Everything about Low Floor totally explained
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 (or seating that folds up) 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's 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."
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. In Austria the Porsche designed ULF trams,
Ultra Low Floor Trams, can kneel at the curbside, reducing the height from the road to only 180 mm. They only run in Vienna. 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 bus configurations
In
bus and
trolleybus design, many manufacturers achieve a low floor height by making rear-engined rear-wheel-drive buses with independent front wheels so that no
axle is 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 isn't 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's 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 or ramps.
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 isn't well-suited for street-side stops.
Curitiba in Brazil uses high-floor buses stopping at "tube station" bus stops. Many other Brazilian cities have since adopted this system. 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 (7 inches)
- Low-floor tram - 300mm to 350 mm (11.8 to 13.78 inches)
- High-floor tram - more than 600 mm (23.62 inches)
- Train - 800 mm (31.5") to 1200 mm (47.25") (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
AutoRad Controlle
Bustech VST (body)
Blue Bird Ultra LF
Custom Coaches CB60, CB30 (body)
DAF/VDL Bus
Daewoo Bus
DAB 1200C
Dennis Specialist Vehicles/TransBus/Alexander Dennis
EBL Plasma
Gillig
- "Advantage" Low Floor
- Hybrid Low Floor
- "Extreme" BRT
Heuliez
- GX117/GX217/GX317/GX417
- GX127/GX227/GX337
Hino
Hungarobusz H63/H63S
Hyundai Motors
- New Aero City low-floor
- Super New Aero City low-floor
Ikarbus
Ikarus
- 290 (airport bus)
- 411, 412, 417
- 481, 489
- E91, E94, E94F, E99
Irisbus Citelis
Isuzu
Iveco CityClass
Jelcz
- M125M VECTO
- M121I (60% low floor)
- M181M/1 TANTUS (articulated 60% low floor)
Kravtex
- Credo BN 12
- Credo BN 18
- Credo EN 12
MAN
MAZ
Mercedes-Benz
Mitsubishi Fuso
Neoplan
Neoplan USA
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
North American Bus Industries
- 35-LFW
- 40-LFW
- 60-LFW / 60-BRT (Bus Rapid Transit)
- Excel
- Solo
Nova Bus LFS
Orion Bus Industries
Optare
Renault Agora
Scania
Setra
- S215NC, S217NC
- S300NC
- S315NF, S319NF
- S415NF (not yet in service)
Solaris
Solbus SN11M
SOR NB 12 CITY, NB18 CITY
Thomas Built Buses
Low-floor trolleybuses
Designline
Ikarus: 260T, 280T, 411T, 412T, 435T
Irisbus: Civis, Cristalis
Lviv Bus Factory
ElektroLAZ-183 (External Link
)
MAN Kiepe NG
Neoplan
New Flyer Industries: E40LFR, E60LFR
Solaris
Škoda: 21Tr, 22Tr, 24Tr, 25Tr
Jelcz
MAZ: 103T
Low-floor trams
Avanto
Cegielski 118N "Puma" (>60% low floor)
Citadis
Citytram
City Class LRV
Cobra
Combino
Combino Supra
Crotram TMK 2200
Flexity Classic
Flexity Outlook Cityrunner and Eurotram
Flexity Swift
Incentro
PESA 120N and derivatives
Sirio
Ultra Low Floor
MBTA Type 8
Variotram
Low-floor trains
Talent
Talgo
Stadler Flirt
Amtrak Superliner
Further Information
Get more info on 'Low Floor'.
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