The

Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...

B7L is a fully low floor

single-decker bus A single-decker bus or rigid is a bus that has a single deck for passengers. Normally the use of the term ''single-decker'' refers to a standard two-axled rigid bus, in direct contrast to the use of the term double-decker bus, which is essen ...

double-decker bus A double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. Double-deckers are used primarily for commuter transport, but open-top models are used as sightseeing buses for tourists, and there are coaches too for long-distance travel. They app ...

and

articulated bus An articulated bus, also referred to as a slinky bus, bendy bus, tandem bus, vestibule bus, stretch bus, or an accordion bus, is an articulated vehicle, typically a motor bus or trolleybus, used in public transportation. It is usually a ...

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of a manufactured object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

with a

rear engine In automobile design, a rear-engine design layout places the engine at the rear of the vehicle. The center of gravity of the engine itself is behind the rear axle. This is not to be confused with the center of gravity of the whole vehicle, as an im ...

mounted vertically on the left of the rear overhang. It was built as a replacement for the

Volvo B10L The Volvo B10L was a rear-engined, low-floor single-decker bus, single-decker public bus chassis built by Volvo Buses, Volvo between c. 1993 and c. 2005. An articulated bus, articulated version of the B10L, known as the B10LA, was also produced. ...

, and the Volvo Olympian, used as both a

and a

largely in

Continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...

. The Volvo B7L was superseded by the

Volvo B9L The Volvo B9L (also known as the Volvo 7500, Volvo 7700 or Volvo 7900 for integral models) is a fully low-floor single-decker bus chassis constructed by Volvo Buses from 2005 until 2013, replacing the Volvo B7L and Volvo B10L. An articulated ...

in 2006.

Design

Whilst similar to the B10L in design, both featuring a side-mounted engine, the B7L's engine was a Volvo D7C unit mounted vertically, as opposed to the horizontally mounted Volvo DH10/GH10 engine of the B10L; the radiator was mounted above the engine instead of the right-hand side, allowing the floor to be lower behind the rear axle. As with the B10L, B7L was also available in its articulated form, named the B7LA. The B7L was also available as an integrally-constructed Volvo bus for

- the Volvo 5000 (later renumbered 7500) which was assembled with aluminium bodywork, and the

Volvo 7000 The Volvo 7000, later Volvo 7700, was an integrally-constructed fully low-floor single-decker rigid bus and single-decker articulated bus built by Volvo between 1999 and 2012. It was generally available as 12-metre and 18-metre on both dies ...

(later renumbered

7700 A transponder (short for ''trans''mitter-res''ponder'' and sometimes abbreviated to XPDR, XPNDR, TPDR or TP) is an electronic device that produces a response when it receives a radio-frequency interrogation. Aircraft have transponders to assis ...

) which was assembled with stainless steel bodywork. Capable of carrying over 100 passengers, these integral buses featured an entirely flat floor and three doors, the first two having a floor height of that was capable of lowering to via the "kneeling" function of the chassis. Unlike the B10L, the B7L was sold only with diesel combustion engines; integrally-constructed Volvo 7000s with CNG engines were only available on the B10L chassis. CNG engines would later be reintroduced with the launch of the B9L chassis in 2005.

Operators

United Kingdom and Ireland

The B7L chassis was first introduced in the United Kingdom in 2000 as a replacement for the

Volvo B10BLE The Volvo B10BLE is a rear-engined low-entry single-decker bus chassis manufactured by Volvo in Sweden between 1993 and 2004. The first prototypes were built in 1992, but mass production started in 1993, only a year after the high-floor B10B. I ...

and Olympian. The chassis could be fitted with a

Wright Eclipse The Wright Eclipse is a low-floor single-deck bus body that was built by Wrightbus between 2000 and 2019. The second-generation Eclipse 2 was launched in 2008, followed by the third-generation Eclipse 3 in 2015. The Eclipse, and its sister desi ...

body (and Eclipse Fusion body for B7LA), as well as being demonstrated with Hispano Carrocera bodywork, however the chassis proved unpopular with UK operators due to the arrangement of engine and radiator limiting seating capacity, with

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.B7RLE and the B7TL for the UK market, fitted with more conventional

Transverse engine A transverse engine is an engine mounted in a vehicle so that the engine's crankshaft axis is perpendicular to the direction of travel. Many modern front-wheel drive vehicles use this arrangement. Most rear-wheel drive vehicles use a longitudinal ...

s. In Ireland,

Bus Éireann Bus Éireann (; "Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with the exception of Dublin, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subsidiary of C ...

purchased 25 B7Ls with Wright bodies between 2001 & 2003. The double-decker version of B7L was also sold in the United Kingdom, with ten bodied with East Lancs Nordic bodywork for use as a

public bus Public transport bus services are generally based on regular operation of transit buses along a route calling at agreed bus stops according to a published public transport timetable. History of buses Origins While there are indications o ...

