Produced: 1984 – 1996
France's second-largest bus builder, Heuliez, ceased bodying Mercedes-Benz O305 underframes in 1983, when Mercedes replaced the O305 with the new O405. Instead, the company began producing its own bodywork for the Renault PR100, based on a concept bus that had previously been displayed to the press. The complete bus was marketed as the Heuliez GX107, with no reference to its Renault parentage. By 1985, Heuliez was also building an articulated version called the GX187, based on the PR180 underframe. As the mark 2 version of the PR100 series was introduced not long after Heuliez began producing its buses, most GX107s and GX187s are based on the this version.
TCRB,
Boulogne-sur-Mer no. 203 (9143 QL 62) - March 2001
Triple-door GX107s are not common, but fortunately one of the major users of
the type is within easy reach of the UK. Boulogne took delivery of seventeen
three-door GX107s - no. 203 was one of the later ones, arriving in 1994.
Boulogne's imaginative wave-pattern livery looks very striking indeed, and is a
major improvement on the previous scheme (just visible on the GX107 in the
background).
CTPM,
Montbéliard no. 128 (9907 VT 25) - September 2001
Montbéliard 128 is a typical GX187, seen pausing outside Montbéliard
station. One slightly unusual feature is the extra air intake grille just
forward of the rear axle - this is present on a few PR180.2s and GX187s, and is
believed to accommodate an intercooler for the optional higher power (306hp) engine.
The GX107 series' styling can probably best be described as dramatic, particularly at the front. The wrap-around windscreen is huge, and on most buses the area around the destination box is masked in black giving the impression of an even larger area of glass. This gave the bus a very futuristic look when new and it still looks impressive today. However, the rear of the bus is surprisingly conventional by comparison, and the side view, with its square-cornered windows of varying sizes, is something of an acquired taste. Whether the GX107's bold design is to your liking or not, it has to be admitted that it still looks modern and striking,
nearly twenty years after it first appeared.
From 1995, Heuliez joined forces with Renault to launch the GX317 low-floor single decker. The company also began building similar low floor bodies on Volvo chassis as the GX217 or articulated GX417. Demand for the GX107 series began to tail off and the last are thought to have been built
in late-1996.
RTM,
Marseille no. 142 (3149 LZ 13) - September 2000
Marseille was a major customer for the Heuliez, their buses being badged as
GX113s. No. 142 (new in 1985) was one of the first batch, and still looked in
good condition some fifteen years later. These buses are now the oldest in
the Marseille fleet and will begin to disappear as Mercedes Citaros are
delivered.
CGFTE, Nancy
no. 342 (883 TX 54) - September 2001
The nearside of a typical GX187, this one being one of four delivered to
Nancy's green-painted suburban fleet. Nancy has two very separate bus fleets,
based at different depots but both operated by CGFTE.
Most GX107s have two doorways, however some (notably for TCRB, Boulogne and for Aeroports de Paris) have two exits between the axles. Some of the ADP buses were badged as type GX87S.
Heuliez also built several batches of buses as unfinished shells for RTM, Marseille, so that RTM could finish them in their own workshops. These buses are badged as GX113s, since Marseille is in département no. 13. The later batches of buses for Marseille carry a different body style with smaller, round-cornered windows
Heuliez also rebodied large numbers of Mercedes O305s with the GX107-style body. These are known as
GX44s, and are most commonly associated with the city of Nantes.
RTM, Marseille no. 594 (6047
RR 13) - September 2000
RTM's later GX113s had this design of bodywork, in which the characteristic
large, square-cornered windows of the standard Heuliez bodyshell were replaced
by much more conventional round-cornered windows of more uniform sizes. 594 was
a 1994 delivery.
SEMTAO, Orléans no. 385
(4726 VH 45) - August 2000
Showing the rear end design of the GX107 and GX187, Orléans 385 is one of a
batch of 15 GX187s operating in the city. They joined a fleet dominated by
all-Renault products (mostly R312s and PR180.2s), however more Heuliez products
(in the shape of GX317s and GX77Hs) have since been added.