These days, coach buses are some of the most eco-friendly and affordable ways to travel, and rental companies providing coach bus transportation have popped up all over the country. Not only do coach buses get the most passenger miles per gallon compared to every other type of vehicle on the road today, but bus companies have been providing public transportation to people for hundreds of years and are constantly looking for new ways to improve routes, accessibility, and comfort.
But the very first buses weren’t anything like the modern buses that we ride on today!
The first version of the public transportation bus was created in the 1820s, and it was more of a big carriage than anything else — in fact, it was drawn by horses. Up until this time, it was difficult for people to travel in between towns, especially if they didn’t have their own carriages. Public carriage routes regularly run from city to city, but these required passengers to make ticket reservations in advance, and passengers were required to stay on the bus for the entire trip.
When the first bus was created, it made travel much easier because riders could buy a last-minute ticket if a seat was available, and they could hop on and off at any point along the route.
It wasn’t until the 1840s that steam-powered buses began transporting passengers between cities across Europe, although the steam-powered bus lived a pretty short life, seeing that train lines operated in the same way. Trolley buses were the next step, which offered quick rides within a city, but these required cables and special tracks to operate.
By the 1920s, the bus as we picture it today was on the road and was quickly becoming an important method of transportation. In fact, public schools in the U.S. decided to start using buses in the 1930s to transport students to and from school, and it definitely says something about the safety and affordability of bus operations that schools have never tried to switch over to another form of transportation.
These days, there are tons of features that allow passengers to travel comfortably on a bus without paying tons of money or having to make reservations months in advance. The specific features and technologies have changed quite a bit since 1820, but the purpose of the bus definitely hasn’t changed at all!