Why Trucks Aren't Buses (Anymore)

[@Evan_Horvath]

We used trailer buses in basic training at Ft. Sill, OK in 2009. They usually shuttled us around in actual cattle trailers, but we were sometimes treated with one of these bus trailers, which were furnished with seats and were air conditioned. I've never seen them anywhere else.

[@blackwito9690]

They're still in service at Leonard wood, got done with basic there a few months ago. Honestly they haven't changed at all since you got done but I did like the AC.

[@tome8373]

2014 fort benning had them

[@christianmonson6193]

2017 ft sill had them

[@quitefranklyjosh]

Still a thing. Or at least it was in 2014.

[@josephtruong590]

@@blackwito9690 I was just going to mention about Leonard Wood, actual cattle trailers.

[@yitznewton]

I'm a school bus driver and recently upgraded my license to Class A. It had a restriction for no "Class A passenger vehicles." I was like, "what the hell are those," and I discovered the existence of bus trailers. Thank you so much for making this!

[@RichTheNoun]

Same situation here! I have literally all the possible endorsements on my license. Yes- School bus, passenger, double/triple trailers, Tank, Hazmat. Motorcycle too. My son asked if there was anything I COULDN'T drive. Yep, there's one restriction- Class B passenger or lower vehicles only. I had to search around to find a class A passenger vehicle, looks like this video found a lot of them!

[@pauldavis5665]

I would imagine a long RV trailer might also be considered a Class A passenger vehicle.

[@RichTheNoun]

@@pauldavis5665 I don't think so, because in most states anyway, nobody can ride in them while in motion

[@theaxer3751]

So why did you upgrade your license unless you actually plan on driving one of these?

[@RichTheNoun]

@@theaxer3751 CDL Class "A" is your garden variety big truck driving license

[@poorlittlebiker6476]

Im a bus driver and i was always curious about these. I would think it’ll be a decent ride for the passengers being that it would have a long wheel base and no engine in the passenger area. And imagine the truck having a sleeper and it having two drivers, you could keep that bus running across the whole country 😂

[@ShitHappensRLY]

a lot of long haul busses has a little compartment for sleeping with enterances both from outside and inside

[@Mach_Style]

Thats actually an interesting concept. The modern semi truck can be made just as smooth and comfortable as a coach bus, and with ability to pull a 53' trailer across all states, that leaves more room for passengers in a quiet space. Meanwhile, two drivers can team drive much like freight and the bus can stay moving. Though stops will have to still be made for fuel and passenger breaks, I could see this being a better alternative to long haul bussing over coach buses only downside is that the US still doesn't like Busses and trains for public transit and thus always gets the short end in funding lol. That and we currently have a law statin that no persons can ride in a trailer on a road vehicle.

[@NEEDMORECOW8ELL]

Back in this era the trailers were probably leaf-sprung. Nowadays they'd probably be much smoother on the air ride

[@ericgeorgetruckgrilling]

@@Mach_Style The law about riding in a trailer was pushed by the RR just before the 1939 Words Fair I NY. They didn't want the public dragging a trailer behind their vehicles and taking away business from the RR. It had nothing to do with safety. Most states it used to be legal to ride in a trailer as long as it was a 5th wheel attachment. Now with seat belt and air bag laws there is only about a dozen where you can.

[@poorlittlebiker6476]

@@Mach_Style thats what i was thinking, and then you can get crazy and add a double decker with the extra length…..talking about moving cites of people lol. And yeah I can definitely see the breaks happening, I drive for greyhound and I like the runs where there’s no more than two hours of driving, it gives me a break but more importantly- it gives my smokers an chance to smoke! I would be okay with having like an hour long break at truck stops to fuel and let the passengers get off and walk around. And I couldn’t agree more with public transportation funding, people don’t ride the bus because it’s unreliable, it’s unreliable because people don’t take the bus, in doing so the city doesn’t fund for better infrastructure/Pay for staff because it doesn’t make money, it doesn’t make money because it goes right back in a circle to my first statement lol. Edit: i forgot to mention: I didn’t know it was illegal to ride in trailers, maybe because the vast majority of trailers are meant for cargo and not human transport? I wonder if a trailer that was actually designed to move people would be made the exception. I know on military bases they sometimes still use trailer buses- but at the same time, thats in an area where you can throw live Grenades and no one thinks twice about it 😂.

[@BlackSeaRC]

These types of buses were commonly used at airports in Ukraine and were still in use quite recently at some of them. The tractor unit was a ZiL-130V1, the passenger carrying semi-trailer was designated APPA-4. Capacity was 130 passengers. Production ran from 1973 to 1995.

[@jeffreylebowski2440]

Sláva Ukraine!

[@vladkornienko7889]

Heroyam slava!

[@clairevero]

The Ukraine is a backward country

[@BlackSeaRC]

My initial comment was provided to give a little insight into some specific vehicles and for everyone interested in unusual automotive equipment. I don't think it is necessary to get politics involved!