with

First Glasgow First Glasgow is the largest bus company serving the Greater Glasgow area in Scotland. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup. The company operates within the area covered by the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, a public body responsible for h ...

in 2002, or with the Ayats Bravo City open-top body for sightseeing services. The

Plaxton President The Plaxton President is a Low-floor bus, low floor double-decker bus coachwork, body built by Plaxton at the former Northern Counties Motor & Engineering Company, Northern Counties factory in Wigan, England. It was first unveiled in 1997 on t ...

body was launched on a pre-production B7L chassis at the Coach & Bus '97 expo, however this design did not prove successful and resulted in the body being redesigned for fitment on the B7TL chassis. In 2005,

Wrightbus Wrightbus is a Northern Irish bus manufacturer and a pioneer of the low-floor bus. The company was established in 1946 by Robert Wright and was later run by his son William Wright, until it was acquired in 2019 by British businessman Jo Bamf ...

unveiled the

Wright StreetCar The Wright StreetCar is an articulated bus developed by Wrightbus and Volvo for FirstGroup. It was built on the Volvo B7LA chassis, featuring a separate driver compartment at the front, resembling to some extent similar designs in Europe. It ...

, a tram-like

built on a modified B7LA chassis; the chassis has a shorter front overhang, the driver's cab was relocated to above the front axle and the radiator was relocated to the roof, giving the body a full-width rear window. Only 39 StreetCars built on the B7LA chassis were purchased by the FirstGroup, being used on its ftr bus rapid transit networks in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

and

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

Continental Europe

Volvo B7L and B7LA-based buses are used in Greece. In

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, Volvo B7LAs constructed with Saracakis bodies have been operated since 1999, with a further 62 B7Ls and 56 B7LAs, all with Elbo bodies, delivered to the city following the conclusion of the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

. In

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

, local operator

OASTH The Thessaloniki Urban Transport Organisation (), abbreviated OASTH (), is a mass transport company operating in Thessaloniki, Greece. It was founded in 1957 and now covers a large area of the metropolitan area of Thessaloniki, the country ...

took delivery of 54 B7Ls and 22 B7LAs, all built with

ELVO Hellenic Vehicle Industry (ELVO, also spelled in English as ELBO) is a Greek manufacturer of civilian and military vehicles based in Thessaloniki, Greece. History The Hellenic Vehicle Industry started business as ''Steyr Hellas S.A.'' assem ...

bodies, between 2004 and 2005; subsequent deliveries of B7Ls and B7LAs to OATSH would follow between 2005 and 2006. Many of OATSH's B7LAs were eventually withdrawn in 2019 due to serious chassis defects. Busudstillingshallen - City-Trafik 2806 01

Busudstillingshallen - City-Trafik 2806 01

In Norway,

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

was the only city in Continental Europe to operate closed-top double-decker B7L public buses. 22 East Lancs Nordic bodied Volvo B7Ls were delivered to between 2000 and 2001, with an additional 14 delivered to Arriva Danmark over the same period. All would be withdrawn from service by 2018, with many being converted to open-toppers and exported worldwide for use as sightseeing buses; the final Nordic left in original condition was purchased from Movia by the Skjoldenæsholm Tram Museum and restored to original livery.

Israel

The Volvo B7L was also popular in Israel, with most being built with

Merkavim Merkavim Transportation Technologies Ltd., shortened to Merkavim (), is the largest bus manufacturing company in Israel. They produce many different types of buses, including tourism coaches, urban buses, long-distance buses and minibuses. In addi ...

Mercury bodies, though some Israeli B7Ls have also been built with Hispano Habit bodies. The first B7L in Israel, an integral Volvo 7000 demonstrator, was introduced into service by Egged for demonstration in the cities of

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

and

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

in 1999. Operators of the B7L in Israel include

Metrodan Beersheba Metrodan Beersheba Ltd. ({{langx, he, מטרודן באר שבע בע"מ) was an Israeli bus company. It is owned, among others, by Tour Bus. Metrodan operated the urban bus lines within Beersheba from 2003 to 2016. Metrodan was founded in 2003 ...

, who purchased B7Ls with both body styles, and Egged,

Kavim Kavim () is an Israeli bus company based in Holon. It was founded in 2000 and provided lines in the eastern Gush Dan region - the towns/cities Kiryat Ono, Petah Tikva, Or Yehuda, Givatayim and others. In February 2005, Kavim expanded to the n ...

, Metropoline and who purchased B7Ls built almost exclusively with Merkavim Mercury bodies.

Design

Operators

United Kingdom and Ireland

Continental Europe

Israel

References

See also