Argentina Locally manufactured
TecnoTren railbuses are in use around Argentina, most notably on the
University train of La Plata. They are mostly used in rural parts of the country where the tracks have not yet been repaired and so can't handle the weight of regular trains.
Australia In 1937, the NSW Department of Railways added six
Waddington-built four-wheel
streamlined FP Paybuses to serve on small branch lines out of
Cowra and
Harden that did not have enough passengers to justify a
rail motor. Powered by a
Ford V8 engine, they were given the designation FP1 to FP6. When the railbus service wasn't popular, several of the buses became mobile pay cars used to pay railway employees at stations and working on tracks. In December 1941, one of these railbuses (FP 5) was destroyed when dynamite was placed on railway tracks near
Yanderra. The three-man crew of the railbus were killed in the explosion. Though £2,000 of loose cash was taken, the safe in the railcar could not be opened by the robbers. No one was prosecuted for the offence. The first railbus, FP1, has been restored where it is on display at the
NSW Rail Museum in
Thirlmere. Another seven were built by
Comeng in the 1960s. In
Queensland, "
RailBus service" refers to road bus service running parallel to portions of some railway lines, substituting for commuter train.
Czechoslovakia: Czechia, Slovakia railbus at Prague, 2011 In the
Czech Republic and
Slovakia, railbuses are used on
less frequented rural lines. Most railbuses are based on a former
ČSD M 152.0 diesel multiple unit, also known as
ČD/ŽSR Class 810.
Canada The
Tsal'alh Seton Train utilizes a modified
International 3300 bus for its daily service between
Lillooet and
Seton Portage, British Columbia.
Germany of Deutsche Bundesbahn In Germany, the
Schienenbus was developed in the 1930s to fulfill the need for an inexpensive rail vehicle. It was built to standard specifications on Germany's
Reichsbahn (the predecessor to
DB) to meet the demand for cost-effective services on
light railways or
Kleinbahnen (the
Wismar railbus was a pioneer in those days.) After the
Second World War, the eventually ubiquitous
Uerdingen railbuses were developed by
Deutsche Bundesbahn in single-engined and double-engined versions. The latter were powerful enough to haul
through coaches and
freight cars. Matching trailers and driving trailers were developed as well. These railbuses were a predecessor of the modern
diesel multiple units. In the late 1950s,
Deutsche Reichsbahn in the GDR developed the single-engined class
VT 2.09 with matching trailers and driving trailers, built by Waggonbau Bautzen. A number of serious accidents in Germany in the late 1970s involving railbuses resulted in the specification and development of larger, more robustly designed diesel
railcars. Although these cars were more similar in size to the U.S. produced diesel railcars, they would not have complied with current
FRA requirements, and, like their North American cousin rail diesel cars, are largely railroad-derivative designs. The
DB Class 628 exemplifies the contemporary German diesel railcar. This type of car replaced the
Schienenbus and locomotive-hauled train consists where possible on branch-line and main-line assignments during the 1980s and 1990s. Both the Uerdingen Schienenbus and the Bautzen railbuses have virtually disappeared from regular revenue service, but its diesel rail car successors are still widely used. DMUs of a
third generation in succession after the
Schienenbus are now being ordered by the hundreds in a variety of modular design combinations. As a curious fact, there is also a
double-decker DB Class 670.
Hungary The first railbuses appeared in Hungary in 1925, made by
Ganz Works. From 1934,
MÁV started to use railbuses called Árpád, which were also manufactured by Ganz. These vehicles ran on the Budapest-Vienna line. In 1975, the last Árpád was scrapped. In 1986, due to the lack of
ČD 810 trains,
Ikarus converted an Ikarus 260 bus into a railbus on behalf of MÁV. This model was called Ikarus 725. Its variations 725.01, 722.01 and 723.01 were sent to Malaysia in 1988. In 2014, KAI launched
Kertalaya railbus in
South Sumatra between
Kertapati Station in
Palembang to
Indralaya Station in
Ogan Ilir and vice versa to ease road traffic. In 2016,
Lembah Anai railbus was launched in
West Sumatra to serve passengers from
Kayu Tanam Station in
Padang Pariaman to
Minangkabau International Airport.
Ireland , 2014 The
Great Northern Railway of Ireland produced railbuses at the Railway Works in
Dundalk.
