| AUTOCARS RENAULT |
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| The other great French manufacturer ran buses too |
| Renault, the
great French vehicle
manufacturer, can trace its roots back to
1898 when Louis Renault, then aged 21, built
his first vehicle. It was a success and he and his two
older brothers created the Société
Renault
Frères. The company
started in business in Billancourt on the south-western outskirts of
Paris in
February 1899. As the business flourished Renault
delivered
1500 taxis for
Paris in 1905 and 1906. Other taxis were exported
to, amongst
other places, New York. From
1906 onwards Renault also offered trucks and buses, and in 1908 the
company
changed its name to Société Automobiles Renault,
Louis
Renault
Constructeur, leaving Louis Renault alone at the head. Then
in
1909 Renault
delivered its first buses to the city of Paris. Just before
the
First
World War the annual production was already
10,000 vehicles. During the First World War, production was focused on military needs, leaving Renault with a large production capacity after the war. In 1922 the company became Société Anonyme des Usines Renault and in 1925 the famous company logo was introduced. Renault fared well until the depression and became and remained the largest French vehicle builder with a market share of some forty per cent for commercial vehicles. So in the early 1930s, as with their rivals Citroën, Renault started to operate buses as well as build them, with a network of routes to the suburbs of the capital Paris. The crisis of 1929 depressed the American car manufacturing industry and this had knock-on effects worldwide. At this time Louis Renault widened the range of activities of his company by starting the manufacture of public transport vehicles and by developing aeronautical activities through purchase of Caudron. Renault became thus a partner in the share capital of “Air France” and participated in the creation of “Air Bleu” for air mail transport in France. By 1934 Autocars Renault CEA (Compagnie d'Exploitation Automobile) had a network of suburban services radiating from Paris. Some routes duplicated those of Transports Citroën, eg to Mantes, Evreux, Elbeuf et Les Andelys in the west; to Fontainebleau, Montargis, Sens and Orléans in the south. Certainly they had similar departure points on the fringes of the Paris city centre - three of which were common to Citroën and Renault: Rotonde de la Villette, Porte Maillot and Place Denfert-Rochereau; whilst a fourth Porte de Vincennes was served only by the Renault services. By 1939 and the outbreak of the Second World War Renault was producing 30.5% of French buses, just a little ahead of their great rivals Citroën with 30.1% market share. During this period Renault's most famous bus model was the TN-series for Paris, of which 2800 were built from 1931 to 1937 (the last ones were only withdrawn from service in 1971). These distinctive dark green buses with their open rear platform would for decades be associated with Paris in the same way as red double decker buses were traditionally associated with London. Renault also produced a large range of other buses, from small vehicles to coaches, all with a front engine. From 1925 onwards Renault also built its own diesel engines, which were available on many models. The Second World War was again a period where production was aimed at military needs with the Renault factories under German military command after the occupation of France. By the end of 1944, when the war in France was almost over, more than half of Renault's factories were destroyed. The Renault factories were nationalised and then became Régie Nationale des Usines Renault. Bus production was resumed in 1946 with most bodies built by Scemia, a company with which Renault already had a close collaboration before the war. CEA became successor to Autocars Renault. In 1959 the Paris area timetable bore the legends of both Cars Renault and CEA. Later in 1963 CEA (not to be confused with another French transport company CGEA) went on to become CNEA (Compagnie Nouvelle d'Exploitation) and was subsequently renamed Uniroute, who in turn passed to the Transcet group in 1985. In 1990 Transcet, by then a subsidiary of holding company C3D, was merged with another transport company - Progecar - to form today's well known Transdev, with transport operating interests in various countries around the world. |
LIST OF ROUTES FROM PARIS, JULY 1934 TIMETABLE Secteur Nord, terminus Rond Point de la Villette NB Beauvais NM Méru - Beauvais SC Compiègne SP Pont-Sainte-Maxence TB Creil TC Clermont Planned: LM Montmirail par Coulommiers Planned: SE Estrees St-Denis par Senlis Planned: SM Meaux par Claye-Souilly Planned: TP Pont-Sainte-Maxence par Creil Secteur Sud, terminus Place Denfert-Rochereau A Etampes par Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois B Fontainebleau BM Montargis BS Sens CR Rambouillet F Orléans par Toury FA La Ferté-Alais G Orléans par Saclas-Méréville H Etampes par Arpajon P Pithiviers Planned: DB Fontainebleau par Mélun Planned: K Dourdan Secteur Est, terminus Port de Vincennes L Coulommiers M Meaux O Le Plessis-Trévise P Provins R Ormesson Secteur Ouest, terminus Porte Maillot C Meulan - Les Mureaux CH Chartres D Dreux DS Dreux -Senonches DA Alençon DV Verneuil E Evreux I L'Isle-Adam JN Montfort-L'Amaury - Nogent-le-Roi PM Pontoise - Méru S Chantilly - Senlis V Vernon VA Vernon - Les Andelys VE Elbeuf Planned: CM Mantes par Meulan Planned: JA Anet-Ezy par Septeuil Services in Secteurs Ouest, Nord and Sud (but not Est) were considerably reinforced in frequency on Sundays and Holidays. Exceptionally certain departures on routes D, DS, DA, DV and E started from Galeries Lafayette in central Paris on weekdays, before calling at Porte Maillot. |
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Paris and suburban network 1934 -
Autocars Renault CEA | ||
 1934 timetable |  1936 timetable |  1959 timetable |
The rivals - the Paris and
suburban network of Transports Citroën in 1933 |
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I would be pleased to learn more about this operator if any French readers of this page have further information ! Si les lecteurs français pouvaient m’apporter des informations complémentaires à propos de cet autocariste, je leur en serais reconnaissant ! |
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