Gillig Low Floor
The Gillig Low Floor is a low-floor transit bus manufactured by Gillig for the U.S. market since 1996. It is produced in three nominal lengths with several different powertrain options, including diesel and compressed natural gas engines, and diesel-electric hybrid, battery-electric, and hydrogen fuel cell powertrains.
The Low Floor was the second low-floor bus sold in the United States. It was initially produced alongside the high-floor Gillig Phantom, but replaced the Phantom entirely by 2008. Since 2008, the Low Floor line is the only product produced by Gillig. The Low Floor is currently assembled at Gillig's factory in Livermore, California; prior to 2017, it was assembled in Hayward, California.
Variants
The Low Floor line is produced in five distinct body styles, which all share the same basic structure and chassis:- The original, standard Gillig Low Floor has a traditional rectangular body and rectangular sealed-beam headlamps.
- The modified Gillig BRT variant incorporates a curved front fascia, round projector headlamps, and a modified rear design. It is roughly one foot longer than a standard Low Floor.
- The BRT Plus variant incorporates the BRT variant's styling with a higher roofline.
- The Low Floor Plus variant has a flatter modified front fascia with round projector headlamps, and a raised roof similar to the BRT Plus.
- The Gillig Trolley Replica variant is a trolley-replica bus based on the standard Low Floor body, produced in collaboration with Cable Car Classics of Healdsburg, California. Its exterior styling resembles a historic streetcar, and includes faux wood trim, stylized lettering and paint accents, and an artificially raised roof. It has a modified interior with wooden seats, and brass and leather accents.
Design history
The Gillig Low Floor began life in the mid-1990s as Gillig was approached by Hertz Corporation, who sought a shuttle bus for its airport locations. Featuring a carpeted interior, luggage racks, and a central entry door, the primary design requirement of Hertz was a low-floor entry for those carrying luggage or with limited mobility. In 1996, the first buses for Hertz entered production, with Hertz placing the H2000LF in service at Logan International Airport in Boston. Gillig would produce the H2000LF for Hertz through 2005, as the design was replaced by standard Gillig Low Floor buses.In 1997, Gillig developed the H2000LF shuttle bus into the Low Floor transit bus. Several changes were made to the design, distinguished primarily by the reconfiguration of the entry doors.
Following the renaming of the model line, Gillig introduced the Low Floor as an expansion of its product range, marketed alongside the step-entrance Phantom.
During its production, the Low Floor has undergone several revisions to its body design. In 2002, the windshield was enlarged and the side windows were reduced in width. After 2003, the rear side split windows that were configured upside down were reconfigured to match the rest of the side windows; frameless windows later became an option.
In 2005, the Low Floor model line was expanded by the addition of the Low Floor BRT, adding restyled front and rear bodywork and a front roof fairing; the Trolley Replica restyled the standard Low Floor body as a vintage trolley.
In 2008, the entry doors were revised, adopting larger glass panels. A suburban configuration was introduced alongside the standard transit Low Floor. Distinguished by its lack of a rear entry door, the suburban Low Floor was configured with forward-facing seating, internal luggage racks, onboard Wi-Fi, and other passenger-related options.
For 2011, the Low Floor BRT Plus was introduced. Coinciding with the introduction of CNG and diesel-electric hybrid powertrains, the Plus adopted a full-length body fairing to accommodate CNG tanks and hybrid equipment on the roof. In 2017, a Low Floor Plus was introduced, combining the roof fairing of the BRT Plus with the body of the standard Low Floor.
A battery-electric powertrain developed by Cummins was made available for the Low Floor Plus variant starting in 2019. The launch client for the Gillig/Cummins battery-electric bus was Big Blue Bus, serving Santa Monica, California. A battery-electric Low Floor was tested at Altoona in 2018, using a drivetrain adapted from the BAE HybriDrive powertrain.
In April 2024, Gillig announced a hydrogen fuel cell variant of the bus, beginning production in 2026.
Overview
Of the two body configurations for low-floor buses, the Gillig Low Floor is a low-entry bus with a low-step entry and integrated manual wheelchair ramp while the rear part of the interior is raised to provide sufficient space for the powertrain.The Gillig Low Floor is produced in three nominal body lengths in its standard transit bus configuration:. Maximum seating capacity is 40 passengers for the 40-foot length. The turning radius of the Gillig Low Floor is .
Powertrain
Conventional (internal combustion)
Currently, the Gillig Low Floor range is equipped with three engines: the Cummins B6.7 diesel, Cummins L9 diesel, and Cummins L9N compressed natural gas inline-six engines. Throughout its production, the Gillig Low Floor has featured a range of Cummins engines along with Caterpillar and Detroit Diesel engines.Allison, Voith, and ZF automatic transmissions are available.
Diesel-electric hybrid
Since 2004, the Gillig Low Floor has been available in a diesel-electric hybrid configuration with the Cummins ISB engine; hybrid models are identified by their roof-mounted battery pack. Hybrid models have been produced with Allison, BAE, and Voith series- and parallel-hybrid powertrains. In 2008, the Allison hybrid drivetrain was 81% more expensive than a conventional bus, which was partially subsidized by federal grants and expected savings in fuel and maintenance costs.The Gillig/Voith hybrid, branded DIWAhybrid, is a mild parallel hybrid system using Maxwell ultracapacitor on-board energy storage, and was tested to have an observed overall average fuel consumption of. The Gillig/BAE series hybrid, branded HybriDrive, had comparable fuel consumption, at and . The Gillig/Allison dual-mode hybrid was similar, at .
Battery electric
A fully electric configuration was introduced in 2019, with serial production commencing in 2020; it was developed as a prototype at the request of Big Blue Bus, which had reduced an order of 20 CNG buses to 19 in order to test an all-electric powertrain system developed by Cummins. The buses use plug-in charging with a SAE J1772 CCS Type 1 connector, and an overhead pantograph connection is available.As tested by the Bus Research and Testing Center in Altoona, a battery-electric bus, with a gross capacity of 444 kW-hr at 750 VDC, achieved a range of, depending on the driving cycle. Observed energy consumption was , , and . The Cummins TM4 traction motor had a rated output of.