Notes

Something for the bus enthusiasts here.

Double decker buses are not at all popular in Germany. A lack of standing seats, coupled with a very bad passenger flow, means that normally, articulated buses are preferred, to the point where it gets ridicolous. The ruleproving exception is Berlin, traditionally a double-decker town, although lately the reason for this is just that advertisers love the huge space available there. The traditional secondary use for Berlin’s double-deckers is sightseeing.

Here, an MAN SD 202 is touring through Cologne. Unlike many others in this business, it still has the original roof and has not been converted to an open-top bus. The SD 202 is based on the MAN SL 202, which is the MAN version of the VÖV II standard bus. The Mercedes Benz version of the VÖV II, the O 405, is much more commonly known, but has never been (at least in Germany) turned into a double-decker.