I am onboard/aboard the bus

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
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I am onboard the bus.
I am aboard the bus.

Do both sentences have the same meaning?

Thanks.

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I am on the bus. ← that’s how 99.9% of people would say it.

As for the difference between onboard and aboard:
The difference is subtle. Onboard has a slight hint of the current location, whereas aboard has a slight hint of the process of boarding. In all the old western movies in the US, the train conductor would yell, “All aboard”, meaning that it’s time for everyone to board.

It’s really more of a collocation than an actual difference between the meaning of the words. Onboard is more commonly used than aboard.

The process of getting on the bus would be:
I am getting on the bus. (most common)
I am boarding the bus. (less common)

For getting on a plane or train, the word ‘boarding’ is more common than getting on a bus, but still not as common as simply saying ‘getting on the plane’.

I think it was during the 80s (give or take a decade) that the airline industry made up a new word. They say “deplaning” for getting off the plane. I have never heard anyone outside the airline industry say that word.

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I remember asking a similar question quite a couple of years ago.

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I had to research this a bit, and the most interesting fact I saw was that “onboard” was first used in 1958. It means something carried in something else.
“My computer has an onboard DVD player”
.
So, I think that for @NearlyNapping’s explanation , we need to replace “onboard” with “on board”. As he says, there is a lot of similarity between “aboard” and “on board”.
Regarding the process of boarding, you could say “Welcome on board”, but “Welcome aboard” would be more natural and inviting. The same with “Climb aboard!”

So we would climb aboard the bus. Once on board we would use the onboard fare collection system.

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This thread reminds me of an essay Alan wrote some time ago: All aboard - Essays | english.best

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From Alan’s essay:
"I learnt that a “nautical mile” is 1.85 kilometres but an ordinary mile is 1.609 kilometres.

A nautical mile is length of one minute of longitude at the equator. A minute of angle is 1/60 of a degree. So one degree longitude is 1/360 of the earths circumference at the equator. One minute is 1/60 of that. So 360 * 60 = exactly 21,600 nautical miles for the circumference of the earth.

The bottom line is that a nautical mile and regular mile are unrelated. It’s only coincidence that the two units are close to the same distance.

Edit: I guess I remembered wrong. I looked it up and a nautical mile is one minute of latitude, not longitude.

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