[@jeffreylebowski2440]

@@BlackSeaRC Welcome to the Internet this is not Russian Federation. So I can say what I want and I wanted to show respect to the Ukrainians who are suffering everyday fighting for their indepence against a brutal enemy which is much more important topic than a bustruck if you have problem with that I don't know what to tell you I am not disrespecting anybody here.

[@D3Vlicious]

Missing the gigantic Marmon-Herrington "Pullman" buses used by the Nairn Transport Company to run cross country trips in the Middle East in the 1930s. These were more like airliners, with two classes (first class and coach), a kitchen for meals, air conditioning, refrigeration, and spaces for the three drivers to sleep as they took shifts on their 18-24 hour long journeys.

[@charlesyoung7436]

I recently saw a KZbin video on these vehicles running the desert route between Syria and Iraq. It's well worth watching.

[@MikinessAnalog]

That's how I first heard of them.

[@richardhaselwood9478]

Really interesting video that one.

[@marvindebot3264]

Yes this, the overlanders. There was also a regular service from London to Calcutta right up until 1976. The bus, like NTC's rigs had kitchen, showers etc onboard which was a good thing as the trip was over 10,000 miles one way.

[@DrakonBlake]

Trains might be better suited for that job if rails are a good option

[@joyanttaandon829]

The image of the Indian trailer bus is from Bangalore, India. They ran all the way up to the late 1990s and I have seen them rattling around steets of Bangalore in my childhood. Such nostalgia seeing one parked at the Majestic Bus Terminus in this video. Thanks for bringing back memories from my childhood.

[@ghq8982]

F inida. India is a begger sh!t h@le country

[@Shehbaaz]

Correction here, that Indian DD trailer bus is from Mumbai. The number plate says MTF xxxx which corresponds to Maharashtra

[@nikhila1307]

Why in India stopped?

[@t.s.p1864]

@@nikhila1307 as I've vedio mentioned such trailer buses were very difficult to maneuver in cities. Indeed they should have used them as interstate sleeper coach buses that would be more successful. And this type of bus is still usefull especially in india but should be allowed travelling above 500 kms. Ie interstate bus operators.

[@niwashlarc4599]

@@Shehbaaz Its literally a photo of the bus in Majestic Bus Stand which is in Bangalore. How is this Mumbai?

[@MikoyanGurevichMiG21]

I feel like the articulated bus is the more refined "child" of the trailerbus concept which ended up being the more practical approach.

[@Skorpychan]

SLIGHTLY more practical. Bendy buses suffer from the same problems, except that maintenance is even more expensive due to all the moving parts being hidden inside. There's a reason London ditched them. And not just that they killed cyclists. They tried using them where I live, but the demo bus had to have a special route in from the motorway to where they were displaying it, and had to go down pedestrianised routes because it couldn't navigate the one-way system due to the tight corners.

[@FirstnameLastname-kn5sw]

@@Skorpychan Weird, they are seemingly very successful in Copenhagen

[@SorenCicchini]

@@FirstnameLastname-kn5sw Yeah, we have them in Perth, Western Australia.

[@noob.168]

@@Skorpychan bendy buses are common in LA, NYC, and Chicago.

[@Skorpychan]

@@noob.168 Big cities with plenty of space, built for large vehicles. You wouldn't see them in San Francisco, because they'd overheat getting up the hill. You don't see them in any british cities, because they re too long, and were also only bought because of backhanders.

[@cwh050]

In South Africa they were mostly used by the mines to transport workers between the living quarters and mine. The mine operators liked them since the truck could be detached and used for goods transportation. I seem to vaguely remember also seeing a mobile clinic (Tuberculosis screening [?]) variant as a kid.

[@cyberfrank-bx2nv]

wow, this is one instance where the comments are gold... without, we d have no idea how this is global and where, and all the different uses, thanks for your own contribution bro

[@robertsmith4830]

I also have a memory of them being used as mobile clinics, mostly in more rural areas, they were generally plain white in colour with a small logo on the door perhaps?

[@mplewp]

If only australia build one as a roadtrain ….. that would be friggin dope

[@Slash0mega]

I had the same though, but I wonder if there would be enough demand for it. no point in running one if you can't fill at least one segment. I have no idea what the demand is for transportation into the deeper, rural areas of australia is,

[@OpreanMircea]

but the required wardrobe would be belts and spikes to ride one

[@SorenCicchini]

@@Slash0mega You're right. There just isn't high enough demand for public transport except within cities, where road trains can't operate. Most rural routes don't even have a road coach every day of the week, and there will be only one on the days it does operate. Australia also has high private car ownership - I don't think I know any adults that don't own a car. If you're travelling rurally, you will probably need a private vehicle at your destination. Regional centres are usually a long way apart, and if you're not driving, air travel is usually an attractive alternative (Perth to Broome is cheaper by air and more than 30 hours faster, with about 5 flights per day vs 3 buses per week), with car hire available at the airports.

[@danielrose1392]

There are some ideas for bus rapid transit applications. Build an long bus with the engine and a fifth wheel coupling behind, then attach a bus trailer. The resulting platform would be much more capable in snow than articulated buses because it concentrates a lot of weight on the driving wheels. Not sure if you would call it a road train, but about 30m would make a pretty impressive bus.

