City Bus with Retractable Accessibility Ramp

I had been wanting to include a city bus in my Lego town for many years, but was always disappointed by the low number of passengers they could accommodate. Most official bus builds are limited to 6 or fewer total passengers, which seems quite low for mass transit.

I decided to challenge myself in building a bus that would not only accommodate a large number of minifigures, but would do so without dramatically increasing the size to the point where it would look out of scale with other Lego vehicles. Since I tend to favour the Speed Champions scale of 6 studs in width for cars and 8 studs in width for trucks and larger vehicles, the challenge was to come up with an 8-stud wide design that allowed for 2 minifigs to sit side-by-side without interference.

My other goal was to have a bus incorporate modern accessibility technology; a retractable access ramp for mobility-impaired passengers, as well as fold-up seats in the front to accommodate a carriage, stroller or wheelchair. After numerous failed approaches and at least 4 complete re-designs from the ground up, I think the design is finally complete.

This was a surprisingly difficult build. Using wheels that are 2 studs in width limited the amount of space I had for the central aisle, while enough room was needed to allow for a wheelchair to fit comfortably. The design of the retractable access ramp was also quite challenging to design as I was limited to a single brick in height for the entire mechanism. Finally, it was necessary to come up with a new design for the door hinges as it was important that they slide aside rather than swing outwards.

Features:

• Seating for 15 passengers and 1 driver
• Low step design
• Push-out retractable access ramp
• Fold-up seats to accommodate a carriage, stroller or wheelchair
• Folding bike rack
• Swing-out coach doors for maximum access space
• Removable roof for easy interior access

Thank you for your support!