Volvo B10L: the rear-engined low-floor bus chassis

The Volvo B10L was a rear-engined, low-floor chassis for single-decker city buses, built by Volvo from about 1993 to about 2005. An articulated version, the B10LA, was also made, and the chassis sold in Britain, Ireland, Finland and Australia.

Volvo B10L at a glance

Based on one source, the English Wikipedia article on the B10L.

History of the Volvo B10L

The B10L was Volvo’s low-floor city bus chassis with the engine at the rear, sold from the early 1990s. In Britain and Ireland it was available from 1994 to 1999 with two bodies: the Alexander Ultra, marketed by Volvo and based on a Säffle design that was first built on the initial British B10L, and the Wright Liberator, which proved slightly more popular. The articulated B10LA was bodied only by Wrightbus for FirstGroup subsidiaries in Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow, using a body called Fusion.

The B10L had limited success in Britain. In 1997 Volvo introduced the B10BLE, which was cheaper and closer to the step-entrance B10B that many customers already ran, and it quickly outsold the B10L. Travel West Midlands and Travel Dundee ordered more than 100 diesel B10Ls with Wright Liberator bodies in 1996, and Travel West Midlands took 14 CNG buses with Alexander Ultra bodies in 1997, later converted to diesel. Translink bought 60 with Alexander Ultras in 1995, and FirstGroup companies took smaller batches, some of them CNG-fuelled.

Beyond Britain

In Ireland, Bus Éireann ran eleven Wright Liberator-bodied B10Ls in Cork and Dublin Bus took five Alexander Ultras. In Finland, Helsingin Bussiliikenne bought 41 buses with Carrus City U bodies between 1995 and 1999, 21 of them gas-powered; Pohjolan Liikenne, Tampereen kaupunkiliikenne, Jyväskylän Liikenne and Koiviston Auto also bought the type, including articulated B10LAs. In Australia, Transport for Brisbane took 54 buses with Austral-Pacific Orana bodies and six with Volgren CR222L bodies, all withdrawn between 2012 and 2015.

Design and features

• Low floor: step-free access with the engine at the rear.
• Articulated option: the B10LA for high-capacity routes.
• Flexible bodies: Alexander, Wright, Carrus and Australian bodywork.
• Gas option: CNG versions ran in Britain and Finland.
• Rugged chassis: examples served for nearly twenty years.

Volvo B10L versions

• B10L with Alexander Ultra: the first British body, based on a Säffle design.
• B10L with Wright Liberator: the most popular British combination.
• B10LA with Wright Fusion: articulated buses for FirstGroup.
• B10L with Carrus City U: Finnish city buses, many on gas.
• Australian buses: Orana and Volgren bodies for Brisbane.

The B10L was replaced in Britain by the B10BLE and in Volvo’s range by later low-floor chassis; it also served as a city bus version of the B10M family. More buses are in the Volvo collection.

Sources

• Volvo B10L, English Wikipedia: bodies, operators, markets, successor