[@PrivateMcPrivate]

@@danielrose1392 that would be frigging epic. Semi-bus with a trailer bus best bus.

[@iamdenislara]

2:09 OCTA (Orange County Transportation Authority) Superbus Mobile Maintenance Training. OCTD receieved two of these in 1987. In 1993 they received 10 more. They always operated together as 7001/7501 & 7002/7502 and 7101/7601 to 7110-7610. These were used exclusively on the 721 park & ride run from Fullerton to Los Angeles. One summer they did try them on the 43 on Harbor Blvd, but it didn't last more than a few months. In 1996 three (7108/7608-7110/7610) went to the Inland Empire Connection, and in 2001 7105/7605 went to Palm Springs. All have since been sold except 7102/7502 which is now used in maintenance for a mobile office.

[@matyaskalab3176]

In Czehoslovakia the trailer bus was mostly used for worker transit to and from company. The combo consisted of semi truck Škoda 706 and modified body of bus Škoda 706 RTO. The driver came to work, attached the bus, colected workers, then detached the bus and worked as normal truck driver and at the end of the shift, he would drive the workers back to different stops around nearby town (some companies still do this, but they hire third-party bus companies)

[@PtrkHrnk]

1:41 To add there was never a "small fleet", only the prototype set, as shown in picture.

[@matyaskalab3176]

@@PtrkHrnk it was used, I heve even sat in the prototype

[@Papinak2]

@@PtrkHrnk there was a small fleet between 1949 and 1957, but it was Karosa D4 trailer behind a normal bus, not the semitrailer type.

[@Scumful]

@@PtrkHrnk sometimes even KZbinrs get things wrong bud, take everything online with a grain of salt. I believe this commenter though, cause if he was lying that’d be the dumbest flex ever

[@PtrkHrnk]

@@Scumful I didn't accuse anyone of lying, I just tried to clarify.

[@TheDarkfighter101]

2:10 That's the OCTA Superbus, one of a few super bus lines in Southern California in the 90s, They had a bathroom, snack bar, chargers for laptops, and were generally seen as a link between other commuter services like trains and planes. This bus ran from the airport, and there is also superbuses in Palm Springs than ran from metrolink. The most recent pictures I have found of either are debadged in storage lots in the early 2000's. They have probably been scrapped by now.

[@JamesHorton-fo3yv]

OCTA had issues with finding bus drivers with the upgraded CDL to drive the Super Bus.

[@echidna1428]

This channel is so underrated, the production quality is so good, I can't wait to see where this channel goes in the future!

[@Cuppasoupn00b]

Came here to say just this

[@edilsonmartins6653]

Também acho.

[@hobbes5043]

I really enjoyd the part where he made us watch a 3 minute video on some topic and then kept saying he's not an expert and doesn't know anything about it. Read a booke you philistine

[@echidna1428]

@@hobbes5043 sorry you feel that way. I watched this video for entertainment and am not that interested in the world of garbage trucks to the point where I would read a book on it. If you'd like to read a book on the topic I'm not stopping you

[@ConscriptDavid]

We have those in Israel, used by the Army and Prisoner service. They are all old and rundown, but have a large capacity and trucks are always available. EDIT:I thought I'd add more info. In Israel, they are called "Tiyulit", or "field-tripper", since their primary use has been moving school children and army soldiers on filed trips. They were used originally because of a bus shortage, but then because they were cheaper and easier to run on the rough terrain in the developing country. Mostly, they were used where budget was more important than the comfort of your passengers. Another reason they remained after all these years is that until recently, they had a sort limbo in classification, meaning getting a license for one was easier. Finally, they are cheaper to secure against attacks compares to buses, as the engine of a bus might struggle with a reinforced chasis, but a truck has no issue pulling an semi-armored cab, so in the Palestinians Territories, these are often used when security during transit is important. But really, the reason they are used is because they haven't broken down yet.

[@cyberfrank-bx2nv]

each example people cite here is more amazing than the next, yours scores quite high, ha, ha

[@Tiger351]

The privately owned bus company I used to work for in Australia had some of these back in the 40's, they had a large poster on the wall of the office depicting almost every model bus they operated between 1925 - 1990 including a semi-trailer bus.

[@hikerbro3870]

Trailer busses were still in use as internal transportation at Ft Benning, GA as late as 2010. They are used to transport soldiers to and from the various training areas and ranges. We called them "cattle trucks", for obvious reasons. For all I know, they may still be in use.

[@fewchan]

There is only one active trailer bus in Tokyo. That bus connects Musashi Itsukaichi Station with a hot spring called Tsurutsuru Onsen. The trailer bus was adopted to imitate a steam locomotive and is more of a tourist attraction.

[@cyberfrank-bx2nv]

fascinating... thank you very much for your infos bro

[@Nubby007]

The first bus you showed being pulled by the red Daf is my neighbor's. It's the original tractor to that trailer and it was always used to transport employees at the Phillips factory in Eindhoven.

