LiAZ-5256: Russia’s most common large bus

The LiAZ-5256 is a Soviet and Russian high-floor bus of the large class, built by the Likinsky Bus Plant from 1986 to 2021. It replaced the LiAZ-677 on the line and became the most numerous large bus of the post-Soviet space.

LiAZ-5256 at a glance

History of the LiAZ-5256

A bus for the whole union

The 5256 was not a LiAZ project alone. In 1977 the Soviet Ministry of Transport ordered the All-Union Experimental Bus Construction Institute in Lviv to design a unified bus family, and the large city bus in it received the index 5256; its first prototype, coded 102-E, was finished in 1979. A second prototype, 103-E, used a Rába rear axle from Hungary because LiAZ could not master the planned portal axle. Both had KamAZ-740 engines. Further prototypes were tested at the NAMI proving ground and on routes in Leningrad, Podolsk, Moscow and Tashkent, gaining a centred engine, wider doors, a flat high floor and a three-speed Lviv gearbox. The last prototypes were assembled in 1984, and production started at Likino-Dulyovo alongside the LiAZ-677.

Difficult start

The first buses had an automatic gearbox from Lviv, but depots did not trust the new technology, and in 1991 the institute designed the LiAZ-52565 with a KamAZ manual gearbox and revised brakes. Output was modest: 409 buses in 1992 and 350 in 1993. A plan to build the type at KamAZ ended after the engine factory fire of 14 April 1993, which also cut LiAZ’s supplies; the plant then turned to MAN and Caterpillar engines. In 1996–1997 production stopped altogether while the factory went through bankruptcy.

Second life

After restructuring, the 5256 became the most common large bus in Russia. Caterpillar, Cummins and YaMZ engines and Voith automatic gearboxes replaced the early units, and a new paint line with eight cataphoretic dipping baths, twelve paint booths and ten drying chambers raised the declared body life to twelve years. Visually the bus changed step by step: a narrower engine cover and vertical rear lights in 1998, a short-lived plastic facelift in 2002, a second facelift in 2004 that gave it the front of the LiAZ-5293, glued windows from 2010 and round rear lights from 2011. The city version was dropped in December 2017 and the suburban and intercity versions in April 2021, by which time 48,623 had been built.

Design and features

• Unified family: designed together with the LAZ-4202 and LAZ-5252 by the institute in Lviv.
• High floor: a flat, high floor through the whole saloon, typical of Soviet large buses.
• Many bodies: built as a city bus, a suburban and intercity coach, a school bus and a special version for disabled passengers.
• Stiff ride: the nickname “taburet” (stool) came from the hard suspension and cramped driver’s position.
• Long career: 35 years in production and still the most numerous large bus of the former Soviet Union.

LiAZ-5256 versions

• LiAZ-5256 (1986–2021): the base city bus.
• LiAZ-52565 (1991): suburban version with a KamAZ manual gearbox and changed brakes.
• LiAZ-5256T (1991): a single experimental trolleybus built by the Moscow Trolleybus Plant.
• YaAZ-5267 (1995–1996): cheaper version assembled in Yakhroma with a mid-mounted Rába engine.
• SVaRZ-6240 (1994): one articulated bus built in Moscow and used there from 1995 to 2001.
• ToAZ and KamAZ versions: assembled in Tosno under the LiAZ brand, and a single KamAZ-5256 in 1993.

The 5256 replaced the LiAZ-677 and was stretched into the articulated LiAZ-6212; more buses are in the LiAZ collection.

Video: Old russian bus LiAZ 5256 in Moscow 12.06.2010

Video on YouTube.

Sources

• LiAZ-5256, English Wikipedia: family, prototypes, KamAZ fire, derivatives
• ЛиАЗ-5256, Russian Wikipedia: production numbers, facelifts, end of production