PostBus Switzerland

A c.1950 Saurer PostBus bus
A PostBus bus in Altstätten in 1984
Fuel cell Postbus
A PostBus bus near Grindelwald
Sign indicating PostBus buses have priority over other vehicles

PostBus Switzerland (known as PostAuto Schweiz in Swiss Standard German, CarPostal Suisse in Swiss French, AutoPostale Svizzera in Swiss Italian and Auto da Posta Svizra in Romansh) is a subsidiary company of the Swiss Post, which provides regional and rural bus services throughout Switzerland, and also in France and Liechtenstein. In Swiss German dialect they are also called Poschi or Poschti.

The Swiss PostBus service evolved as a motorized successor to the stagecoaches that previously carried passengers and mail in Switzerland, with the Swiss postal service providing postbus services carrying both passengers and mail. Although this combination had been self-evident in the past, the needs of each diverged towards the end of the twentieth century, when the conveyance of parcels was progressively separated from public transportation. This split became official with the conversion of PostBus into a separate subsidiary of the Swiss Post in February 2005.

The buses operated by PostBus are a Swiss icon, with a distinctive yellow livery and three-tone horn. The company uses an image of a posthorn as a logo on its buses and elsewhere. On some mountain roads, indicated by a traffic sign of a yellow posthorn on a blue background, the buses have priority over other traffic.

History

Operations

In Switzerland

Services are provided by PostBus Switzerland, a subsidiary company of Swiss Post with its headquarters in Bern. The company is responsible for 869 bus routes with 2,193 buses in Switzerland, transporting over 140 million passengers annually on its 11,869 km (7,375 mi) long network. The routes are either operated directly by PostBus itself, or by local bus companies under contract.

PostBus offers extensive services in public, public-private, and private transit, including:

Outside Switzerland

CarPostal France, a subsidiary of PostBus Switzerland, operates bus services in France. The company is headquartered in Lyon, with operations from Haguenau, in Alsace, to Béziers, in Languedoc-Roussillon. PostBus Switzerland also operates the bus service for Liechtenstein.[1][2]

Coaches

During most of the 20th Century, PostBus coaches were made in Switzerland by either Saurer, Berna or FBW.

See also

References

  1. "CarPostal France". PostBus Switzerland. Retrieved 2013-04-28.
  2. "PostBus in Liechtenstein". PostBus Switzerland. Retrieved 2013-04-28.

External links

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