Volvo B7L

Volvo B7L is a low floor citybus with a rear engine mounted on the left of the rear overhang, it is built as a replacement of the Volvo B10L. It is used as both a single and double decker chassis largely in Continental Europe.

The B7L is also available as complete buses - the Volvo 5000 (later renumbered 7500, with aluminium structure) and Volvo 7000 (later renumbered 7700, with stainless steel structure).

It is a bit similar with B10L in design, both featuring a side-mounted engine. But the engine of B7L is Volvo D7C, which is mounted vertically, in comparison with horizontally-mounted Volvo DH10/GH10 engine in B10L; besides, the radiator is mounted above the engine instead of the right hand side, thus the rear door can be located as rearward as possible. As same as the B10L, B7L is also available in articulated form, which is the B7LA.

Apart from Continental Europe, the B7L was also introduced in the United Kingdom in 2000, as a replacement of Volvo B10BLE single decker. It could be fitted with Wright Eclipse body (and Eclipse Fusion body for B7LA). But the operators in UK disliked the arrangement of engine and radiator of the B7L, so the sales were poorer than its predecessor (with First Group being the only major customer). Finally, Volvo introduced the B7RLE for the UK market.

The double-deck version of B7L was also sold in UK, used as citybus (East Lancs Nordic body) or sightseeing bus (Ayats Bravo City open-top body).

In 2005, Wright unveiled the Wright StreetCar which is a tram-like articulated bus built with modified B7LA chassis. The chassis has a shorter front overhang, the driver's cab relocated to the above of the front axle and the radiator relocated to the roof, giving a full-width rear window.

The Volvo B7L was superseded by the Volvo B9L.

ee also

* ftr - a trial scheme using Wright StreetCars