Foreign Manufacturers - Mercedes-Benz (1)

 Mercedes-Benz has had a presence in the French urban bus market since the early 1970s when it began importing examples of the O305 rear-engined single decker into France. From 1975 until 1983, the sale of O305s on the French market was in partnership with Heuliez. When the O305 was replaced by the O405 in 1983, the partnership with Heuliez was not continued, subsequent Mercedes models being sold through Mercedes own dealer network. More recently, since the merger of Mercedes' bus interests with Setra to form Evobus, Mercedes buses have been built on French soil at the former Setra plant at Ligny-en-Barrois.

MERCEDES-BENZ O405
Monts-Jura, Montbéliard no. 1691 (452 WY 25) - September 2001
The O405 replaced the ageing O305 design in 1983, but without a French partner Mercedes struggled to sell the new model into the major urban fleets. They do however turn up regularly in the hands of smaller operators - often these act as subcontractors to larger urban fleets so they can be seen in the colour schemes of larger fleets. This smart example belongs to Monts-Jura, an independent operator running services around Belfort and Montbéliard, and was photographed laying over outside Belfort station.

MERCEDES-BENZ O405G
SEMURVAL, Valenciennes no. 216 (7183 WY 59) - May 2000
The articulated version of the step-entrance O405 is the O405G, and these are far less common. Artics tend to sell only into the larger fleets and since the original O405 did not penetrate these to any great extent the O405G is quite a rare sight. Nevertheless, the varied Valenciennes fleet has six of them (plus ten O405 rigids). 216 was delivered in 1995 and was photographed in the centre of its home town.

MERCEDES-BENZ O405N
TRAM, Mulhouse no. 507 (7312 WR 68) - September 2001
Sales of Mercedes buses in France began to pick up again after the introduction of the first low-floor model, the O405N. At the time of its introduction in the early 1990s, there were no French-built low-floor models, so those operators keen to try out low-floor technology began to import German-built products. Mulhouse bought six, and then added this seventh bus - it was new in 1992 to RATP as an evaluation bus (coincidentally numbered 507 there also).

MERCEDES-BENZ O405GN
STAS, St. Etienne no. 741 (6126 WG 42) - September 2000
The articulated equivalent of the first-generation O405N is the O405GN. The St. Etienne fleet includes 22 of these, the first of which is seen being followed through the city centre by a tram. These early low-floor O405s do feature a flat gangway with no steps in the front half of the bus, however the seats are mounted on raised platforms either side of the aisle. Hence there are no seats that can be reached without mounting at least one step. Examples of the early version of the O405GN may also be found in Brest and Mulhouse.

MERCEDES-BENZ O405N
RTM, Marseille no. 735 (1841 SM 13) - September 2000
Believe it or not, once you've got over the initial shock, Marseille's current livery does begin to grow on you. Honestly, it does. Marseille is currently Mercedes biggest customer in France. An initial batch of ten mk. I O405Ns grew into a fleet of 125 buses, and Citos and Citaros have since been added to these. 735 is from the second batch of O405Ns - these are of the later O405N2 variety, with the interior rearranged to remove the raised seating platforms. This necessitated a lower window line to allow those in the low-floor section to see out. Later Marseille buses feature roof-mounted air conditioning units. A large fleet of O405N2s may also be found in Rouen.

MERCEDES-BENZ O405GN
DK'Bus Marine (STDE), Dunkerque no. 709 (8758 ZV 59) - May 2000
Dunkerque's six gas-powered Mercedes artics are impressive machines - quick and very quiet. They operate alongside 14 Agora GNVs and make Dunkerque one of the few operators in France to operate gas-powered artics. National loyalties clearly still count for a lot - a representative of DK'Bus Marine told me that the company would have liked to have bought Agora GNVs (the type was not yet ready for production) but were happy with the O405GNs because they were still built in France. These buses are of the later design of O405GN with the lowered window line. Dunkerque has three similar diesel-powered buses, and other examples can be found in Brest and Toulouse along with a number of other towns. Gas-powered rigid O405Ns may be found operating with Cars d'Orsay in the Paris suburbs, but the Dunkerque buses are the only O405GN GNVs that I know of.

MERCEDES-BENZ O345
Marne & Morin 468 CAM 77 - October 2002
And now, as they say, for something completely different. This is a Mercedes O345, a type that I believe was originally launched by Mercedes with the Eastern European market in mind. However, you do see them around France on rural and interurban bus work, and I happen to quite like them so I've included a picture here. There is also an articulated version (the O345G), but I know of none operating in France at the moment. A vehicle that I had thought was an O345G which had been spotted in the Nîmes area turned out to be a very heavily rebuilt O305G HLZ. This O345 belongs to Marne & Morin, and was photographed loading at Meaux station for La Ferté-sous-Jouarre. Marne & Morin operate in the area to the east of Paris, running rural services and also urban services in Meaux and in Château-Thierry. All their buses are painted in this unusual pale green colour. This Mercedes belongs to the rural fleet - urban buses are branded with the name of the town in which they operate.

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