Japan Railbus Kiha102Th The president of
JNR visited West Germany in 1953 and was introduced to railbusses there. JNR subsequently drew up a plan for railbus introduction plan in JNR, and a prototype was built in 1955. However, JNR found railbuses less reliable in daily operation as compared to standard rail equipment and discontinued their use in the 1960s. Railbuses produced by
Fuji Heavy Industries were operational on the
Nanbu Jūkan Railway from 1962 until the line ceased operations in 1997, though the preserved units can still be seen at
Shichinohe Station. Motorization soared in Japan from the 1970s on, reducing consuming passenger numbers on local private railways. Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. in 1982 began development of an "LE-Car" that incorporates significantly the structure of the bus, deficit local lines of JNR has been adopted by many of the railway company that local governments and private companies are operated by joint investment.
Mongolia The
Ulaanbaatar Railbus is a railbus-based public transit system in the Mongolian capital of
Ulaanbaatar.
Netherlands so-called car-train with rubber tires in the Netherlands in 1932 In the Netherlands, a Michelin car was trialled in 1932.
Peru near
Machu Picchu Railbuses are used on
PeruRail.
Poland The railbuses in
Poland are commonly used on non electrified
branchlines, the first railbus in Poland was built in 2001 classified
SA106 built by
Pesa in
Bydgoszcz. The railbuses proved to be much cheaper to maintain, soon orders from
Przewozy Regionalne and other regional railway companies replaced
diesel locomotives from service.
Saudi Arabia and Syria Syrian railbuses are used in
Damascus from
Ma'adan to
Sarouja, and in
Saudi Arabia from
Riyadh to
Medina and
Mecca.
Sri Lanka Railbuses entered service in Sri Lanka in 1995, using
Tata Dimo buses, and later
Lanka Ashok Leyland buses. The buses, originally built for road use, were modified to be used on rails and connected back-to-back like a
DMU. Railbuses are used in various areas with little passenger demand, including from
Kandy to the suburb of
Peradeniya and the
Kelani Valley line in
Colombo. Services where railbuses are used are not indicated on the Sri Lankan Railways website. The route from
Maho Junction to
Polghawela in
North Western Province is also serviced by Lanka Ashok Leyland railbuses.
United Kingdom built by
Waggon und Maschinenbau British Rail produced a variety of railbuses as a means both of building new rolling stock cheaply, and to provide services on lightly used lines economically. A variety of railbus known as
Pacers, which were constructed in the 1980s, remained in service until 2021, they were phased out as a result of their failure to comply with accessibility requirements.
United States Galloping Goose railbus built on a luxury car chassis There are records of bus bodies being fitted to special
Mack Truck chassis built with small four-wheel bogie trucks under the engine and hood, and larger flanged steel drive wheels, as early as 1903.
Osgood Bradley Car Company built one of the more popular bodies during the 1920s.
Fairbanks-Morse, later a locomotive builder, offered similar conversions fitted to
Dodge truck chassis in the mid-1930s, preferring to fit the truck chassis with van bodies and supply a small matching passenger coach trailer. Some railroads built their own bodies on truck or large, powerful luxury passenger car chassis. Most continued the pattern of a small two axle truck in front, and a single drive axle in the rear. One example from the 1930s, built on a
White Truck chassis, is preserved at the
National Museum of Transportation in
Kirkwood, Missouri. The use of railbuses in the United States allowed railroads in the 1920s to run frequent and reliable passenger service on branch lines for a fraction of the cost of running steam locomotives, allowing some lines to directly compete with road transportation. The railbuses were well-liked by passengers and able to stop and start more easily than dedicated trains. After World War II a number of more modern light train concepts appeared. Few were successful, as many railroads cooperated with highway bus services to eliminate passenger trains from their branch lines. Some, like the
American Car & Foundry Motorailer, blurred the line between
railcar and railbus. Others, such as the Mack FCD, landed firmly in the railbus camp. Ten of the Macks were purchased by the
New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad during 1951–1952. By the time they were delivered, however, a new president was in charge, and he had little interest in serving branch lines. Only one saw regular service. All were sold to other entities such as
Sperry Rail Service, or to overseas railroads. In 1967 and 1968, Red Arrow Lines tested a
GM New Look bus converted to operate on rails on its interurban routes and the
Norristown High Speed Line. In 1985,
SEPTA tested an imported
BRE-Leyland railbus on the now-closed
Fox Chase to
Newton section of the
Fox Chase Line. == See also ==