[@HNBGamer]

I like these few bus crossover episodes, buses and trucks do share a few aspects sometimes

[@Just_Waitin_For_A_Mate]

It's definetly not uncommon for buses to share their engines with trucks, although usally detuned versions. They also can share transmissions, axles, and wheels. They can even some interior components, such as dashboards, and driver's seats.

[@kimpatz2189]

There is an even more commonality to them when such a bus was built on a truck chassis. The Philippines, especially the central visayas, has bus owners build their brand new bus from a cab & chassis package. They leave the truck cabin alone as they dont want to mess with the complicated electronics on the cab. You can order them prebuilt or build it on your own shop. This also gives the vehicle a chance when the 15 year lifespan of being a bus gets used up. A quick swap of the bus body to a dropside or a cargo box gives it new life as a cargo truck.

[@Gean...de...Oliveira]

@@Just_Waitin_For_A_Mate Here in Brazil front engine buses are very common. Manufactures like Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Volkswagen have chassis made specifically to be used as a bus. They are basically a rigid truck chassis (a Mercedes-Benz Atego, per example) with the front axle located a little bit more away from the front of the chassis so the front door can be placed there. The bodies are made by other manufactures, like Marcopolo, Caio, Neobus...

[@thirstyalliance]

in the netherlands in eindhoven at the daf museum there is a full setup of a trailer bus with alot of info and history placed next to it and also if i remember it correctly it did state why they stopped producing them one of the reasons was the thrue the roof building cost. i highly recommend that museum if you want to learn more about semi's from civillian use to military use to royal use and their cars that they made and races they part took in it

[@SeedemFeedemRobots]

2:27 the driver in trailer design looks exactly how it feels to drive while in a dream

[@igostupidfast3]

Yup wish I wasn't driving a 60k lbs truck in one of those dreams

[@ChemEDan]

Why is this so relatable LOL

[@MLB9000]

Usually when I have those dreams the brakes don’t work

[@thetechnocrat4979]

It looks like a Mallet type locomotive on the road.

[@emeraldzebra9360]

I went on one of these at Ibiza Airport here in Spain as a child and thought it was super cool then too. It was when our flight did rear entry loading & didn't even reach airbridge height. So they just parked anywhere and put us on these. They were really comfy even over the speed bumps

[@JFBence]

Hungarian coach builder, Ikarus also had these operate in Budapest. For trolleybuses and coaches too. Nowadays only 1 or 2 remains which are reconstructed. You can search for "pótkocsis Ikarus". Also this trailer setup was relatively short lived in Hungary, but gave way for one of the first articulated buses, which were put together at Ikarus works, without proper plans. Interestingly, articulated buses remained "trailer vehicles" in the case of road registration for quite some time in the mid 19's.

[@fawncashew]

It's so validating to know that the thing I was so passionate about being real when I was 5 turns out to actually have been a thing. Also, the trailer company mentioned at 1:36 has definitely far far outlasted the tractor company that were imported to pull them and has inversed the transaction of product - crosaley has been out of business for at least 40 years now, while DAF is pretty big in the UK commercial vehicle scene

[@VeloxBY]

2:11 The Ukrainian example is actually an Airport Shuttle Bus to transport passanger from the plane to the airport building. Also known as Airport Apron Bus.

[@paveloleynikov4715]

Proper name is АППА-4, and while this one is shot in Ukraine, they were built in Riga and widespread in all USSR.

[@adionyt]

The swiss one aswell. On the side it says Flughafen Zürich which means Airport of Zürich.

[@vadim6385]

I guess these were cheaper than purpose designing and building specialty low floor airport buses.

[@illdeletethismusic]

makes sense for those things to be used in situations the obscenely long and detailed vehicle regulations for regular roads don"t apply to

[@paveloleynikov4715]

@@vadim6385 It was 60-70s designs... I suspect, that low entry designs for buses was exactly widespread at that point

[@gamingmoth4542]

When I was at Basic Training we rode in Trailer Buses to travel between the Reception Battalion to the main barracks so we can start Red Phase.

[@enzoscarp]

i was literally looking at my local bus museums website which had been updated and saw a semi-trailer bus in their collection and was like what is that? that bus you showed from australia is the exact one i saw. this was two days ago. amazing timing for this to appear

[@xmo552]

I had something like that happen to me. My hippy art teacher said I'm in tune with the universe and its a sign your life is going the way it's supposed to go. Same with deja vu... he said it's like they're bookmarks or street signs you come across on your road of life... again showing you're on the correct path of life. 🤷‍♂️

[@knk3220]

Trailer bus in Japan became obsolete in 1956. The main reason behind was a fire in 1950, yokosuka that someone brought flammable stuff onboard and caught fire. The driver didn't realize there was a fire in the trailer and 50 people died.Its safety became a main issue thus they were no more in service. A point to note, there were LHD tractor used to pull the carriages although Japan is RHD. It was believed that driver would had better observation on passengers.

