The Volvo B5TL is a 2-axle

low-floor Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...

double decker built by

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

. It replaced the B9TL as Volvo's Euro 6 2-axle double decker product for the UK and Irish markets.

Design

The B5TL is powered by Volvo's new 5.1 litre D5K-240 engine, which is rated at 240 bhp/177 kW. The move to a smaller engine is one of the weight-reduction measures implemented to the new bus. Along with its bodybuilding partner

Wrightbus Wrightbus is a Northern Ireland based bus manufacturer and a pioneer of the low-floor bus. The company was established in 1946 by Robert Wright and was later run by his son William Wright, until it was acquired in 2019 by British businessman ...

, the whole bus achieves a reduction of 1,000 kg comparing to its predecessor. Volvo stated that, with the smaller engine and weight reduction, the B5TL will achieve 10% improvement on fuel economy. Wrightbus currently offers the lightened

Gemini 3 Gemini 3 was the first crewed mission in NASA's Project Gemini and was the first time two American astronauts flew together into space. On March 23, 1965, astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young flew three low Earth orbits in their spacecraft, ...

bodywork for the B5TL, which contributes 70% of the weight reduction. MCV is also offering their body as an alternative to the Wrightbus design, while

Alexander Dennis Alexander Dennis is a British bus manufacturing company based in Larbert, Scotland. The largest bus and coach manufacturer in the United Kingdom with a 50% market share in 2019, it has manufacturing plants and partnerships in Canada, China, ...

have exclusively built 89 examples of their Enviro400 MMC body on the Volvo B5TL chassis for

Lothian Buses Lothian Buses is a major bus operator based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the largest municipal bus company in the United Kingdom: the City of Edinburgh Council (through Transport for Edinburgh) owns 91%, Midlothian Council 5%, East Lothian ...

History

Taunton Bus Station - First 36300 (BF63HDC)

The first example appeared in London in autumn 2013, entering service with

Go-Ahead London Go-Ahead London is the trading name used collectively for the London bus operations of the Go-Ahead Group. The name first appeared in August 2008, before which the company had traded under separate names and brands. It is currently (as of 2021) ...

in October 2013 for evaluation. It remained until late February 2014 before being returned to Volvo.The Bus Was Also Used For

Stagecoach London Stagecoach London is a major bus operator in Greater London. It is a subsidiary of Stagecoach and operates services under contract to Transport for London mostly in East and South East London as well as some services into Central London. It i ...

For Other Routes. Four further B5TL demonstrators have appeared in early 2014. One was trialed by

, before moving to

Go North East Go North East operates both local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It was previously known as the Northern General Transport Company and Go-Ahead Northern. The compa ...

. Another was trialled by operators such as Transdev on service 36. Both of these have now been purchased by

East Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to th ...

and operate on the company's 66 route between Hessle and Hull. The other two were delivered to

London General London General is a bus company operating in Greater London. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group and operates services under contract to Transport for London. The company is named after the London General Omnibus Company, the principal ...

and

Metroline Metroline is a bus company operating services in Greater London and south Hertfordshire. It is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Corporation and operates services under contract to Transport for London. As at March 2021, the fleet consisted of 1,5 ...

and placed in service on routes 12 and 297 respectively. In March 2014,

Translink Translink (or TransLink) may refer to: * TransLink (British Columbia), the public transport operator in Vancouver, Canada * Translink (Northern Ireland) Translink is the brand name of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo), a ...

of Northern Ireland, placed an order for 42 buses with the new Wright Gemini 3 bodywork, with the last of them carrying the further redesigned version. In May 2014, Lothian Buses had ordered for 25 buses, all of them were Wright Gemini 3 bodied. Translink placed a second order in 2017 for 32 B5TLs, 10 of which being long wheelbase models for use on its Airport 300 service, with the remainder for use in Belfast. All of these have the new style front. Outside the UK, a B5TL demonstrator was delivered to

Dublin Bus Dublin Bus ( ga, Bus Átha Cliath) is a State-owned bus operator providing services in Dublin. By far the largest bus operator in the city, it carried 138 million passengers in 2019. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann. ...

in early 2014 for evaluation. A batch of 70 (SG-class) were subsequently ordered by Dublin Bus with deliveries commencing in August 2014. In 2015

Bus Éireann Bus Éireann (; "Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Ireland, with the exception of Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subsidia ...

took delivery of 25 B5TLs, while

ordered a further 90 examples. Dublin Bus have continued to place orders, and by the end of 2017 it had a total of 370 in service. Further orders were placed for 2018-2019 deliveries, building up to a total of 546 in service by December 2019.
Dublin Buses .com There are also 72 in service with

Go-Ahead Ireland Go-Ahead Transport Services (Dublin) Limited, known as Go-Ahead Ireland is a bus operator in Dublin that commenced trading in September 2018. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group. History With the aim of improving efficiency, in 2015 the ...

, some of which were transferred from Dublin Bus and others delivered brand new to Go-Ahead. By the end of 2017, Bus Éireann had a total of 85 B5TLs in service across Ireland, operating in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Drogheda, Dundalk and Galway. Volvo Buses removed product information on B5TL from their British website in mid-2021.

References

External links

Archived product information on Volvo B5TL
{{Volvo Buses, state=collapsed Double-decker buses Vehicles introduced in 2013 B05TL Low-floor buses Bus chassis