs and perambulators can be parked. In addition to improving accessibility, low floors also allow fully-mobile passengers to board more quickly, and in some cases can produce improvements in overall speeds.
The low floor may extend over the complete length of the vehicle, or some parts may be higher with ramps or steps inside the passenger compartment to allow for under-floor components. If the vehicle is entirely low-floor, there is no place for bogies or even axles connecting corresponding left and right wheels (they would be at a higher level than the floor). This is solved with single-wheel drives, motors integrated into the wheels, and (in case of trams) short carbody sections, as the axleless design constrains bogie movement, which in turn affects the minimum radius of the curve that can be negotiated. Enthusiasts frequently see these designs as a step "backwards."

Contents

Low floor tram configurations

Low floor (trolley)bus configurations

Alternatives

Typical floor heights

List of low-floor vehicles

Low-floor buses

Low-floor trolleybuses

Low-floor trams

Low-floor trains

Low floor tram configurations

Trams traditionally had high floors. From that model the tram with a low floor centre section has arisen. Examples of this are from Amsterdam 11g/12g-trams and the Kusttrams in Belgium. The most common construction on 100% low floor vehicles is one where is shorter carbody sections for the wheels and longer suspended sections. Examples of this are the Citadis and Combino. A similar, but somewhat older technique is one that has been developed by MAN and was in 1990, the first 100% low floor tram. These trams are found in ten German cities (such as Bremen and Munich) and in the Swedish city Norrköping. In many other German cities there are trams with low floor between the outer bogies and single axle bogies under the centre section. "Light rail" type frequently vehicles have a similar configuration but with the centre bogie which is designed to accommodate a low floor situated under a short centre section. A more radical approach has been adopted for the City Class LRV (Citytram), where the main low floor section is only 300mm above the rail. The low floor runs right through the articulation of both the 29m long and 38m Super Citytram version. In both the corridor across the articulation is wide enough for seated passengers and a wheelchair to pass through.The City Class has been design to turn on 15m radius curves and climb 10% gradients.

Low floor (trolley)bus configurations

In bus and trolleybus design, a true low-floor is difficult, as most use heavy-duty truck-type chassis that sits high off the ground. Even when lowered, it is still several steps up into the main cabin. Many manufacturers simplify the job by making rear-engined rear-wheel-drive buses with independent front wheels so that no axle needed to pass under the cabin. Van Hool has a series of "side-engine rear-drive" buses that puts the engine off to one-side of the cabin longitudinally to maximize cabin usable space.
In buses and trolleybuses, low floors can be complemented by a hydraulic or pneumatic 'kneeling device', which can be used when the bus is not in motion, tilting it to one side and thus lowering it even further towards the surface level of the road, often low enough to match the height of a normal curb. Though such technology has been available and in use on high-floor buses since the 1970s, it is only of significant utility on low floor vehicles where it enables less-mobile passengers to board and leave the vehicle without help from others. Many vehicles are also equipped with wheel-chair lifts.

Alternatives

Although Low-floor trams and buses are currently being further developed and are already in use in various parts of the world, generally in urban areas, some systems, such as Manchester's Metrolink, chose to use high-floor trams with level boarding platforms (possibly because parts of the network use old railway stations) to achieve the same results as low-floor trams; this simplifies the design of the vehicles, but makes stations larger and more expensive, and is not well-suited for street-side stops.
Curitiba in Brazil uses high-floor buses stopping at "tube station" bus stops. Some transit agencies refuse to order low-floor buses altogether, such as New Jersey Transit and (until recently) MUNI owing to terrain conditions in the service area or MTA Long Island Bus or DART out of preferences of high-floor vehicles. Although New York City Transit runs some 40 foot low-floors, it refuses to order D60LF buses from New Flyer, opting for D60HF's (high floors), and is currently in a dispute with New Flyer regarding this.

Typical floor heights

To put things into perspective, here are some typical floor height for public transport vehicles, old and new:

★ Ultra Low Floor tram - 180 mm

★ Low-floor tram - 300mm to 350 mm

★ High-floor tram - more than 600 mm

★ Train - 800 mm to 1200 mm (even 51 in or 1351 mm in the case of standard North American passenger cars.)

List of low-floor vehicles

Low-floor buses

★ Alfabusz Localo

★ Bustech VST (body)

★ Blue Bird Ultra LF

★ Custom Coaches CB60, CB30 (body)

★ DAF/VDL Bus

★
★ DB250LF

★
★ SB120LF

★
★ SB200LF

★
★ SB220LF

★
★ SB250LF

★ Daewoo Bus

★
★ BS120CN

★
★ BS110CN

★ DAB 1200C

★ Dennis Specialist Vehicles/TransBus/Alexander Dennis

★
★ Dart SLF

★
★ Trident 2

★
★ Trident 3

★
★ Enviro 200 Dart

★
★ Enviro 300

★
★ Enviro 400

★
★ Enviro 500

★ EBL Plasma


★ Gillig

★
★ "Advantage" Low Floor

★
★ Hybrid Low Floor

★
★ "Extreme" BRT

★ Heuliez

★
★ GX117/GX217/GX317/GX417

★
★ GX127/GX227/GX337

★ Hino Motors

★
★ "Blue Ribbon City" HU2PM/HU8J(Hybrid)

