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A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for charter purposes, or through private ownership. Although buses typically carry between 30 and 100 passengers, some buses have a capacity of up to 300 passengers. The most common type is the single-deck rigid bus, with double-decker and articulated buses carrying larger loads, and midibuses and minibuses carrying smaller loads. Coaches are used for longer-distance services. Many types of buses, such as city transit buses and inter-city coaches, charge a fare. Other types, such as elementary or secondary school buses or shuttle buses within a post-secondary education campus, are free. In many jurisdictions, bus drivers require a special large vehicle licence above and beyond a regular driving license.

Buses may be used for scheduled bus transport, scheduled coach transport, school transport, private hire, or tourism; promotional buses may be used for political campaigns and others are privately operated for a wide range of purposes, including rock and pop band tour vehicles.

Horse-drawn omnibuses were used from the 1820s, followed by steam buses in the 1830s, and electric trolleybuses in 1882. The first internal combustion engine buses, or motor buses, were used in 1895. Recently, interest has been growing in hybrid electric buses, fuel cell buses, and electric buses, as well as buses powered by compressed natural gas or biodiesel. As of the 2010s, bus manufacturing is increasingly globalised, with the same designs appearing around the world. (Full article...)

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Everett Station is a train station serving the city of Everett, Washington, United States. The station has been served by Cascades and Empire Builder since opening in 2002, replacing an earlier station near the Port of Everett. The four-story building also houses social service programs and is the center of a 10-acre (4 ha) complex that includes parking lots and a large bus station used primarily by Community Transit, Everett Transit, and Sound Transit Express. The station has served as the northern terminus of the Sounder N Line since 2003 and the Swift Blue Line since 2009. It consists of two side platforms, one serving Amtrak and the other serving Sounder commuter trains. Everett Station also functions as a park and ride, with 1,067 short-term parking spaces located in lots around the station after it was expanded by Sound Transit in 2009. (Full article...)

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The Dennis Dart is a rear-engined single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis of Guildford, England, in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a high-floor design, in 1996 the low-floor second generation Dennis Dart SLF was launched. In 2001, production of the Dart SLF passed to TransBus International, during which time it was sold as the TransBus Dart SLF; Alexander Dennis took over production in 2004, renaming the product as the Alexander Dennis Dart SLF.

More than 12,600 Darts were produced in total during a 19-year production run. Most were purchased by United Kingdom operators, although examples were sold in Europe, North America, Australia and Hong Kong. In the United States, the Dart SLF, with Alexander ALX200 bodywork, was built and sold by Thomas Built Buses as the Thomas SLF 200.

The first generation Dart ceased production in 1998. Production of the Dart SLF continued until 2008, when it was replaced by the Alexander Dennis Enviro200. (

