Bordeaux 2013 – A vintage year
The 24th Rencontres Nationales du Transport Public was held in Bordeaux from 27 to 29 November. It was organised by two French associations, GART and UTP (not to be confused with UITP) which both represent the public transport sector. It therefore included buses and trams, and many of the suppliers, but not coaches.
The Crossway LE has a wide variety of interior specifications
For suburban and rural applications, Iveco Bus offers the Crossway LE at overall lengths of 10.8m, 12m and 13m with a choice of two or three doors in various standards of interior trim from school bus to HV (High Value), with greater comfort for interurban services.
The Ellisup Concept Bus that was one of the stars of Busworld Kortrijk was exhibited by Electricite de France, one of the partners in the project. The small wheels and tyres have enabled the designers to be much more imaginative with the interior layout. With three double width doors, passenger flow should be excellent at bus stops. However, one has to question the practicality, and potential accident risk, of lateral seats that have a base but no back. The only support is a padded bar at shoulder level.
Talking to Antonio Gratis, Plant Director at the Annonay factory, he said that it would build around 1,700 units this year, with a headcount of 1,500. While some of those were chassis, others were articulated buses, so that seems to be a very efficient ratio. He said that the plant was working very hard to meet demand for Citelis Euro5 vehicles before the registration deadline of March next year. That was creating complications in preparing for the build-up of the new Urbanway. Therefore employees were working on Saturday mornings in preparation for the change-over.
We talked about the EuroRider chassis. He said that demand was coming mainly from markets that could still accept Euro5 but there were plans to introduce a new Euro6 chassis range.
Across the aisle, Heuliez Bus, that is 99% owned by Iveco, presented some of its Euro6 range. Normally, Heuliez builds around 440 vehicles per annum, but will build 520 this year, again to satisfy demand ahead of the introduction of Euro6.
A Heuliez Bus GX437 hybrid articulated bus for RATP, Paris
Heuliez Bus has now built around 150 hybrid vehicles, all using the same BAE Systems drive as Alexander Dennis. Pride of place on their stand went to an articulated GX437 Hybrid for RATP, Paris.
Heuliez Bus can offer the GX137 midibus at either 9.62m or 10.745m overall length. These are quite different from typical British midibuses, because they have a full low floor layout with a Tector engine mounted vertically and offset in line at the rear. This facilitates the option of a third door behind the rear axle.
There is a lot of interest in France in electric vehicles, though none of the Chinese manufacturers attended. Perhaps it was too soon after Kortrijk. Power Vehicle Innovation has developed two all-electric models, including a midibus based on an Otokar low entry model. The company is about to establish a route in Nice using full size vehicles with super capacitors and overhead charging stations.