So what buses are available?

In terms of buses, there are generally three major types: transit bus, school bus, and motorcoach. Please note that I use these terms rather generically.

A transit bus is what you see used by a city transit agency. They generally have only two axles, widebody, low floor, often with wheelchair lift in front as well as kneeling suspension, to help load the passengers. They have wide center aisles and relatively low number of seats despite their apparent length, and lots of overhead rails for standees, no luggage space at all.

A school bus is always yellow in the US of A, no standing room, but have tight straight back bench seats that can seat up to 80 students, and generally, one door up front and one emergency door in the back. They can be front or rear-engined.

A motorcoach, on the other hand, is what you'd expect a "Greyhound" bus to look like or a typical "charter bus" would look like. They generally have three axles (front, drive, and "tag"), 40 to 45 ft in length (in the US), with luggage room UNDER the passenger cabin, and overhead racks, similar to airline cabin. Usually rear engined.

For this article we will concentrate on the motorcoaches and other vehicles the charter industry uses.

Charter industry, besides, the 40-ft and 45-ft coaches, also may use mini-coaches (2-axle versions of larger coaches), mid-size buses (or midibus, as they're known in Europe) about 30-35 ft long based on truck frames, minibuses (seats 10-28, based on heavy-duty van frame), and the full-sized vans (seats up to 15) and minivans (seats up to 8). We will not get into limos as that's another market altogether.

Motorcoaches have limited number of manufacturers, but the market itself is limited. What usually happens is the coach builder themselves build only the frame and body. The rest of the components are off-the-shelf components. For example, in my Van Hool (from Sweden) coaches, I have Cummins engines (American), Allison transmissions (American again), and mostly American components. All the other coaches have similar options if they are sold in the US.

Bus shell makers are all over the world. MCI, or Motor Coach Industries, is North American, and have been making buses for a long time for the American market. Other manufacturers are Van Hool, Setra (now a part of Daimler-Benz group), and Prevost. Dina coaches are still available, but they're no longer in business. Some new manufacuturers are importing a new bus shell from China and fitting American components.

Similar to airline cabins, the interior of a coach has ground rails for seat mounts that lets you control the number of seats. For normal use, 2+2 rows are used. That normally gives you about 50 seats in a 40-ft long bus, and about 56 in a 45-ft bus, including rear restroom space. Though there are executive coaches that use a 2+1 row configuration that reduces the seating to 33, but the seats are more like business class than coach-class. Most have overhead controls of lights, air blower, and even call buttons similar to airline seats. Some buses even have tray tables and foot rests. The only thing you won't find are floatation cushions and drop-down oxygen masks, and in-seat entertainment.

The "minibuses" and mid-buses are based on Box Vans and Trucks respectively. Due to their frame design, their cabins are higher off the ground, which leads to reduced luggage room as those must be carved out of available cabin space, unlike a motorcoach with rear engine, where the luggage room is integrated BELOW the passenger cabin. Some newer "rear-engine" mid-buses are copying the motorcoach design though.

The full-size vans and minivans are used "as-is", except they may be fitted with a PA system, whereas the buses, even the minis and mids, almost always comes with a PA system. Some also have video and DVD and VHS systems, some with LCD flat panel screens.

Next article: safety features of a bus, and why this ain't something easy.