Only sort of. They are shorter than standard buses used elsewhere which means that they are more handy in the spaghetti like street layout that is London but you have to have two decks to be able to carry the same number of passengers.
That’s probably true compared to bendy buses, but double deckers have much greater capacity than the more common “normal” single-decker buses used elsewhere.
Are they still running those? I loved them as a kid.
Note that these really aren’t true double deckers. They’re the same height as other passenger cars, but configured to use the vertical space.
I am on a Megabus as I write this, and it is a double-decker. There have been a total of two deadly accidents - the overpass one mentioned, and another on the route I am on, from Chicago to Kansas City where a tire blew out. For what it is worth, the drivers are Teamsters, and virtually all have been skilled professionals. I take this trip constantly, and am using the wi-fi and the outlet at the seat to recharge my tablet.The bus is accessible, though I’ve only seen it used once.
As far as I know, every Chicago area Metra train is a double-decker, although the second deck is less than full height.
I remember as a schoolboy getting a a double-decker bus home during the 1990Burns’ Day Storm in the UK.
As I was a nerdy first-year we were at the back of the queue, normally the cool older kids would be first in the line and would rush upstairs, but the driver wanted to load the bottom deck first as ballast. There wasn’t enough room so there were about 8 of us upstairs travelling home in 90mph winds along exposed Fenland roads… I swear we went on two wheels more than once. High-sided vehicles and hurricane-force winds are not happy companions!
I know that the GO commuter transit agency in the Greater Toronto Area has a few double-decker coaches; I’ve seen them sitting at the terminal or on the roads, but never actually rode one; I guess there aren’t enough people on the Hamilton-Toronto express to require them. It’d be fun to check one out.
And of course all GO train passenger cars are double-decker in the middle, with these split levels off to the sides half way up that make the cars look like squashed green and white signs from the outside. 
In UK parlance, Megabus and similar companies operate double decker “coaches.” With nice seats, seatbelts, (sometimes) a bathroom.
They are not at all the same as the type of buses you see on short-route public transit systems in cities.
Americans use “bus” to mean both what UKers mean by “bus,” and what UKers mean by “coach.”
I’m at my apartment now. As I posted, there were two deadly accidents. In the one you mentioned, the driver missed his turn, and took an alternate route at night, and took the bus under a too-low underpass. They have dealt with this possibility by adding truck GPS systems to the buses that will not give a route that has low overhead. The other crash was on the route I always take. The left, front tire blew out at highway speed, and the driver had the bad luck for this to happen right before a bridge. He managed to control it so it did not overturn, but it slammed into the pillar, injuring the driver and killing a woman in the front left upper seat.
Given that they drive that particular route four times a day, seven days a week, I think that is a pretty decent safety record. As far as I can tell, I am the only person on the bus, other than the driver, who wears the seat belt. And I never, ever, sit in the front of the upper deck.
By the way, the $1 tickets are real. That is what my trip from Chicago to Kansas City cost. I buy a whole bunch of trips all at once as soon as that block of seats becomes available.
Las Vegas has double-decker closed-top buses on a number of its routes, especially the tourist ones (that go up and down the Strip, and between the Strip and the downtown hotels - and add me to the list of “the best seat is in the front on the upper deck” people.) However, when they start getting crowded, it becomes almost impossible to get off at your stop from the upper deck, especially when, despite being told not to, you get people clogging the stairs between decks. This also results in the buses getting behind schedule - and, in fact, the organization that runs the bus system in Vegas list timetables for every route except this one, almost certainly because of this problem.
Another reason some cities don’t have them: it’s hard enough to control regular busts in strong winds; double-deckers are just asking to be blown over in heavy winds.
Hey - I’ll be riding Megabus late this summer to go to KC - maybe we’ll meet!
Megabus has also killed a few pedestrians, andhad other mishaps that weren’t fatalities only because of luck. Having said that, I don’t know how they measure up in fatalities per mile - are they safer than a typical car, or a typical bus? I don’t know.
Bus Driver chiming in:
In the US, I see double decker buses from time to time. These are typically Charter Buses run by various charter companies, some of them are contracted by local businesses in Silicon Valley (of which my employer competes for ridership). As others have said, double decker buses have a higher center of gravity, and a higher vertical clearance.
The vertical clearance can be an issue. My company had purchased a fleet of hybrid buses. These buses had their batteries mounted on the roof. This made the bus an extra foot taller, which wouldn’t seem like much, but when you factor all the trees adjacent to bus stops it becomes an issue. Before they could put them into service, a special truck with a pole (measuring the bus’s maximum height) had to be taken through all the routes on the entire county, and if any tree branches or obstructions were found, they were removed.
My employer does use ‘bendy buses’ of which I drive frequently. These vehicles are perfectly adequate for longer-distance routes, which is what we use them for. In spite of their length (60 feet) they have a surprisingly tight turning radius, though I could understand that in older (european) cities, not inherently designed for vehicle traffic, the road layout might not be optimal for a bendy bus to navigate. Off the top of my head, the bendy bus route I frequently drive only has 3 or 4 major turns, all in large intersections (not counting turning the bus around in the terminal).
Quite possibly. I use it a lot when I’m videotaping School of Rock shows - three times a year, I travel constantly back and forth between Chicago and Kansas City. I use the overnight bus pretty frequently. Back in January, I shot two School of Rock concerts in Chicago on Saturday, got on the Midnight Megabus and shot two in Kansas City on Sunday. I don’t want to do that again if I can avoid it.
