RESEAUX CITROEN

The first Citroën network had been meant to operate in the Paris area, starting with a route to Versailles to operate every half hour. All was ready to commence on 18th February 1932 with twelve Citroën C6G1 22-seater buses but on the very day before the start had to be delayed because of objections about competition with their own Versailles route from STCRP (the Paris transport authority). Mr Mariage the director of the STCRP had Citroën's route authorisation annulled by the Minister of Public Works. Agreement was eventually reached on avoiding competition, and the operation of the light brown with orange band liveried vehicles around suburban Paris started in August 1932 (but not to Versailles!).

So it was that the first Citroën routes actually started a long way away from Paris in Lyon in June 1932 (nine lines, with the very first to Bourg-en-Bresse), followed by the networks at Bordeaux (started 8th June, but ceded to the Citram company (established in 1919) by the end of the year); then Nantes (started 13th July, six lines, the first route to Le Croisic) and Strasbourg as the year progressed. The first route from Paris began on 28th August, from the Place de la Concorde to Fontainebleau. This was soon followed by routes to Creil and Mantes in September, whilst October saw the start of a route to Chartres. By 31st December 1932 the Paris network alone comprised 21 lines totalling 1,400 kilometers, running 40,000 kilometers a day.

With the increasing number of routes the Place de la Concorde terminus in central Paris became impractical and was soon replaced in mid-1933 by three peripheral termini at Porte Maillot (Boulevard Gouvion Saint-Cyr); Rotonde de la Villette and Place Denfert-Rochereau (Rue Froideveaux). In 1939 the latter was replaced by Bastille (on the corner of the Quai de la Rapée). Routes from Villette were operated from a garage in the Rue Louis Blanc (near the Gare de l'Est). Routes from the other two departure points were operated from the Rue d'Alsace garage in Levallois, next to the central workshops. In later years the city garage in rue Louis Blanc was replaced by a base at Avenue Victor Hugo in Aubervilliers.

After the war calm returns but recovery is slow. The post-war period did not bring new equipment until 1948. The post-war era is marked by economic and automotive development. Transports Citroën adapts their network to the new needs of customers. Activities are focused on the transport of workers from their homes to their factories, and school buses etc.

The 1950s will be the best period for Transports Citroën but the growth of the private car will severely undermine the regular bus routes, especially those of the Paris network.

Older twenty seat vehicles are replaced by coaches with larger capacities. By 1969 there are some 850 coaches providing 246 regular lines and travelling some 40 million kilometers per year. They carry 12,000 schoolchildren a day and 30 million travelers a year. Transports Citroën begins to diversify its activities towards sectors more than just running bus routes towards coach tourism, goods transport, new car transport, travel agencies, car rental. Many of the bus routes will pass to other operators, notably in 1969 and 1970 when the south eastern sector routes leaving from Bastille terminus were sold to Cars Verts, against whom Citroën had run in competition for nearly forty years.

In April 1977, after 45 years, Transports Citroën was taken over by CFIT - Compagnie Française et Industrielle de Transports. CFIT was at the time jointly owned by the Michelin company and the Verney group (SCF). Yves-Michel Verney became President and Director-General. The Citroën networks were co-ordinated and integrated with those of Verney.

To show the decline of Citroën routes in the Paris region, there were 40 routes in 1965, less than ten routes in 1975 and only one route in 1985. The last existing Citroën route in 1985 was line 7 (Citroën numbering) / line 8 (APTR numbering) from Paris to Claye Souilly and Meaux.