Van Hool Astromega: the double-deck coach family

Astromega is the name Van Hool gave to its double-deck integral coaches. The badge covered a long line of models built on the same platform philosophy as the firm’s single-deck touring coaches, and it was used in Europe, North America and Japan.

Van Hool Astromega at a glance

The Astromega models are described across several sections of the English Wikipedia article on Van Hool; this page is based on one source.

History of the Van Hool Astromega

The Astromega name dates from the T8 series that Van Hool introduced in 1979, with bodywork based on the Alizee range of the previous year. The company gave its coaches a system of names and numbers: in “TD824 Astromega”, T stands for Touringcar (touring coach), D for Dubbeldek (double deck), 8 for the T8 series and 24 for the theoretical maximum number of seat rows, while Astromega was the name of the double-deck integrals. In 1991 an updated “T8 New Look” appeared, sold in North America as the T9, and production of the T8 generation ended in the late 1990s with the arrival of the new European T9 platform.

The double-deck Astromega became one of Van Hool’s best-known products outside Europe. The Meitetsu Group in Japan imported several Astromega double-decker buses for highway work in the early 1980s, and Hato Bus imported two Astromegas in 1997. That early presence in Japan eventually led to a dedicated model: since 2016 Van Hool and Scania have jointly developed and produced the TDX24 Astromega, also marketed as the J-InterCity DD, solely for the Japanese market. It was presented as the spiritual successor to the Mitsubishi Fuso Aero King, which had been discontinued six years earlier.

In Europe the Astromega remained part of the touring coach range alongside the single-deck TX models, with the TDX25 and TDX27 appearing in the list of current European products. For North America, Van Hool offered the TD925 Astromega, a closed-top double-decker meeting United States specifications; it is a variant of the TD925 Astromega coach available in Europe.

The Astromega shared the company’s history in other respects too. Van Hool was founded in 1947 by Bernard Van Hool in Koningshooikt near Lier, grew through a long partnership with Fiat between 1957 and 1981, and sold an average of 600 coaches a year in the United States. In April 2024 the company filed for bankruptcy and its activities were taken over by the Dutch bus maker VDL and the German trailer manufacturer Schmitz Cargobull.

Design and features

• Double-deck integral construction: the Astromega was a complete Van Hool vehicle, not a body on a bought-in chassis.
• Clear naming: the T/D/8/24 code told an operator the coach type, its deck layout, its series and its seating capacity.
• Closed-top American version: the TD925 Astromega USA was built to United States specifications.
• Japanese special: the TDX24 was developed and built with Scania solely for Japan.

Van Hool Astromega versions

• TD824 Astromega: the T8 era double-decker that gave the family its naming pattern.
• TD925 Astromega: the European double-deck coach of the later range.
• TD925 Astromega USA: the closed-top version for the United States.
• TDX25 Astromega: a later European model.
• TDX27 Astromega: a later European model.
• TDX24 Astromega: the Scania-built Japanese model, also called J-InterCity DD.

The Astromega was the double-deck branch of the same coach range as the single-deck Van Hool T2145 and the American C2045. More buses are in the Van Hool collection.

Sources

• Van Hool, English Wikipedia: Astromega naming, models, Japanese market