Leyland Motors Atlantean

Leyland Atlantean

Atlantean with Roe body
Years of manufacture	1958 to 1986
Length	9.14 to 10.2 metres
Width
Power/Fuel	Diesel

The Leyland Atlantean is a double deck bus chassis that was produced for the United Kingdom and exported to a number of other countries. It was introduced at the 1956 Commercial Motor Exhibition. The Atlantean was one of the earlier examples of a rear-engined bus with front entrance that eventually allowed one-person operation.^[1]

At the start of the 1970s, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York was looking at increasing the capacity of several routes. Considering a return of double deck buses, the MTA began negotiations with Leyland for prototypes to use in New York.^[2]In 1974, the Department of Transportation announced the funding of the study and trial of double deck buses in New York and Los Angeles.^[3] Leyland delivered eight Atlantean buses that were adapted for operation in the United States in 1976. The buses would enter service on the M4 and M5 routes in Manhattan.^[4] The buses encountered some clearance challenges and suffered frequent mechanical problems. They were eventually withdrawn in 1980.

From the 1990s onward, the Leyland Atlantean was imported by city sightseeing operators in Canada and the United States. Often times they were converted to open-top buses. The prototypes from New York were also eventually sold to sightseeing operators.