[@madmax678]

Loving the channel, im a UK based truck driver and seeing the in-depth videos of truckers from different countries really pulled me in, keep up the good work!

[@imhereoften9452]

6 years ago while in Marine Corps MOS training, we used these to get from our barracks to the training area. They were usually decent, however there was one trailer that I’m pretty sure was converted from a horse trailer. That one managed to tear a hole in my cammies.

[@onenameddome9247]

I realy like how you are expanding the channel to more than just trucks, keep it up.

[@bitsyray]

The ones from the USA (white with orange and blue stripe) were orange county transit authority. The last units operated after Octa retired were with Sun Line Transit Authority out of Coachella CA. Dubbed "Sun Link" Because it was a commuter to the desert. It ran between Beaumont and Coachella.

[@colemando-qc4io]

Love that you're expanding to other transportation as well as trucks, it keeps it fresh 🥳

[@dadoVRC]

I was been in a trailer bus in Italy, in a private road in a Camping, in the '80s or maybe early '90s. The camping is named Cieloverde (green sky) since is entirely covered by pine trees. The bus was carrying people from the camping to the beach, since the dimensions of the camping are huge and there are something like a kilometer between the camping and the sea.

[@mynameisntJon]

I've seen these used by mining companies in South Africa. Although I think the last time I saw one was about a decade ago, but I'm sure there might still be some in use somewhere. I imagine the convenience of using the same truck to collect workers in the morning and then using the truck during the day to pull regular trailers, is why they used them. And of course in S.A. everything will be used until it completely turns to dust.

[@epicoutdoor5795]

I passed a brand new trailer bus here in Tzaneen, Limpopo, South Africa yesterday. Also noted them in Ceres, Western Cape. It is popular for farms to truck in harvesters. When Picking season is done, they can repurpose the truck for other transport.

[@Lasfrans]

We still (2022) use them here in Welkom Free State for ferrying mine workers from the hostels to the shafts

[@mushemoses1393]

@@epicoutdoor5795 The yellow/orange bus ZZ2 tomatoes staff bus

[@thapelonthole5702]

Also in Botswana there where used to transport miners and soldiers

[@vumba1331]

The trailer busses were used by South African Railways and effectively provided a 'road train' service in the country where there were no railways, generally they served the smaller rural communitiesand took them to and from the railway stations. From memory they were painted a muddy dark red almost purple, and were driven by maniacs. Last time I saw one was going through the Kei River gorge in 1973.

[@quantumphaser]

Maybe Elon will hook one of these up to the E-Semi. Zero to 100kph in about 5 or 6 seconds with a 53 foot trailer full of people sounds like a fun ride with a decent chance of disaster. I'm down.

[@oliverscratch]

I have had a ride in two of these. One was the tourist "bus" on Catalina Island. The other was used for a while as a shuttle between the terminal and the rental car area at the Minneapolis airport.

[@gandalfnator]

in Osnabrück (a german citty in Lower Saxony) we have the BusPlus. you have one picture of these kind of bus in your video. They are normal busses, but with a trailer for passengers, when they need higher capacitie around the early mornings and noon, when school starts for example.

[@TheInvaderD]

I recall these being used in rural areas in my hometown in the 80s, they were briefly also used at the airport as a backup transport system

[@repenseprod]

in Brazil we use trailers for children's entertainment with super fun characters. Something called a Carreta Furacão, like as "hurricane wagon"

[@Garfie489]

Idea where these could be useful - and they actually already use this idea in other transport systems. Long distance Sleeper busses. They already use this for trains, because by having the main sleeping compartment unmotorised allows for a quieter and more comfortable ride compared to DMUs. Allowing the bus to effectively only have road noise and a lack of engine and associated vibrations may be somewhat advantageous for whats admittedly a very limited market.

[@prathamkalgutkar7538]

Well honestly, modern luxury busses with engines on thier back are very silent already, I have been travelling on them since my birth and the sound even sleeping over the engine, really never bothered me or really anyone for that matter

[@illdeletethismusic]

add a double shell design for the trailer and hydropneumatic suspension and you"ll be on to a winning formula for that tiny market. additional advantage, you can swap not just driver, but whole drive unit should the trip take longer than a driver is allowed to be on the road.

[@MikeV8652]

@@illdeletethismusic The torsion axles used on the better classes of modern travel trailers are amazingly smooth-riding.

[@Perich29]

perfect for motor coach not city bus or school bus.

[@BigPhil.]

Another interesting trucking topic might be concrete mixers, and the differences between front and rear discharge mixers. Pretty cool machines and there is quite a bit of variation depending on operating location.

[@mac249_7]

There aren’t very many photos but the Walt Disney World resort in Florida had a few trailer truck buses that we called the super bus. I remember riding in one as a kid and then I ended up working for the company as a bus driver. I brought it up with my trainer thinking I was crazy but apparently they were real. They kept them until the late 90s. Disney transport never purchased any more of them but they did purchase articulated buses in 2013.

[@gamechanger835]

The Super Buses were also operared by OCTD/OCTA in Orange County, CA. I think there was only a handful of them and you didn't see them in operation often. I had the pleasure of riding in one operating route 43 a couple of times.

