In this section we take a look at just where and how double deckers are put to use across the globe. Whilst coaches for longer journeys are popular in double decker form, the traditional double decker bus employed on conventional shorter routes in less common. With the popularity of the iconic London Routemaster, its use has spread throughout most of the former colonies of the British Empire.
London Buses
The obvious place to start here would be the UK, which runs a large proportion of its buses as double deckers, favoured because the shorter length means more customers can be transported by a single vehicle and as a large percentage of the UK’s historic towns have buildings centuries old with narrow streets the double deckers shorter length makes it more manoeuvrable.
The Republic of Ireland has also followed the UK’s lead in this respect and 1125 of the total 1199 buses in Greater Dublin are double deckers.
Hong Kong Double Decker
Double decker buses are popular in Hong Kong, having first been introduced there as far back as 1949 during its time as a British colony. There are currently more than 5000 double deckers running in Hong Kong, where they make up the majority of public buses, as the maximum length of a bus in Hong Kong is 12 metres.
Singapore Double Decker
Singapore first started using double decker buses back in 1977, and has steadily introduced more into the fleet, operated by SBS Transit(Singapore Bus Service), and SBS now has over 900 double deckers on its fleet.
Canadian Double Decker
Canada first introduced double deckers as recently as the year 2000, when Victoria in British Colombia added them to its public transport system, and imported them from the UK. They have also been on trial in Ottawa, and in 2009 the city has 22 on its fleet. Notice the bike rack on the front of the bus as a novel way for cyclists to move their bikes about.
Japanese Double Decker
Japanese law states that any motor vehicle must not be longer than 12 meters, and taller than 3.8 metres, limiting the effectiveness of double decker buses, but local manufacturers like Mitsubishi still produce buses that meet these requirements, although they are generally used for slightly longer inter city runs rather than cross city transportation, and feature a novel 3 individual rows of seats rather than the usual 2 sets of twin seats.
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