I remember those two people being hit by the buses in Chicago. Can’t say I’m surprised, given the breathtakingly stupid things I’ve seen people do when crossing the street near Union Station.
When the crash happened near Litchfield, I heard from all these people “Oh, Megabus is dangerous…” as if the 81 people on that bus would have been safer if they had been in 50 or so cars instead. Human beings suck at risk assessment. The drivers vary in quality and personality. I try to make their jobs easier by assisting them with the luggage upon arrival in Kansas City (which helps keep them from griping about the size of my backpack).
I’m sure they would have a better safety record if they were picking up and dropping off in the bus station, but I am a cheap bastard, and if curbside service is what gets me these insanely cheap fares, I’m willing to freeze at the curb. The majority of my Megabus trips have been for $1.
Right before I left Seattle there was talk of adding them to the fleet. I don’t know if Seattle Metro ever rolled them out but they are in use in Snohomish. Apparently they hold more passengers and are easier to maneuver than the articulated buses.
I think for most US transit systems it’s just been convention that the double deckers are “tourist buses.” A surprising number of things are done how they are just because “we’ve always done it that way.”
When Megabus first started their Glasgow to Aberdeen route, in about 2004/2005 (I think), they used old-style double decker buses, similar to those used in short distance urban routes. I took this service a couple of times on Saturday mornings, and every seat was taken. No overhead racks, storage space for luggage, or toilets for a 3.5 hour journey - it was horrible! Mind you, it did cost GBP1.50…
They appear to have stopped this now - every time I see a Megabus on that route it’s a single decker coach. Price has gone up though.
Two or three of the buses that took kids to my secondary school were old-style double deckers. I think the routes were around 15-20 miles on windy, hilly, rural Scottish roads, with frequent stops to pick up kids from farms / hamlets / villages. Fun in icy winters! Fortunately my own bus was only a single-decker.
Here in Chicago, I think every bus route goes under at least one elevated track, both the CTA and commuter/commercial rail. None of those overpasses would be tall enough for a double decker, (most won’t accommodate bigger than a box truck - larger moving trucks have to plan very carefully to get to certain neighborhoods) so we just have the bendy buses for the larger routes. There are some tourist doubles around, but the top deck is open on those, they stay downtown, and only run in tourist season. Megabus, too, only stops downtown.
Double-decker buses have been tried in the US from time to time. Several cities, including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, had them in the 1920s. LA experimented with some in city service for several months back in the 1980s, as I recall, and actually ran them on the El Monte busway for some years. Antelope Valley Transit runs some in LA commuter service. New York City tried them in the 1970s and again in 2008. Some are running in suburban Seattle.
Why don’t we see more of them in the US? First, there’s no US builder, so they can’t easily meet the Buy American requirements for FTA funding. Second, they load and unload a bit more slowly because of the circulation. In the UK, stops are generally 2000 feet apart. In the States, urban buses may have posted stops every 400 feet. Finally, double-deckers developed in the era of two-man staffing. A conductor collected fares and monitored behavior, while the driver just drove the route. Monitoring behavior on an upper deck is a little trickier for the driver of a double-decker, and sometimes the opportunity arises to observe differences in social norms between the US and the UK.
If it’s of any interest, in the last year or so Ottawa has started to run double-deckers. I think there are restrictions on which routes, due to underpass heights and such, but they are running some now and I love the look of them!
That sounds like poor organization to me. Our drivers are very strict about how many standing passengers they will allow on a bus, so having passengers on the steps doesn’t really happen.
If the bus is full, the driver simply doesn’t open the entrance doors, just the side doors to let people off. If people try and jump on through the side doors (which is verboten as the driver needs to check your ticket) then the driver just stops the bus and will call the police if they don’t get off. People learn very quickly to comply with the rules this way. And other passengers will turn on any passenger who is delaying their journey.
I’ve ridden double-deckers in Las Vegas (already mentioned) and Berlin. Good thing I got to this thread before DMark.
One interesting thing about the transit in Europe is that the fares are not enforced the same way as the U.S. There aren’t turnstiles at the subway and drivers don’t take the fare when you get on the trolleys. Instead, there are travelling inspectors. They ride the system and can demand that passengers show them a valid ticket (either a monthly pass or a time-stamped, single-ride ticket); if you don’t have one, it’s a hefty fine. One result is that stops are much quicker. You don’t have a line of people waiting to get in just one door to swipe their card or pay a fare. Just throw all the doors open, people off, people on, and go.
(I don’t remember for sure if the Berlin buses were on that system, but most of the subways and trolleys I used were. Haven’t ridden in London; from the description of the conductor and driver system of the past, I’d guess they’re more like the American method.)
In Berlin, more than half of the buses are double deckers. They are used on the busiest lines and come as frequently as London buses, about every 10 minutes or so. There are also a couple of coaches that I’ve seen in a double decker design, but the head space in the upper level is very confined, indeed. (BTW, all of our regional trains also have two levels, they look pretty much exactly like Sydney’s.)
ETA: Beaten to the punch by RobotArm, but I can answer your last question: that system is used on buses, only after 8 pm do you have to get in the front door. However, I’d say more than 90% of riders have a monthly ticket, so it’s usually not a problem.