The introduction of barrier-free concepts into bus transport systems in the 1990s was successful up to the point, that the German transport companies stopped ordering high-floor designs by 1998 and eventually MAN and Daimler stopped producing high-floor city buses in Europe by 2001 - public (city) transport companies no longer wanted such designs. The experiences with that first generation sparked interest to take further advantage of the low floor designs. The resulting prototypes of ADtranz GT6N were delivered in 1990 and mass production started in 1992 with the first batches entering service in Berlin, Bremen and Munich in the following years. After the first low floor trams in Geneva of 1987, the city of Bremen asked MAN to develop a low floor tram.
The parallel introduction of low-floor trams showed, that with proper horizontal alignment, the gap can be small enough to be barrier-free. A simple elevation of the bus platform is not enough, as there is often a gap too wide for wheels to traverse. The introduction of low-floor buses had reduced the number of steps from two or three to one, but the remaining step was a barrier to wheelchairs.
With more low-floor buses being introduced to public transport in Germany in the late 1980s, it sparked ideas to optimize accessibility. Consequently, Neoplan again developed low-floor versions of their Standard-Buses, named Neoplan N4014, N4015, N4016 NF with production starting in 1990. Shortly later, MAN's competitor Daimler was designing the Mercedes-Benz O405 in 1984 to fit with the new Standard-Bus requirements, and this model spread quickly in the market in the late 1980s.īased on the Standard-Bus model, a number of variants were developed by their respective manufacturers – here, it was the Kässbohrer Setra S 300 NC to show the first a low-floor version in 1987 that was sold since 1989.ĭaimler began to derive the low-floor version of its successful model in its Mercedes-Benz O 405 N, that was produced since late 1989, and which proved to be of a robust design in the following years, leading into rising production numbers. Since the 1980s, the Association of German Transport Companies invested into the design for a new standard bus, the " Standard-Linienbus II", with the second-generation Neoplan N 416 from 1982 to find wider acceptance. The German NEOPLAN Bus GmbH had designed the first bus with a "low-entry section" in 1976 but it was not accepted well in the market. The invention of special kerbs for low-floor buses is connected with the introduction of low-floor buses and modern low-floor trams in the late 20th century.
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