A rigid bus (either a

motor bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or trol ...

) is a

vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), ...

used in

public transportation Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

services with a single, rigid chassis. A bus of this type is to be contrasted with an

articulated An articulated vehicle is a vehicle which has a permanent or semi-permanent pivot joint in its construction, allowing it to turn more sharply. There are many kinds, from heavy equipment to buses, trams and trains. Steam locomotives were sometim ...

bi-articulated bus A bi-articulated bus or double-articulated bus and sometimes train-bus or tram-bus is a type of high-capacity articulated bus with an extra axle and a second articulation joint, as well as extended length. Bi-articulated buses tend to be emplo ...

, which will have two or more rigid sections linked by a pivoting joint, also with a

trailer bus A trailer bus is a trailer vehicle designed specifically for the transportation of passengers (a bus). Trailer buses typically comprise one of two forms: *a semi-trailer pulled by a tractor unit (in the same way as a semi-trailer truck). The t ...

, which is formed out of a bus bodied

semi-trailer A semi-trailer is a trailer without a front axle. In the United States, the term is also used to refer to the combination of a truck and a semi-trailer; a tractor-trailer. A large proportion of a semi-trailer's weight is supported by a trac ...

pulled by a conventional

tractor unit A tractor unit (also known as a truck unit, power unit, prime mover, ten-wheeler, semi-tractor, tractor truck, semi-truck, tractor cab, truck cab, tractor rig, truck rig or big rig or simply a tractor, truck, semi or rig) is a characteristical ...

. The term "rigid bus" is used mainly in

British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...

and Australian English and usually only when distinguishing such buses from articulated buses, such as describing a fleet that includes both types. In the case of two-axle buses, which must be single-chassis, rigid vehicles, British English often refers to such vehicles as "two-axle" buses, only using the term "rigid" when referring to vehicles with three or more axles, which can be either rigid or articulated. The term "rigid bus" is not used in

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...

, where the distinction is commonly made using the term "non-articulated" bus or, when the context is clear, "standard bus". However, the term "standard bus" can be confusing, because it is sometimes used, in other English-speaking countries, referring to a uniform bus design developed for and by a number of European bus manufacturers, in two model generations, between the 1960s and the end of the 20th century. The German

VöV-Standard-Bus The VöV-Standard-Bus is a standard for transit buses in Germany based on requirements by the VöV Association of German Transport Companies. The first concept was named (standard city bus) which resulted in multiple variants of VöV-Buses. The fir ...

includes the

Mercedes-Benz O305 The Mercedes-Benz O305 was a single deck, double deck and articulated bus manufactured by Mercedes-Benz in Mannheim, West Germany from 1968 until 1988. It was built as either a complete bus or a bus chassis and was the Mercedes-Benz adaptatio ...

and the

Mercedes-Benz O405 The Mercedes-Benz O405 was a single-decker bus manufactured by Mercedes-Benz from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s as either an integral bus or a bus chassis and was the last VöV SL-II standard bus in production. It was the replacement for th ...

types, each of which, in both rigid and articulated forms, was widely acquired and used by bus operators in English-speaking countries outside North America. Rigid buses may be of either single-deck or double-deck design, and may have either two axles or multi-axles. However, the expression "rigid bus" is seldom used to describe a double-decker bus, because very few double-decker buses have anything other than a rigid chassis. Single-decker rigid buses are used mainly on bus lines with an average ridership (for example, as

transit bus Transit may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Transit'' (1979 film), a 1979 Israeli film * ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countries in the world * ''Transit'' (2006 film), a 2006 ...

es or regional buses on routes with normal levels of patronage), or as coaches.

References

External links

{{buses Buses by type

See also

References

External links