[@RobertBohnen]

I remember seeing a trailer bus on the freeway while making a delivery to Anaheim back in the 90s. It was the only one I had ever seen and thought it was pretty cool.

[@Alpostpone]

I really appreciate the channel. Please do any subject you like, the carrot here is your own style. No need to limit yourself to trucks or any other topic.

[@utkarshat3]

Trailerbuses were running in Mumbai till early 90s. All of them were Double decker buses, and needed two conductors (ticket collectors) on each floor. also, the drivers were specially trained as they had to take tight turns on many smaller roads and through the infamous Indian traffic. They were discontinued after 'Ashok Leyland' stopped supporting for their rather high cost maintenance. also, they had really bad fuel efficiency. Driving them on the road had started to become more and more nightmarish; as India opened its economy in 90s, and many people started buying their own cars, bikes, etc.

[@stevecarswell6329]

The United States Army still regularly uses trailer buses (aka "cattle cars") on military bases for troop transport. I remember that was the first time I had ever seen or rode on one, and it was kind of strange. I know of Ft. Sill, Ft. Leonard Wood, Ft. Riley, Ft. Jackson, and Ft. Benning still having them in operation (or at least on post within the last 5 years).

[@pw1277]

The marine corps also uses them on recruit depots

[@randykroells8049]

Sure beats walking from downrange.

[@zahan5683]

This is huge! I didn't know anything about trailer Buses. You've done a great job with uploading this video. Thank you very much 🥰💕

[@PUDRETE919]

Santa Catalina Island near LA used them to fare tourists around the island atleast up until 2012, they generally only used vintage vehicles but it was the first time I had ever seen a trailer bus and it stuck with me

[@Jedi.Toby.M]

I think the US sill had a few way up north by the pole for transportation around the base. Great content mate!

[@jerrymiller9039]

When I was in the Army we had what we called cattle cars. Basically a large semi trailer designed for cattle or horses. Some had seats and some were stand up only. They were good for moving large numbers of trainees and quickly loading and unloading them

[@DocApollo]

I got the best sleep on those things a long time ago in basic lol

[@jbutzy1]

Watched a YT titled Baghdad Bus recently. Biggest one in the world in the 1930s apparently. Ran from Damascus to Baghdad.😅

[@liammcdonald7005]

Yes calums KZbin channel

[@neilbt478]

Went to school in Australia late 1950s & all of the 60s & the local bus company had one of these on the fleet. Went to school on it many times. It had a White Motor Company tractor.

[@professional.commentator]

I can't believe I'm only now learning about trailer buses. Considering how common they seem to be around the world.

[@TuSn_Espinzo]

Never thought I’d be so invested in truck content. Well done yukon 🤝

[@Iamcode101]

In the late 80s/early 90s, OCTA (the transit agency in Orange County, California) used semi trailer busses for the route from Fullerton to Los Angeles, and briefly on Harbor Boulevard. There was a camera system so that the driver could see if people were paying as they boarded. They aren’t in service now, but apparently one of them is used as a maintenance office.

[@alexlamb5613]

I was in them all the time in basic training in Missouri. They used them to transport us to ranges and courses. That was in 2018 so I bet they still got them.

[@cjhan47]

Some of theses types of buses still exist and are produced brand new. I work on a military base and we have a large fleet of these things. They are exactly like the one you pictured for the U.S. but with a more modern tractor.

[@defyslowmotion1]

I was thinking about something like this earlier. Trailers offer a lot of flexibility for the truck asset. Things like school busses site idle not generating return for most of their lives. The trailers would need a lot of technical investment to make them ride smoother though.

[@ARockRaider]

That would be an excellent idea! And one of the reasons semitrucks are a thing to begin with. I don't know how smooth the trailer ride is, but they are often air-ride (use airbags instead of springs) exactly like the tractors so I don't know why it would be any worse then a normal bus

[@sector150]

We had a trailer bus at our basic training here in the US. It had enormous passenger capacity and picked up a lot of us trainees from one of our field trainings. Two points of entry on one side like boarding a subway car. Both ends of the trailer sat higher for the wheels. Drill SGTS let the driver in the tractor truck cabin know when we were all on board. It was nicely heated and probably the most comfortable ride we had during my training, this was back in 2021.

[@tepponieminen526]

Great content once again! If you need any information on European/Nordic bus travel and the buses themselves, hit me up! As a bus driver from Finland, I find this content really interesting.

[@swedenpaul11]

I appreciate you not imagining random arguments and artistically lengthening the video but instead telling nothing but the things you did find out and openly addressing the lack of other sources. Refreshing!

[@NeroHobbit]

Interesting video. Yes I have experience with trailor buses, I use one most days when I'm on my way to and from assignments. It's called in Hebrew a "טיולית" [tiyulit] which roughly translates to "small trip" or "tourist" according to Google translate. They aren't the smoothest rides out there but they do their job. Hopefully this classes as a truck to you since I have no clue, but yeah enjoy.

