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CARS
PERIER
A
leading independent
operator from the Seine
valley
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75 YEARS
1946 - 2021 |
Nota
- Il s'agit d'un site d'archives historiques et ne contient pas
de données actuelles
Pour les
informations actuelles et les horaires de bus dans la Seine Maritime visitez le site
regional NOMAD
For current information and bus timetables in Seine Maritime visit the regional
website NOMAD
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Today
one of the leading coach operators in the department of Seine Maritime
the business grew from more humble origins with just a few buses
linking the home town of Lillebonne with the oil refineries at Port
Jerome. This is a historic article focusing primarily on those early
years.
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Aujourd'hui
un des principaux autocaristes du département de la Seine Maritime,
l'entreprise s'est développée à partir d'origines plus modestes avec
quelques bus reliant la ville natale de Lillebonne aux raffineries de
Port Jérôme. Cet article historique se concentre sur ces premières
années de jadis.
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Now the leading coach and tourism operator in Normandie, sixty years ago this
operator's main bus
route linked the oil
refineries of Port Jérôme
(on the Seine not far upstream from the mouth of the river at Le
Havre), through
Notre Dame de Gravenchon to the hometown of Lillebonne. Some
journeys
were extended further to the market town of Bolbec. Between
Lillebonne and Bolbec the area was known as the Golden Valley, a centre
for the
textile industry. When I
first visited
the area in 1963, these services were heavily orientated towards
workers
transport, including shift buses for the round the clock three shift
working at Port
Jerome. A ferry crossed the Seine to Quillebeuf from Port Jerome.
In
2006 the business celebrated its sixtieth anniversary.
Back
in 1946 Henri Périer - owner of a garage at
Gruchet-le-Valasse,
near Bolbec - bought the business of Mr Moro (Cars Mors), ten
kilometres away to
the south in Lillebonne. Included in the transaction was a garage, a
petrol station and three buses. He bought a fourth, and so operated two
petrol-engined Isoblocs, and two diesel-engined Renaults. The principal
route was Bolbec-Lillebonne-Notre Dame de Gravenchon and this route
flourished as its customers included the employees of the new
refineries built at Port Jérôme near Gravenchon in the 1930s
(construction had started in 1931).
Cars Mors were in operation on the Port Jérôme route by 1934, probably
earlier: twice a day from Le Havre and hourly from Lillebonne to Port
Jérôme; Cars Fontaine of Le Havre were running shift buses from Le
Havre via
Tancarville to Port Jérôme -as shown in the Indicateur General of
July-August 1935.
Two oil refineries were built as well as two
separate housing
districts that were
established at Gravenchon: "Cité Standard" (for Esso employees) and
"Cité Vacuum" (for Mobil
Oil workers). During World War II, the refineries were partly
destroyed in 1940 but rebuilt after 1945.
Timings of the bus route had to
accommodate
twenty four hour shift working and a substantial traffic was
transported to and from Lillebonne each day.
In the post-war
period,
day
excursions were very popular after the spartan wartime years, and
included destinations like Etretat and the
Mont St. Michel. Henri passed away in 1959, and the business was
continued by
his
wife (veuve=widow=vve) Marie-Thérèse and future son-in-law Pierre
Brème,
who created the travel agency side of the business in 1964.
Expansion also came through acquisitions – Aubin of
Bolbec
in 1976; Alcover of Le Havre in 1986 and Adrien of
Bosc-Roger-en-Roumois near Elbeuf in the Eure in 1992. Although
the
head
office remains in Lillebonne, there are now also operating bases at Le
Havre
(opened in 1988)
and Grand Quevilly, near Rouen (opened in 1995).
The
current Chairman Dominique Périer is the
son of the founder, and the management team includes his son Thomas
and general manager Jean-Louis Wahart who joined the firm in 2000.
Dominique’s sister Claudine has run
the
travel agencies Périer Voyages since 1976; in April 2014 this role
passed to Anne-Sophie Lecarpentier, granddaughter of Marie-Thérèse
Périer.
The 2014 fleet was 130 vehicles, including an 80 seater double deck and
a restored 1959 Kassbohrer Setra S6 22-seater.
The business activity is divided between coaching (about 40%), factory
contracts for Renault, Total, Areva (another 40%), and scheduled
bus routes and schools contracts (about 15%).
Between my visit in March 1963 and a subsequent
visit in
October 2000 the
original bus service had been very much reduced - by 2006 only two or
three runs a
day - but Cars Périer are now very much the
leading coach operator in Haute-Normandie with
travel agencies and a
substantial fleet of modern luxury vehicles. Currently, there are
8
travel agency offices (Périer Voyages). But a change had taken
place by September 2007 - Cars Périer had won the contract
from département of Seine-Maritime and had taken over
the operation of the routes traditionally operated by Cars Gris Arcangioli for many
years between Fécamp and Bolbec; Fécamp and Le Havre via Goderville;
and Fécamp and Le Havre via Etretat. Périer also operate the town
service under contract in Notre Dame de Gravenchon. The
present limited company has a capital of 65,000 euros and dates
from 1976. For a family owned
company it is impressively large,
with 179 staff, two subsidiary companies (Cars
Périer
Voyages and
Société d’Exploitation des Cars
Périer), and a 2005 turnover of 12.5
million euros. 2015 saw the opening of the first derestricted service
lines on the Le Havre - Paris and Rouen - Paris axes in partnership
with Flixbus France. In 2020 voluntary signing of the Objectif CO2
charter, commitings to reduce greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions.
With growth this exemplary company has now in 2021 a fleet of 126
vehicles with 170 staff.
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Update
September 2007 - the operation of
routes 17,
22, 23 and 24 had passed from their traditional operator Cars Gris of Fecamp to Cars Périer.