★
★ "Rainbow HR"

★
★ "Poncho HX"

★ Hungarobusz H63/H63S

★ Hyundai Motors

★
★ New Aero City low-floor

★
★ Super New Aero City low-floor

★ IkarBus IK-112N / IK-218N

★ Ikarus

★
★ 290 (airport bus)

★
★ 411, 412, 417

★
★ 481, 489

★
★ E91, E94, E94F, E99

★ Irisbus Citelis

★ Isuzu

★
★ Cubic LV832

★
★ Erga LV834/LV280/LV234

★
★ Erga Mio LR233/LR234

★ Iveco CityClass

★ Jelcz

★
★ M125M VECTO

★
★ M121I (60% low floor)

★
★ M181M/1 TANTUS (articulated 60% low floor)

★ Kravtex

★
★ Credo BN 12

★
★ Credo BN 18

★ MAN

★
★ NM/NL/NG/ND xx2

★
★ Lion's City (NM/NL/NG/ND xx3)

★ MAZ

★
★ 103, 107

★
★ 203

★ Mercedes-Benz

★
★ O405N / O405GN

★
★ Citaro

★
★ Cito

★ Mitsubishi Fuso

★
★ Aero Star MP747/MP37

★
★ Aero Midi

★ Neoplan

★
★ N814 (the first low-floor bus, 1976), N816

★
★ N409

★
★ N4007/4009/4010/4011/4013/4014/4015/4016/4018/4020/4021/4024/4026/4032

★
★ Transliner N316NF/N316LNF/N318NF/N318LNF

★
★ Centroliner

★
★ Regioliner

★
★ Apron

★
★ Airliner

★ Neoplan USA

★
★ AN435LF

★
★ AN440LF

★
★ AN460LF


★ New Flyer Industries

★
★ D30LF (diesel) / DE30LF (diesel-electric hybrid) / C30LF (CNG) / L30LF (LNG)

★
★ D35LF / DE35LF / C35LF / L35LF

★
★ D40LF / DE40LF / C40LF / L40LF / GE40LF (gasoline-electric hybrid) / DE40LF BRT (Bus Rapid Transit)

★
★ D60LF / DE60LF / DE60LF BRT

★
★ D40i / DE40i Invero

★ Nissan Diesel

★
★ Nissan Diesel Space Runner RA

★ North American Bus Industries

★
★ 35-LFW

★
★ 40-LFW

★
★ 60-LFW / 60-BRT (Bus Rapid Transit)

★
★ Excel

★
★ Solo

★ Nova Bus LFS



★ Orion Bus Industries

★
★ Orion II

★
★ Orion VI

★
★ Orion VII

★ Optare

★
★ Excel/Excel II

★
★ Solo

★
★ Alero

★
★ Tempo

★
★ Versa

★ Renault Agora

★ Scania

★
★ L94UA/L94UB

★
★ N94UA/N94UB

★
★ OmniCity

★
★ OmniDekka

★
★ OmniLink

★ Setra

★
★ S215NC, S217NC

★
★ S300NC

★
★ S315NF, S319NF

★
★ S415NF (not yet in service)

★ Solaris

★
★ Urbino 10/12/15/18

★ Solbus SN11M

★ SOR NB 12 CITY, NB18 CITY

★ Thomas Built Buses

★
★ Thomas Dennis Company LLC

★
★
★ SLF 200

★ Van Hool

★
★ A308

★
★ A320

★
★ A300

★
★ A360

★
★ A330

★
★ A600

★
★ AG300

★
★ AG500

★
★ AGG300

★ Volgren CR221L, CR221LD, CR223LD, CR228L (body)

★ Volvo

★
★ B6LE

★
★ B6BLE

★
★ B7L

★
★ B7RLE

★
★ B7TL

★
★ B9L

★
★ B9TL

★
★ B10L

★
★ B10TL

★
★ B10BLE

★
★ B12BLE

Low-floor trolleybuses

★ Designline

★ Ikarus 411T, 412T

★ Irisbus Civis

★ MAN Kiepe NG

★ Neoplan

★
★ N6014

★
★ N6108/6110/6114/6121

★
★ Electroliner N6216/N6221

★ New Flyer Industries

★
★ E40LFR

★
★ E60LFR

★ Solaris Trollino

★ Škoda 21Tr, 22Tr, 24Tr, 25Tr

Low-floor trams

★ Avanto

★ Citadis

★ Citytram

★ City Class LRV

★ Combino

★ Flexity Classic

★ Flexity Outlook ''Cityrunner'' and ''Eurotram''

★ Flexity Swift

★ Incentro

★ Sirio

★ Ultra Low Floor

★ ZET 2200

★ MBTA Type 8

Low-floor trains

★ Talent

★ Talgo

★ Amtrak Superliner