[@kexcz8276]

Dude, you got me hooked with that Czechoslovakia one on the title picture! 😃 Also, yeah! I am looking forward to you trying out making videos of different vehicles! 🧡

[@patrickradcliffe3837]

US Army still uses them.

[@iannickCZ]

This pace of narration is hell of a speed.

[@Luredreier]

The two people part makes no sense to me. In some of our modern busses here in Norway it's impossible to interact with the bus driver at all. You buy your ticket online or in their office up front (the later is for several months at a time), and random checks are done by a team of ticket controllers that'll take random bus routes around the city, getting on and off at seemingly random points (some of them are probably connecting to other routes though) checking peoples tickets. So for us there just wouldn't be any added expense at all in that regard. As for size... Some of our busses have two joints and are 24 meters long. Look up Trondheim Metrobus.

[@floycewhite6991]

Passengers used to pay with coins.

[@MisterBroat]

When I joined the Army back in 1982. Trailer busses(army called them troop transporters) were used on post as a way of transporting whole platoons when going out to the ranges, or dropping troops off for a long hike or training mission which saved time. They only had long benches running on the sides from front to the back and the rest was standing room only. They always packed us in like sardines.

[@joshklaver47]

Where I live there are a few truck-based buses that just have a bus passenger compartment put on a medium-sized truck cab chassis. They are mainly used as school buses, so they don't need to worry about collecting fares.

[@greeenjeeens]

These are still in use in SA, i've been trying to find information on them for years.

[@Papinak2]

The small fleet in Bratislava you mention was actually a full trailer type, Karosa D4 trailers hauled by standard (trolley)buses. The semi-trailer Škoda was just a prototype and never entered production.

[@racer8069]

I literally have a diecast 1:43 ZIL bus staring at me from the shelf. We needed them for the airports and it was cheaper to get the truck and make one of these than to get and service an actual bus.

[@anthonycbudd]

Thank you for not making this a 24min video

[@bobbates7343]

I knew a man that worked for the ministry of transportation in Canada . He told me that in thirty years of investigating tractor trailer crashes he never once saw a trailer become detached from the cab provided it was connected right in the first place . So yes having the trailer fall off would be a very rare thing

[@johnkowalkowski4269]

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, WA had one of these they used at shift changes to get employees to the gates back in the 60's to early 80's. The drivers called it the snake, if I remember correctly. The tractor was used for regular semi trailers at other times.

[@NipunCDG]

These were there in 70's...DTC and BEST use to have few of them..video of old Delhi city on you tube has few moments where you can see these buses operated by DTC..

[@mdcbert]

I have a converted bus as an RV (1948 too). I like this concept even on a smaller scale, like a 5th wheel camper but one that doesn’t have to clear a truck bed to hitch up, instead using a truck with NO truck bed, like an Isuzu NPR. I have a couple of trailer buses in my photo collection. And a couple of trailer RVs in my photo collection too. Also. Good voiceover work in your video, nice job!

[@MikeV8652]

You know, Ram Promaster builds a flatbed cutaway chassis van to which a fifth wheel can be mounted.

[@mdcbert]

@@MikeV8652 yeah, but they aren’t F-450 or F-550 equivalent rated, AND it isn’t Japanese quality either! And what’s wrong with the Isuzu’s anyway?

[@bjrn-steinarhanssen2102]

In Oslo, Norway. Mid 50's. There was 2 busses like this. With wooden stove to keep them warm in the winther. One was named "Ormen Lange" after a saga-viking ship. It was said to be so short space between seats, so tall people where standing.

[@mikebrady1767]

I have been a bus driver since 1985. The picture you quickly showed of the US bus was from my then employer Orange County Transportation Authority (California) which bought 10 of them around 1988 or 1989 and kept them in service for only a few years, much less time than a regular transit bus was kept in service. My employer referred to them as the “Super Bus”. Nobody in the United States was willing to build the passenger trailers, so a company in Mexico built them instead. I was given an opportunity to drive them in regular service, but they were plagued with all kinds of problems and I would have been required to upgrade my CDL from a class B to a class A, so I passed on that. Also my employer wasn’t going to pay anything extra to bus drivers who were willing to drive those Super Buses. They seemed to be in the maintenance shop more than they were on the road and few drivers wanted to drive them with all of the problems that were entailed. After a few years most of them had been taken out of service or repurposed for other things like mobile classrooms. The remaining few weren’t kept much longer, every one of them was gone by 2000 if memory serves. It was an expensive failed experiment that belongs in the history books. Good riddance!

[@ailo4x4]

You missed my favorite and arguably the most successful trailer bus ever; the Nairn Transport Co. "Desert Pullman' rigs built to run between Baghdad and Damascus. Perfect for a 1300 mile desert crossing, they had a 4x4 tractor and the trailer capacity was 44 passengers and their luggage, was fully air-conditioned and was equipped with a kitchen, lavatory and iced-water on tap. Not too shabby for cross desert travel in '30's, '40's, and 50's!

[@floycewhite6991]

Los Angeles RTD used them on its 460 route from downtown to Orange County in the '80s.

