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SEEING HOW THE FRENCH DO IT
Page 63
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British engineers think Paris transport authorities could learn a lot from UK
"T BELIEVE that the Regie Autonomes des Transports Parisiens (the Paris transport authority) could benefit from a visit to a British private bus undertaking of about the same size as their own to see how to give the public up-to-date transport in good condition at the right fare." This was one of the comments by a p.s.v. engineer in the party of 50 members of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers who went to France this month.
The party visited the RATP central workshops, and this British p.s.v. executive remarked that the company had decided on a policy of keeping even the oldest vehicles on the road and had therefore accumulated a vast amount of machine tools and manpower to produce spare parts. By UK standards they employed over double the staff in their central workshops.
The detail planning of works output was impressive, he commented, but the amount of money tied up in spares and machines was amazing.
The simple construction of all but the latest vehicles made maintenance easy but the public did not get the benefit of irdproved equipment such as tube lighting, good heating and ventilation.
British driving staff demanded a far higher standard of cab comfort than offered on all but the latest Paris buses.
If the French public demanded improved VAL and VAM. These coaches, incidentally, are available for, immediate purchase.
Other new vehicles which can be purchased from this show are a 1966 Duple Commander mounted on an AEC Reliance chassis and a 7 ft. 6in.-wide Bedford SB with Duple Bella Vega coach body, not to mention the last 1966 model Duple Vista 29-seat coach to be built.
A wide selection of used buses and coaches can be seen along with a Strachans Pacesaver II demonstration bus on a Bedford VAM 5 chassis. There is no official closing date for this exhibition. facilities then the p.s.v. undertakings would have to change to the UK class of vehicle and the maintenance set-up would then no longer be economic. The RATP's elaborate spring shop and metal spraying equipment would go, as would the line boring and bigend remetalling process.
The annual mileage of the vehicles was low and overhaul was very frequent, considering how flat Paris was. This also accounted for the small engine capacity.
Another British engineer reported that the RATP shops overhauled chassis and bodies on 3,450 buses, doing 550 complete overhauls in a typical year; intervening mileage was about 130,000. The works was split into five departments with a total staff of 1,570. At the hub was the progress and planning office equipped with the latest type of recording equipment.
Considering the capital sunk in machine tools and the extensiveness of the overhauls being undertaken it was not surprising to learn that vehicles now being scrapped were bought in 1932.
It was surprising to learn that although the workshops used up-to-date layout and methods the petrol engine was retained, and no scrapping programme was proposed.
The fleet, all single-deck, came largely (around 70 per cent) from the manufacturers who now comprised SAVIEM.
The IRTE party had earlier toured the SAVIEM plant at Blainville and noted particularly the very high standard of welding achieved there. They watched electric welding of rear axle assemblies and noted that powdered metal and flux surrounded the electrode and were fed to it by a small concentric hopper.