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General images

The following are images from various bus-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Opel Blitz combination bus (from Combination bus)
Image 2One of the NAW/Hess articulated trolleybuses delivered to Geneva in 1992, which were among the first production-series low-floor trolleybuses (from Trolleybus)
Image 3A TheBus with destination marquee indicating "Express" service to Village Park on the H-1 Freeway. (from Public transport bus service)
Image 41960 Scania-Vabis L75 bodied by Kristiansund Lettmetall, carrying six passengers (from Bruck (vehicle))
Image 5An East Lancs Olympus body with a tree-protection bull-bar protecting the large upper-deck front window (from Bus manufacturing)
Image 6A Sunwin trolleybus in Shanghai, on the world's oldest operating trolleybus system (from Trolleybus)
Image 7Volvo B7R / 9700S (no. 792, AAI-840, 2006) operated by ExpressBus Savonlinja at Jyväskylä bus station (from Coach (bus))
Image 8MU ZiU-9 in Leningrad, Soviet Union, 1987 (from Trolleybus)
Image 9Trolleybus on tunnel line in Tateyama (from Trolleybus)
Image 10New Routemaster double-decker bus in London, United Kingdom (from Bus)
Image 11Hino Coach Bus in RMUTT (Pathumthani, Thailand) (from Coach (bus))
Image 12A dual-mode bus operating as a trolleybus in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel in 1990 (from Trolleybus)
Image 13A bus in Finland in the early 20th century with the cargo area totally separated from the bus body (from Bruck (vehicle))
Image 14A Greyhound bus in 1939. (from Intercity bus service)
Image 15Hino Dutro 110SD 12-seater microbus in Indonesia (from Minibus)
Image 16Alexander Dennis Enviro500 MMC double-decker bus on Mexico City Metrobús' new line 7 running along Calzada de los Misterios (from Double-decker bus)
Image 17An early horse-drawn omnibus from mid-nineteenth century (from Bus)
Image 181999 New Flyer D40LF in the Aurora Village Transit Center in Shoreline in June 2010. (from Low-floor bus)
Image 19Caetano Levante 3 bodied Scania K410EB6 operated by National Express (from Coach (bus))
Image 20A double-decker bus in Alexandria, Egypt (from Double-decker bus)
Image 21New Flyer trolleybus in San Francisco (from Trolleybus)
Image 22Two Optare Solo midibuses (from Midibus)
Image 23Van Hool Exquicity 18T in Parma (from Trolleybus)
Image 2414.5-metre 1991 Delta Star 501 on Volvo B10M with cantilever tail lift (from Bruck (vehicle))
Image 25Bus stop in Shirley, New Zealand. (from Public transport bus service)
Image 26A Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B9TL (from Low-floor bus)
Image 27Bristol Lodekka FS6G – the first British alternative to the lowbridge design (from Lowbridge double-deck bus)
Image 28One of GO Transit's 3.9-metre height (12 ft 9+1⁄2 in) Super-Lo double-decker buses (from Double-decker bus)
Image 29Interior of an articulated bus in Los Angeles (from Bus)
Image 30Public transport bus in Auckland, New Zealand in the 1920s (from Public transport bus service)
Image 31Nottingham City Transport Optare Solo M995 in July 2025 (from Low-floor bus)
Image 32A Ringtrambus hybrid bus in Belgium (from Bi-articulated bus)
Image 33MAN A39 double-deck bus on route 500 in Porto, Portugal (from Double-decker bus)
Image 34Battery electric buses are in widespread service across the world. Pictured is a Yutong E12 in Zhengzhou. (from Transit bus)
Image 35Hino S'elega in Tokyo, Japan (from Coach (bus))
Image 36GAZ combination bus (from Combination bus)
Image 37A bi-articulated bus used on the Brisbane Metro (from Bi-articulated bus)
Image 38A Hino Rainbow midibus (from Midibus)
Image 39The sharply-arched Beverley Bar necessitated a special bus design. A preserved East Yorkshire Motor Services AEC Bridgemaster with an arched roof passes under the Bar in August 2022. (from Lowbridge double-deck bus)
Image 40Bus bunching caused by misaligned bus timetables (from Public transport bus service)
Image 41Schematic of an articulated bus, showing four passenger doors and two powertrain configurations. (from Articulated bus)
Image 42A Mitsubishi Fuso Aero King at Tokyo station as "Dream-go" in Japan (from Double-decker bus)
Image 43Amédée Bollée's L'Obéissante steam bus photographed in 1875 (from Steam bus)
Image 44Chelmsford (1905) (from Steam bus)
Image 45An articulated bus in Tel Aviv (from Articulated bus)
Image 46A Rocar DAC 217E articulated trolleybus in Bucharest, Romania, in April 2007 (from Trolleybus)
Image 47Star 200 truck with passengers bodywork for the Milicja in Poland. (from Combination bus)
Image 48A coach operated by Megabus (from Intercity bus service)
Image 49The Perth Central Area Transit operates as a zero-fare basis for passengers in the Perth central business district (from Public transport bus service)
Image 50An AEC Routemaster, a pioneering 1950s bus design (from Bus manufacturing)

Did you know? – show different entries

... that public transport in Valparaíso, Chile, includes trolleybuses (pictured) that were built 60 years ago, by Pullman, and were declared a national monument in 2003?

... that the trolleybus system serving Dayton, Ohio, in operation since 1933, is the second-oldest such system in the Western Hemisphere?

... that of more than 300 trolleybus systems currently serving cities worldwide, the 1914-opened trolleybus system in Shanghai is the oldest, and its counterpart in Philadelphia the second-oldest?

... that the bus service Coastliner 700 between Brighton and Southsea on the south coast of England, has been running for more than 35 years?

... that the busiest route of the Weston-super-Mare Tramways ran from an Old Pier to a Sanatorium?

