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by Bill Goodwin Opportunities galore in Swiss market
.FTER a lapse of about two years the ssembly of Hino commercials, originally lanned and prepared for by a Dutch firm, to be started by a Swiss manufacturer of )ecialist vehicles, Meili Fahrzeugbau AG, F Schiihelbach. The programme recently mounced in Swiss press advertisements eludes Hino models from 8 to 26 tons w. Meili's own range covers wheeled and acked cross-country vehicles powered by erkins diesel or Ford petrol engines. The idition of the Japanese goods vehicles )mes at an opportune moment in Swiss )al transport affairs. The higher weight nits effective since August together with ipending legislation which, among other iings, will prohibit the transport of :rishables and foodstuffs in other than !frigerated vehicles, have created an traordinary demand for new equipment. The country's largest indigenous makers, surer-Berna, last month opened a £1.3m orks extension at Arbon designed to cut .tlivery times and ultimately to double 'oduction capacity. Considerable rationalittion of the Saurer range and elimination much of the "one-off" type of trade has, turn, benefited FBW, Switzerland's :cond cv maker, where full order books we once again stretched waiting time for nv vehicles to 20-24 months. FBW which now working on the final development ages of a new 320 bhp engine is also well Ivanced in the • application of catalytic .haust emission controls for diesel-engined tssenger and goods vehicles.
A demonstration display at the Geneva ow in February was of the FBW-designed ttalysator which subsequently went into rvice in a Berne city bus. Towards the end this year deliveries will begin of )rizontal 160 bhp-engined refuse collectors r Zurich all fitted with catalytic exhaust :.vices as part of a large-scale ivironmental control project sponsored by e municipality. This is believed to be the .st fleet use of exhaust emission control in vit zerland
While the great strength of Swiss vehicle Alders has always been in the sphere of nade to measure" equipment giving the istorrier exactly the right tool for the job, e relatively small production potential is iw totally inadequate to meet the needs of e country's public transport operators. erman manufacturers were the first to :nefit from the growing demand for new .v and although initially tenders for new )stal vehicles were open only to makers in FTA countries even the post office has
now bought Mercedes-Benz buses. Most of these are 0.302 models with Swiss-modified bodywork.
Now Volvo is coming into the picture and the first 30 vehicles with Hess bodies are in service with the postal authorities. City buses on13 58 chassis are also in use in six towns while three others (Lugano, Winterthur and Schaffhausen) have ordered the first trolleybuses to be based on Volvo chassis. Winterthur already has eight Swiss-bodied articulated diesel buses with Volvo mechanical units.
0 Paris tries flat-fare mini-bus service
A NEW experimental minibus route has been introduced by the Paris undertaking RATP. Designed to serve an expanding residential region to the west of the city the route, almost five miles in length, links La Verboise and the new Metro and surface transport centre at La Defense. There are no fixed stops and passengers can board and leave the buses anywhere on request. New front-wheel-drive Citroen-Currus buses with 13 seats within an overall length of 17ft 9in. are used. The service is provided at 7 to 10 minute intervals every day except Sunday and a relatively high fare of F3.50 (approximately 27p) is charged irrespective of distance travelled. The charge is regarded compatible with the comfort and convenience offered to users in the medium and high income areas served.
0 Budapest's longest route
THE BUDAPEST transport undertaking has gone into international operations with the inauguration of a new route between the Hungarian capital and the east German city of Erfurt. Once weekly an Ikarus 250 coach makes the 550-mile trip via Prague and Dresden. The travelling time of 35 hours includes an 11-hour night stop in Prague. Next year the service frequency will be stepped up when additional vehicles of the State transport organization at Erfurt will be introduced on this route.
D Home town DAFs
A RUSH ORDER for 20 buses to replace vehicles destroyed in a recent garage fire is now nearing completion by Den Oudsten, of Woerden, Netherlands. The new buses, costing £250,000, are for the Eindhoven transport undertaking, OVE, and are based on DAF chassis made in the town.