Chartering a bus is becoming a pretty popular option for people traveling in large groups, since they’re cost efficient, convenient, and are now equipped with pretty snazzy amenities. More and more people are opting for traveling via charter bus for things like corporate retreats, school trips, and family outings. Buses haven’t always been such a comfortable method of travel, but they have been around for a long time and have a pretty interesting history.
Horse Drawn Buses 1820’s
One of the first forms of buses in America was actually almost 200 years ago in the 1820’s. These looked like the traditional horse drawn carriages at the time, except they were much larger to accommodate a larger number of people — and of course pulled by horses rather than run on gas.
Electric Trolley Buses 1882
About 60 years later, electric trolley buses debuted, popping up on American streets. These buses were, as you might have guessed, powered by electricity. They were typically powered by overhead electric wires and trolley poles.
Yellow School Buses 1939
The iconic yellow school bus debuted some years later. All of the school buses in America are required to be painted yellow as a standard, but it’s not because yellow is a particularly attractive hue — it’s for safety purposes.
Hybrid and Electric Buses
These days, along with many other vehicles, buses are more and more often being manufactured as hybrid or even fully electric. This means that the buses don’t always run from a gasoline power source. Hybrids switch from the electric battery to the gas source, whereas fully electric models must be charged between uses.
Buses have come a pretty long way from their humble beginnings, with out motors and with pretty limited capacity. These days, charter buses (sometimes also called coach buses) fall somewhere in between all of these, but have caught up to modern preferences and are often equipped with things like air conditioning, wireless internet access, and even bathrooms.
