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 Businova hybrid hydraulic bus by Safra
Safra is a long-established company, based in Albi, near Toulouse. It has extensive facilities to repair and refurbish buses, trams and rail vehicles. Two year ago, Safra launched the Businova hybrid vehicle that drew its power from three sources, namely an electric motor, a hydraulic motor and a combustion engine.
Their vehicle at RNTP had been further developed and homologated, and was ready for volume production. The overall length has increased to 10.55m. The structure was in stainless steel with the floor in the front part of the vehicle only one step above the ground. There was minimal seating in this area, then four steps took passengers up to a raised seating area over the two rear axles. The first of these was a ZF portal unit, but the low floor stopped ahead of that!
Beneath the raised rear area there was a small enclosed compartment that looked like a trailer, but sat within the overall dimensions of the vehicle. It contained all the thermal, hydraulic and electrical components and had its own axle with Streparava independent suspension. That arrangement certainly insulated passengers from any noise or vibration, but it seemed unusual to have three axles on a vehicle with a gross weight of 16.5 tonnes.
Gruau has been building its quirky 5.46m long low floor minibus for several years, originally with a diesel engine and later with a hybrid drive. Two years ago, Gruau teamed up with the Bollore Group which supplied the batteries and engine management system. Bollore was already marketing an electric car, known as the BlueCar, so the minibus is now promoted as the BlueBus.
There was no sign of FAST, an important player in the school and multi-purpose sectors of the market. Evidently, the factory is in administration and the parent group has put out an enigmatic statement saying that it must find a solution, but the factory must stand on its own feet! There have been high development costs and some product issues. The situation is complicated by the fact that FAST builds mainly on MAN chassis and there are rumours that MAN is developing a complete school bus in Turkey. When asked about this, an MAN representative gave a Gallic shrug and said that he knew nothing!
EvoBus employs nearly 400 people at its factory in Ligny-en-Barrois in Eastern France. After being treated in the anti-corrosion system in Mannheim, Citaro structures are brought to Ligny for completion for French and other markets. Last year, 384 were built for France and another 204 were exported to 17 countries. A Euro6 Citaro was displayed.
It was the first European launch of the Setra S 415 UL Business
The Setra S 415 UL Business with optional wheelchair lift
EvoBus is also very strong in the school and multi-purpose sectors of the French market with models like the Intouro, and the Tourismo is also popular. Setra launched the S 415 UL Business, another multi-purpose model and the first Setra to be built in the major factory in Turkey. EvoBus has invested heavily in aftermarket support in France in the last three or four years.
Solaris showed the Euro6 InterUrbino and the all-electric Urbino city bus that had both been at Kortrijk. Delays in deliveries of Euro6 engines are causing some problems, but the company continues to win significant orders for buses and trolleybuses and will supply 100 articulated buses with Euro5 engines to the Turkish city of Izmir.
Volvo had a 7900H hybrid bus on its stand. They recently delivered two to Lyon, to operate alongside two Iveco hybrids and two MAN Lion’s City H hybrids.
Durisotti is a major converter of panel vans in France, for all sorts of applications. They showed a neat fully wheelchair accessible conversion of a Renault Master.
In France, Paris and Marseilles own and operate their own transport systems. In many of the other towns and cities, the local authority owns depots and vehicles, but the operation of services is contracted out to organisations like Transdev and Keolis. They and RATP, Paris, had large stands as did tram and rail manufacturers like Alstom and TransLohr. Despite the economic problems in France, tramways are still on many wish lists.
The next major exhibition in France will be Transports Publics in Paris from 10 to 12 June next year.