Ever larger and fewer international private transit operators are continuing to
buy out and take over municipal and regional PT systems in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
This update is devoted to the French companies called Connex, Transdev and Keolis which
are less known in this country than their UK counterparts FirstGroup, Stagecoach,
Arriva and National Express. Collectively these companies, themselves subsidiaries of
diversified multinational holding groups, operate bus fleets numbering in the tens of
thousands in more than a dozen countries around the world with steadily increasing inroads
into North America.
Connex is owned by Vivendi International, a global giant with over a quarter
million employees, 40,000 of them with Connex. The 'Universal' in the name comes from
Universal Studios, the film producer that also operates theme parks in Hollywood, Florida,
Japan and Spain. Connex operates some 13,000 urban/regional buses worldwide.
In France, the company manages some 150 urban and regional bus networks that employ 12,000
people. Several years ago it acquired Linjebuss, the 4,000 vehicle Swedish group
already active in Denmark, Finland Norway, Belgium and Germany. Its German operations have
grown to around 800 buses on 16 urban and regional networks and it is a shareholder in
Czech and Polish lines that operate another 820 buses. Connex currently operate a 177 bus
fleet in London and is pursuing additional tendering opportunities with the new Transport
for London (TfL) authority.
It moved into the US last summer by acquiring the 1,200 vehicle Yellow Transportation
system in the Washington/Baltimore region. Recently it won a contract to operate the PT
system of Columbia, SC as well as the Fairfax County 85 vehicle connector, plus half a
dozen paratransit systems in as many states.
Connex also operates in Australia with buses in Perth and Sydney, trams in Sydney and
trains in Melbourne. Its most recent acquisitions have been in Spain where its operates
six urban bus networks and the new LRT in Barcelona.
Transdev, another French group is a part of C3D, a conglomerate group active in
transit, housing, leisure and engineering. It operates nearly 6,000 buses and some
400 LRVs worldwide.
Besides its presence in some 60 French urban areas, it operates buses in Sydney and trams
in Melbourne, Australia, and is also involved in trams and metro projects in Oporto,
Portugal and Torino, Italy.
Keolis is part of the SNCF Group (French National Railways). It is one of Europe's leading providers of passenger transport management service (1.5bn passengers transported every year), operating multimodal integrated solutions with buses, coaches, light and heavy railways.
They employ over 33,250 employees in eight countries worldwide (including France, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Netherlands and Sweden).
Keolis is the leading operator of automatic underground metros, operating the largest network in the world (Lille, France) for a total of over 50 miles of subway and provides its expertise to major city in the world (Singapore, Chicago, Montreal and New York).
Keolis rail activities cover the operation of over 1 500 miles of railway tracks. It is the operator of 2 of the major commuter train systems in Greater London (UK), the Southern and the Integrated Kent franchises (which provides for the introduction in 2009 of TGV-like high-speed services). It also operates the award-winning Transpennine Express franchise.
Finally, with 12,000 buses and coaches and 40 miles of tramways operated worldwide Keolis has grown to become a reference for transport agencies willing to outsource their transport systems.
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The multinational UK operators who been around even longer than their competitors across
the Channel cumulatively also operate tens of thousands of buses and railcars in the
global marketplace with considerably excess of a hundred thousand employees. Based on my
close look at their respective web sites we have, alphabetically:
Arriva plc with some 30,000 employees, annual revenues of more than a billion
dollars and a bus and rail fleet numbering more than 9,000 vehicles, of which more than
7,000 are located in the UK where Arriva ranks as the second largest operator. More than
2,000 buses are operated by Arriva in continental Europe including Denmark, the
Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Urban rail operations are underway in Denmark, the
Netherlands and the UK.
FirstGroup plc with annual revenues in excess of $4.1 billion, some 50,000
employees worldwide and an urban bus and rail fleet numbering more than 10,000 buses and
railcars in some 40 UK cities/towns, and operating 2,300 miles of intercity,
regional and commuter trains.
After its recent expansion into the US, FirstGroup America became the number two operator
of school buses with more than 14,000 vehicles, carrying 740,000 students daily, and
managing/maintaining some 30,000 vehicles for local governments in the US.
National Express plc with some 42,000 employees worldwide, annual revenues in
excess of $4.8 billion with about a quarter of its operations and personnel in
international markets. In total, the company carries more than a billion passengers
annually in its combined bus, rail and commuter rail fleets.
In the UK, the company calls itself the largest urban bus network outside of London
outside of London with its 1,800 units serving 350 million passengers annually in addition
to the Midland Metro LRT that has been operating since 1999. National Express owns nine
intercity passenger rail franchises and train maintenance operation called Maintrain which
also services third party contracts.
In the US, the company describes itself as the third largest operator of school bus
services and the largest provider of demand responsive services. Its combined American
fleet of 11,400 vehicles operates in 31 states, employs nearly 17,000 people, is under
contract with 316 public agencies, and carries more than 200 million passengers annually.
Stagecoach Group plc which employs some 40,000 people worldwide, half of them in
the UK, and reports annual revenues of $2.8 billion, operates some 20,000 buses, trains
and LRVs, among them the Virgin Rail Network and the Sheffield SuperTram in the UK.
Currently Stagecoach runs some 7,000 buses and rail vehicles in the UK and about 3,000
buses in Australia, China, including Hong Kong and New Zealand.
In the US, Stagecoach operates some 6,500 intercity buses and more than 3,300 limos and
cabs through it recent acquisition of Coach USA.
If we tally up all these buses and railcars now operated by a handful of private operates
based in France and the UK, we reach a staggering total of around 72,000 units, which
nearly equals all of the buses currently operating in the US. (According to APTA
statistics, the total public transportation fleet is composed of 129,000 vehicles in
active service. Of this number, buses represent 58% or about 74,000 units.)
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