Route 25 to Yvetot is still operated by
Keolis-Cars Gris,
who have also taken over route 20 from Le Havre via Bolbec and
Lillebonne to Caudebec-en-Caux (the western part of the former CNA
through
route from Le Havre to Rouen, severed into two halves at Caudebec some
years ago). Further update August 2011 - since 1st August, lines
17, 20
(Le Havre - Caudebec), 22, 23 and 24 are operated by Kéolis, Cars
Périer and VTNI who decided to jointly
share the tender result. In September 2016 the departmental lines
operated by Cars Perier are now only the 20 from Le
Havre to Caudebec; the shuttle service from Bolbec to Bréauté
rail station; and a market service on Saturday from Sainneville to
Saint-Roman. In 2021 Cars Perier operate line 20 from Le Havre to
Caudebec via Lillebonne for the regional transport authority NOMAD.
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Autres
mise
à jour. Septembre 2007 - l'exploitation des lignes 17, 22,
23 et 24
passent de Cars Gris de Fecamp à Cars
Périer. Ligne 25 vers Yvetot
reste en exploitation par Keolis-Cars Gris, qui ont également repris la
ligne 20 au départ du Havre via Bolbec et Lillebonne à Caudebec-en-Caux
(la partie occidentale de l'ancienne ligne de la CNA du Havre à Rouen,
coupé en deux moitiés à Caudebec il ya quelques années).
Aout 2011 - depuis le 1er aout, les lignes 17, 20 (Le Havre -
Caudebec), 22, 23 et 24 sont effectuée par Kéolis, Cars Périer et VTNI
qui ont décider de se partager le marché conjointement. En Septembre
2016, les lignes de département exploités par Cars Périer
sont maintenant seulement le 20 du
Havre à Caudebec; le navette de Bolbec à la gare de Bréauté; et une
ligne de marché le samedi de Sainneville à Saint-Roman. En 2021 Cars
Perier exploitera la ligne 20 du Havre à Caudebec via Lillebonne pour
le compte de la régie régionale des transports NOMAD.
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Here is the timetable that was in
operation in 1963 on the Port
Jérôme bus route. L'horaire
de 1963 sur la ligne de bus de Port Jérôme.
The timetable had an interesting
reference
to certain
journeys marked as "not available to passengers" .......... (the
journeys marked A and B in the red timetable below), presumably meaning
they were
restricted to workers.
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Jadis le maison
Périer assure
une liaison par autocar entre Lillebonne
et les raffineries de pétrole de Port-Jérome (sur
la
Seine), par Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon. Quelques circuits
ont été également étendus
jusqu'à Bolbec.
Quand j'ai
visité la région en 1963, les services
étaient
essentiellement orientés vers
le transport des ouvriers, y compris les autobus de relève
pour
assurer les 3 x 8 à Port Jérome. Les horaires
ci-contre
font
référence, de façon
intéressante, à certains services qui stipulent
qu'ils
sont <<non accessibles aux voyageurs>>
(services
notés A et B sur les horaires).
Entre ma première visite en mars
1963 et ma seconde,
en octobre 2000, les services de bus sont beaucoup réduits,
mais les Cars
Périer sont
aujourd'hui devenus l'un des transporteurs de voyageurs les plus en vue
en Haute-Normandie,
avec des agences de
voyages et une flotte importante des véhicules modernes (en 2014 une
flotte de 130).
NB - les 3 x 8 désignent les postes
en usine qui fonctionnent, sur 24 heures, en 3 équipes de 8
heures chacune.
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A
later timetable thought to be from the 1970s with one works journey
extended to start from Lanquetot. Otherwise there are only small
changes of detail from the previous timetable (the Sunday service
'Dimanches et Fetes' is in fact identical). The original
timetable was
printed on yellow paper. Note
that the printer has made an
error: the 6.20 from Lanquetot should be marked A whilst the 7.20 from
Bolbec should be marked B.
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Cars Aubin of Bolbec also played
a substantial part in the traffic to and from Port Jérôme. The
company was acquired by Cars Périer in 1976 and before that the Aubin
timetable was as under:
Bolbec to Port Jérôme 5.15
6.10 6.20 6.30 7.00
13.15 16.45 18.00 21.15
Lillebonne to Port
Jérôme 6.40
7.20
Port Jérôme to Bolbec 6.10
14.10 16.50 17.50
22.10
Port Jérôme to Lillebonne
16.50 17.50
So
at that time Cars Périer ran the round-the-clock workers shift buses to
Port
Jérôme from Lillebonne whilst Cars Aubin ran them from Bolbec.
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As
can be seen from the timetable cover on the right Cars
Périer were by this time in the 1970s also operating half a dozen
market runs from the
villages to the west and east of Lillebonne. A single Monday market
service linked Saint-Nicolas-de-la-Taille and Saint-Antoine-la-Foret
via Mélamare to Bolbec, whilst on Wednesdays those same villages were
linked to the market in Lillebonne. Other Wednesday runs to
Lillebonne started respectively at Triquerville, Tancarville, La Vallée
and Saint-Nicolas-de-la-Haie. Allowing for the regular route to Port
Jérôme
and additional market day short workings, together with the
village market runs, a minimum of seven vehicles would have been needed
on
Wednesday mornings.
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Lillebonne, Hotel de
Ville, about 1954. Much
as I remember it from 1963!
Lillebonne, Hotel de
Ville, vers 1954.
Combien cela
me rappelle 1963!
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Avenue Amiral Grasset, Cite Standard, Notre Dame de Gravenchon
Avenue
Amiral Grasset, Cite Standard, Notre Dame de Gravenchon
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Aerial view of the Esso refinery Port Jerome
Vue aérienne de la raffinerie Esso Port Jérôme
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