While bigger may not always be better, some transport modes seem to be growing all the time, although not without controversy.
Here’s our list of the top 5 jumbo trains, planes, boats, buses – and buggies.
1) Call that a train?
The Daily Mail reported last week that ‘the world's longest train is now even LONGER’. Legendary Australian locomotive The Ghan had an extra 650ft of carriages added for a Sunday service from Adelaide to Darwin, taking its total length to 3,600ft (0.7miles), or 12 football pitches.
According to the Mail, The Ghan is comfortably the world's longest passenger train, with its sister train in Australia, the Indian Pacific, the next longest at 2,540ft. If you walked all the way from the back of the train to the front, you’d have made just a minor dent in a 3,000km journey but you would still be feeling it in your legs.
A 40-bus replacement service, not yet made in China
2) We’re going to need a bigger boat
The world’s biggest cruise ship sailed on its official maiden voyage from Southampton last weekend. The £800m Oasis-class Harmony of the Seas measures 227,700 gross registered tons and carries 5,479 passengers
But its launch was far from harmonious. The Telegraph reported that the maiden voyage went ahead ‘despite a growing series of complaints over a “chaotic” test trip’, while a Guardian article alleging that the big boat is a major polluter is the subject of a legal complaint made on behalf of its owners, Royal Caribbean International.
3) Too big for its boots
At 24.1 metres high, 80 metres wide, and 72.7 metres long, and weighing over 590 tonnes, the Airbus A380 is world’s largest commercial airliner, but not the largest plane in the world. That record belongs to the Russian-built cargo transporter, the Antonov An-225.
But it has been reported that this week the world's busiest airport - Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International - was recently unable to give the biggest airliner a gate, causing its passengers to deplane via mobile stairs and shuttle buses. Probably a lot of shuttle buses.
4) So big it doesn’t exist
Recent media reports have reheated the story of the Chinese bus – or is it a tram? - that straddles two lanes of traffic carrying over up to 1,400 passengers.
It would run on electricity and replace 40 buses, which could cut fuel consumption and carbon emissions. But CITYLAB notes that the idea has been around a long time and this version grabbed international headlines in 2010. Three years later, some news outlets began expressing doubt when they saw that no tracks had been laid out.
5) Baby on board
While the straddling bus would use ultrasonic waves to prevent high vehicles going under it, London’s Buses are looking to accommodate the smallest passengers in their small vehicles. This week Transport for London (TfL) launched a public vote to find the best buggies to use on public transport.
The vote follows on from TfL's Buggy Summit in February, at which a common theme was the availability of smaller, lighter, foldable buggies, which are better suited for use when travelling around the city. Like we said, bigger may not always be better.