... that the Tietê Bus Terminal in São Paulo, Brazil, is the largest bus terminal in Latin America and the second largest in the world?

... that the November 2010 sale by Silver Star Holidays of its local bus routes around Caernarfon ended nearly ninety years of bus service operation by the company?

... that the bus services in Surat are operated by private partners for the Surat Municipal Corporation under a public–private partnership?

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Selected image

These are images selected by Wikimedia Commons, as either Quality, Valued, or Featured images.

Image 1The Agora and de l'Assut de l'Or Bridge – Part of the Arts and Science complex in Valencia
Image 2Trolleybuses outside Salzburg Hbf, Austria
Image 3An abandoned bus in the Atacama Desert
Image 4An Iveco Crossway of Blaguss, Vienna
Image 5A trolleybus in Novosibirsk, Russia
Image 6A trolleybus in Brno, Czech Republic
Image 7A Dopravní podnik hlavního města Prahy, Karosa B 732 in Prague
Image 8A preserved BVG MAN SD200, operating Berlin bus 218
Image 9View from Slussen towards Gamla stan (Old town) and Riddarholmen. In the background Kungsholmen and Stockholm City Hall.
Image 10A Mercedes Citaro O530, of the Oxford Bus Company
Image 11An Irisbus Agora Line vehicle in Avignon, France
Image 12A Leyland Olympian, and the Grade II listed Angel Inn
Image 13A Karosa Bus in Olomouc
Image 14The freight trolley TG-5, Vinnitsa, Ukraine.
Image 15A Setra S 415 NF of the operator BahnBus Hochstift, in Paderborn bus terminal.
Image 16A preserved Bristol SUS, which was operated by Western National
Image 17A bus at the University of Nottingham
Image 18Buses in Oslo
Image 19A KMB bus, in Hong Kong
Image 20An East Lancs bodied Volvo B10M, owned by Hilton's travel, Newton-Le-Willows
Image 21A MAN Lion's City of BSAG, Bremen Hauptbahnhof
Image 22A Connexionsbuses operated Scania Omnidekka, at Thorpe Arch industrial estate, Wetherby.

Bus People

Image 1
Sir Moir Lockhead OBE DHC (born 25 April 1945 in County Durham, England) is an English businessman. He was Chief Executive and Deputy Chairman of UK transport group FirstGroup. Originally a mechanical engineer, he left school (West Cornforth Secondary Modern) at 15 to become apprentice mechanic in a bus garage in Darlington, before working for a short period as a management trainee with Tarmac. In 1979, he was appointed Chief Engineer of Glasgow City Transport. He joined Grampian Regional Transport in 1985 as General Manager, and went on to lead the successful employee buy-out as GRT Group.

He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1996 for services to the bus industry. He is a past President of the Confederation of Passenger Transport. He was knighted in the 2008 Birthday Honours. In 2009, the University of Aberdeen awarded him a Doctorate honoris causa (DHC). In 2010, he was awarded the VisitScotland Silver Thistle Award for outstanding services to the tourism industry in Scotland.

In 2011, he was appointed Chairman of the Scottish Rugby Union. In 2014, he was re-appointed for a second three-year term. In 2014, he was appointed Chairman of the National Trust for Scotland.

In January 2011, First Great Western powercar 43160 was named Sir Moir Lockhead as was First ScotRail diesel multiple unit 170401 in March 2011. (Read More)
Image 2
Kathleen Andrews (née Smith; May 17, 1940 – November 17, 2013) was a British-Canadian bus driver and transport manager. Her pioneering role as the first female Transit Operator, Dispatcher and Manager in Edmonton, Alberta was later commemorated by the city.

Kathleen Smith grew up in Rochdale, Lancashire and migrated to Edmonton aged 14. She graduated from Ross Sheppard Composite High School in 1959. Following a marriage and subsequent divorce, she sought full-time employment to support her family, which led to joining the Edmonton Transit System (ETS) in 1975. She initially fulfilled the role of Bus Information Clerk, before becoming the first female bus driver that May. After three years, she became the first female Bus Dispatcher, and was eventually promoted to manager of Special Service charter buses. She was commended by the council as being the first female in any significant management capacity in the city. She continued to drive school buses after her retirement from ETS in 1998, and died of cancer in November 2013.