[@andrewmills3845]

I love that this guy doesn't talk really slowly to try to stretch his video out to 30min.

[@feathermerchant]

In the summers of 1962 and 1963 I participated in the USMC "Devil Pups" program at Camp Pendelton. We all got hauled to and fro in nice OD versions of these things. During one session I met Mickey Dolentz of Circus Boy fame (and a soon to be future Monkees member).

[@lornemarmet5898]

In 1979 I went to Army Basic Training at Fort McClellan, Alabama. There were plenty of trailer buses. But...being there for Military Police school, we marched, walked, ran or rode in Jeeps. The trailer buses were for the MOS Type Writer Repair troops.

[@Izheets]

The first trailer bus was built in Cleveland for the Nairn Transport Company which ran a service between Damascus and Bagdad in the 1920’s, 30’s, 40’s. The tractor was all wheel drive and the bus trailers were popular because they could carry a lot more luggage and goods.

[@kenlelon369]

Thanks for doing the work for this video. I am a CDL examiner in Tennessee and if you get a class A CDL with a P endorsement (permitted to drive bus) here, it automatically comes with an M restriction; no tractor trailer bus driving. There seems to be none around so I wonder, why the use of such a practice?

[@anindyaghosh2696]

I remember these trailer buses from my childhood in Calcutta. There was only one route L9. On other routes there were normal double decker or single decker buses. I have no idea how these big double decker trailer buses came to ply on Calcutta roads, but it was a very busy route and these buses were always jam packed.

[@henry17403]

There was a brief period when Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport used a trailer bus to run at ground level below the parking garage to the car rental counters at the far end of the garage. Eventually an underground team running the same route was completed and the surface bus was discontinued. Not sure but perhaps the trailer bus was chosen due to the radius of the turnaround at either end of the route.

[@DerickBaartman]

We used to have these trailer busses as public transport on certain schedules between town in South Africa, which actually were faced out as government operated public transport. A lot of the farming communities are still using this trailer bus configuration.

[@thomastimmons7845]

When I was at Basic Training in 1975 these were used to haul troops to the range and other parts of Fort Leonard Wood by the Army. We referred to them as Cattle Cars and each would hold about 75 standing or sitting troops.

[@arjunsatheesh7609]

Stumbled on this video after watching the 'Baghdad Bus' video about a transportation service run by the Nairn Transport Company from Damascus to Baghdad by Calum . It talks about a trailer bus and a bit of its history and a certain point in time where they were really useful. It is an interesting watch.

[@tsclly2377]

Aspen Ski Corp. used them up to the mid 1960's in Aspen and out to Buttermilk I think they had 2. Now on a rutted snow packed road, you did think about them disconnecting, but they where way cooler than the school buses that also where in use. The looked pretty much like the one that is features in the still for the video (or the Czech type you showed).

[@bobfitzpatrick8952]

We had them in the army - they were called "cattle cars." They were a quick way to transport troops from one point to another, an example being our firing ranges. The ride wasn't meant for comfort, and we had to scramble on and off of them as quickly as old Sarge could get us going.

[@SMR3663]

Wow bringing back memories! A cab over with a cattle trailer. Ft Sill OK , 1981 .this is what we used in basic training to go out to the rifle range. They commonly called it a Limousin. Check out that definition of Limousin

[@ChristianWDegn]

I don't know if they are still used... During my army basic training at Ft Jackson, SC in the early 1880's, the army used a trailer truck to transport troops around the post. They looked more like cattle trucks. Used for short distances (1.5 - 10 miles) they had bench seating running length ways on the truck. We were packed in tight and they weren't comfortable; however, they beat the alternative, which was running/marching in formation to our location.

[@billylloyd7488]

Thanks for the content I really like your channel and the quality of your videos! Keep it up you’ll be at a million subscribers in no time

[@andrewfreeborn]

There were a large number of trailer busses in South Africa in the 1980s. These were operated by the South African Railways, which also ran passenger bus services. They were usually pulled by Mercedes-Benz or Oshkosh trucks, although I have also found some pictures of Fords being used to pull them. Often they would have also have a separate luggage trailer towed behind the bus trailer. The busses and trucks were almost always the dark red colour of the railways with white roofs.

[@RobinRense]

In the Netherlands, they were used by Philips to get the workers to the factories. A lorry driver would pick up the workers with his trailer bus, drive them to the factory, unhook the trailer and continue his day as a lorry driver. I believe this practice was mainly stopped due to safety regulations, because the passengers had no way to contact the driver in case of an emergency. Those trailer busses were of course built by DAF.

[@fil2337]

Video was perfect for my short attentiom span, keep it up!

[@DerekWalker55]

I worked in the mining industry in South Africa for awhile and these buses were used to transport staff around from the residential compound to their mineshaft workplace. The main reason for doing this is that they could use their tractor/horse from the bus during the day to hall cargo as they only needed to use the bus in the morning in the afternoon. The trailer was left at the work site for the day unused and later collected by the truck together with the staff to take them back home.