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Consider the following categories of bus numbers:

  * Number only - 11
  * Number suffixed or prefixed with a character - 11E or E11
  * Character only - A

**(Question)** How common are buses with letters/characters in Japanese? Do
letters come before or after the number? Can the characters be English letters
or hiragana/katakana/kanji?

* * *

I am familiar with `_番のバス` where the blank is for the number of the bus.

**(Question)** How frozen is `番のバス`? What happens if the blank is not a
number. Do I change 番 if it is not a number and say `A字のバス`? What about the
combination cases for bus 11E or E11?
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2016-01-19T04:32:48.093
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2016-01-19T06:23:34.380
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question
word-choice words
Lettered Bus Numbers
**(Question 1)**

Buses in metropolitan areas are commonly (usually?) marked with numbers and
letters. I don't know the statistical figure, but most buses have one number,
possibly combined with one kanji or alphabet, followed by the destinations
(eg. `茶51 秋葉原駅前`, `②つくばセンター`). Buses in rural areas may only have their
destinations (eg. `湯涌温泉(行)`).

**(Question 2)**

番 can only follow a number. `2番のバス` is OK but `2のバス` sounds a bit weird.
`A番のバス` is wrong and `Aのバス`/`Aと書かれたバス` is correct. `A字のバス` is uncommon and
sounds like "A-shaped bus" to me. `E11番のバス` is acceptable but `E11のバス` is
better.

Note that `2番のバス` may either mean a bus marked with 2 on the destination sign,
or a bus coming to / departing from the platform number 2. It depends on the
situation.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-19T06:23:34.380
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2016-01-19T06:23:34.380
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answer