Buses - Great Britain (since 2000): books: history

Low-Floor Single Deckers

NEW

For many years, individuals with disabilities, wheelchair users, and parents with young children faced challenges when attempting to access single-deck buses with high steps and raised floors.
However, a pivotal shift occurred in the 1980s when a new generation of buses with stepless entrances and level floors was introduced. This transformation reached the UK in 1992, prompting operators to gradually phase out older high-floor single-deckers in favor of these innovations.
Many of these buses were adaptations of existing European models, but UK-based manufacturers, such as Dennis, Optare, and Wright, designed more cost-effective models tailored to the domestic market. The most prominent example is the best-selling Dennis Dart, which later evolved into the Alexander Dennis Enviro200 series.

Traditionally, low-floor single-deckers were powered by diesel engines. However, environmental concerns in the early 2000s spurred engineers to reconsider this approach, leading to the emergence of diesel-electric hybrids, gas-powered buses, battery electric buses, and currently, hydrogen-powered buses. Diesel models are gradually giving way to zero-emission alternatives as the latter gain popularity.
Illustrated with over 150 images, this book tracks the evolution of low-floor single-deck buses from their initial introduction three decades ago to the latest gas, electric, and hydrogen-powered models.

Low-Floor Double-Deckers

In just under 25 years, double-deck buses in the UK have undergone a transformation. Every double-decker in normal service in the UK today is a low-floor bus offering easy access to everyone.
This book traces the story of the UK's low-floor double-deckers, from the first tentative steps to the widespread adoption of this layout and the moves from diesel buses to diesel-electric hybrids, to gas, electric and even hydrogen buses built for bus companies of all sizes. It covers the London operators that initially drove the low-floor revolution, along with the major groups, the remaining local authority fleets and a range of enterprising independents that operate them.

Where once every double-decker for service in the UK was built in the UK, today many chassis come from mainland Europe and, increasingly, from manufacturers based in other and more distant parts of the world - and UK builders have gained an important foothold in Europe, North America, and the Far East as well. The story is told for the first time, on a model-by-model basis, supported by many unseen colour images, which show the buses in use throughout the UK.