Looooong bus

This one really isn't art, it's just an interesting vehicle I wanted to show off.

It may not be a train, but it's long enough to nearly qualify as one. ASEAG, the main bus operator in the city of Aachen, uses two of these monster busses. With a length of nearly 26 meters, they need a special permission to be even used on german roads. Their length also makes them slightly impractical in curves, and for that matter, when driving backwards.

In fact, I assume that's why I could even take the spot. This is near Elisenbrunnen, one of Aachen's main bus stations. About half of the city's bus lines stop there. Today, however, it was all blocked, because an ambulance had hit a cyclist and the police had the entire street blocked for several hours. All other busses were diverted, but this lone one had to stand there the entire time, without passengers or drivers. I can imagine they didn't find a good way to get it out of there.

As for the bus itself: I think a streetcar system could solve the problems this bus is trying to deal with better and more efficiently, but Aachen's streetcar system was shut down a few decades ago, so for the moment, this is the best solution. There are plans to re-introduce streetcars to Aachen, as a part of a light rail project in the area, but it won't run on the routes these long busses usually drive, so it won't be able to replace it. Apparently, the concept works out fine for the operator: Six more of it's kind are ordered.