In 2014, the city council created the Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage at a cost of $196 million, covering 500,000 square feet of space and accommodating 300 buses and 700 drivers. The garage did not open officially until February 2020. (Read More)
Image 3
John Greenwood (born 1788, died 1851), transport entrepreneur, was the keeper of a toll-gate in Pendleton on the Manchester to Liverpool turnpike. In 1824 he purchased a horse and a cart with several seats and began an omnibus service, probably the first one in the United Kingdom, between Pendleton and Manchester. His pioneering idea was to offer a service where, unlike with a stagecoach, no prior booking was necessary and the driver would pick up or set down passengers anywhere on request. Later on he added daily services to Buxton, Chester, and Sheffield.

John Greenwood, and a number of competitors, created a network of omnibus services, often acting as feeders to the railways. When he died in 1851 he left a flourishing business to his son, also named John (II) (b. 12 May 1818, d. 21 March 1886), which in that year became the Manchester Carriage Company.

By gestation, and amalgamation, in 1880, this became the Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company, led by John Greenwood (II). Following the council taking control of passenger transport services, in 1903, the residuary operations became The Manchester Carriage Co. (1903) Ltd, led by John Greenwood (III) (b. 1856).

For how this initial service developed, see Timeline of public passenger transport operations in Manchester. (Read More)
Image 4
Werner Wolfgang Heubeck (24 October 1923 – 19 October 2009) was a German–British transport executive who was managing director of the Northern Ireland transport companies Ulsterbus and Citybus. (Read More)
Image 5
Samuel Ledgard (1874–1952) was a Leeds entrepreneur who became a major West Yorkshire Independent bus operator. Following his death in 1952, his executors continued to operate the Samuel Ledgard bus company until 1967, when it was acquired by the West Yorkshire Road Car Company. (Read More)
Image 6
Karuna Ratna Tuladhar (Nepali: करुणारत्न तुलाधर) (23 October 1920 – 19 July 2008) was a pioneer of Nepalese public transport. He was proprietor of Nepal Transport Service which he and his brother Lupau Ratna Tuladhar founded in 1959. This was Nepal's first public bus service which linked the capital Kathmandu with the railhead of Amlekhganj, 190 kilometers to the south near the Indian border.

The same year, Nepal Transport Service also started the first local shuttle between Kathmandu and Patan (Lalitpur), one of the three cities in the Kathmandu Valley. (Read More)
Image 7
Robert R. Kiley (September 16, 1935 – August 9, 2016) was an American public transit planner and supervisor known for his ability to rehabilitate transit systems experiencing serious problems. From 2001 to 2006 he was the first commissioner of Transport for London, the public organisation that runs and maintains London's public transport network.

Kiley also worked as a CIA agent, CEO of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, deputy mayor of Boston, chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and president and CEO of the New York City Partnership. He is credited as being the architect of the revival of Boston and New York's ailing public transport systems in the 1970s and 1980s respectively.

Kiley unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Boston in 1983. (Read More)
Image 8
Ann Heron Gloag DBE (née Souter; born 10 December 1942) is a Scottish businesswoman, activist, and charity campaigner. She is co-founder of the transport company Stagecoach Group.

According to The Sunday Times Rich List in 2024, Gloag and her brother, Sir Brian Souter, are worth £815 million, an increase of £35 million from the previous year.

In 2023, Gloag put Beaufort Castle, her Category A listed residence in the Scottish Highlands, up for sale at £7.5 million. Located near Kiltarlity, 13 miles west of Inverness, the castle was originally built in the 12th century and then rebuilt in 1880. Gloag purchased the historic estate, which includes a 26-bedroom principal property, a chapel, six residential cottages and 127 acres of land, in 1994 for approximately £1.5 million. (Read More)
Image 9
Julian Henry Peddle (born November 1954) is an entrepreneur who has worked in the bus industry since the early 1980s, having owned or part-owned numerous bus companies. He spent 11 years as co-owner of Stevensons of Uttoxeter between 1983 and 1994, having previously been its traffic manager. During the late 1990s and early 2000s he ran Status Group, a group of small bus companies spread across England which included BakerBus, Choice Travel and MK Metro. He was a major shareholder in Tellings-Golden Miller and Centrebus Holdings before their sale to Arriva. (Read More)