TRANSPORTS VERNEY

Portraying a selection of the operating companies timetables from 1969 

 

The Transports Verney / Tourisme Verney group had its headquarters in Le Mans, and there were a dozen or more operating subsidiaries, mainly in the west of France.  The origins of the group lay with country tramways, and it was known as SCF (Société Centrale de Chemins et d'Entreprises) when formed in 1927 by the merger of the business interests of Messieurs Baert and Verney.  It brought together operating concessions for réseaux secondaires in different départments, some of which dated from the last years of the 19th century, the earliest from 1891.  Overall there was a network of some 2,000 kilometres of 'chemins de fer départementaux et locaux.'

After the First War the country tramways were becoming progressively outdated, and motor bus services were developed and offered competition. This led SCF to form their first bus company in 1933, STAO - Société es Transports Automobiles de l'Ouest, with a network of routes based on Le Mans (Réseau du Maine et Loire).  STAO expanded during the 1930s and 1940s to form other networks (réseaux) in Orne, Poitou, Touraine, Mayenne and Seine Maritime/Eure. 

Other companies within the Verney group were STN - Société des Transports de Normandie in the département of Manche, previously Chemins de Fer Normands; Compagnie Ardennaise de Transports, centred on Charleville near the Belgian border; STABE - Société des Transports Automobiles de la Région de Belfort et Environs, near the Swiss border; CTF - Compagnie des Transports du Finistère, operating from Brest in Bretagne, and subsequently merged with the adjoining CAT company by 1969; CAT - Compagnie Armoricaine de Transports, based on Saint Brieuc in Côtes-du-Nord département; Compagnie des Transports du Morbihan, based in Vannes; TIV - Compagnie de Transports d'Ille-et-Vilaine, based in Rennes and acquired in 1967. The timetables, route lists and maps below serve to recall the operations of the ten networks in the west of France as they were in 1969.  

The Verney group manufactured many of the buses and autorails used on their bus routes and rail lines, autorails being built from the 1920s, and buses from 1945.  In 1956 the manufacturing activities were renamed Société des Automobiles et Matériels Verney, then formed into a separate company CBM Car et Bus le Mans from 1977.  CBM ceased all bus production in 1986 having strayed from their traditional rural and interurban bus market into the building of urban buses, a competitive market in which it was difficult to persuade established operators to change to a new supplier. Their legacy was the model 220B which was continued by Renault as the R212, and then later from 1989 by Heuliez as their model GX77H.  Now a parts supplier, CBM restyled itself as Car et Bus Maintenance.

By the year 1977 the then six Verney operating subsidiaries were running some nineteen hundred vehicles between them. In the same year the Verney group became associated with the Michelin group, which latter by then controlled Transports Citroen.  In 1990 the group regained its independence and came again under the control of the Verney family, retaining the many routes of the former Transports Citroen (founded in 1931 by the manufacturer as a means of establishing a market for their own buses and coaches).  In turn Verney was acquired by the Connex group in 2002.  This involved 2700 buses and coaches and 3300 staff, with operations principally in the Pays de la Loire, Bretagne and Normandie but also in Rhône-Alpes, the Paris region and Alsace.  By 2006, Connex had changed its name to Veolia Transport.

A current update (May 2007) - courtesy of Pierre-Alain Menant:

About Verney - I can confirm that today STN, STAO Mayenne, STAO Sarthe, CTM, CAT and TIV run pretty much the same services. To be more accurate in Mayenne STAO stills runs these lines from Laval (see the map below).  Lines 1A, 1B (both these lines are line 1A now); line 2 whose last stop is now Pré-en-Pail (and not Alençon); line 4 whose last stop is now Ernée (and not Saint-Hilaire du Harcouet); line 5 whose last stop is Ernée (and not Gorron); line 7 which goes further to Saint Pierre des Landes; line 8; line 9A (now line 9) which runs from Laval to Sablé through Meslay; lines 13 and 14 (now line 16) run from Mayenne to Ernee and from Ernee to Landivy on demand; line 15 (now line 3) doesn't run to Le Mans anymore but to Sainte-Suzanne (two villages further than Saint Jean sur Erve indicated on the timetable). The lines 1C, 3 and 10 have been scrapped. Line 16 was shut down and then reopened in 2005 (but is run by another local company). Lines 11 and 12 have been modified as well and are now run by other companies. The lines 4 and 15 replaced former local railway lines that had been shut down just before or after the World War II.  The line 13-14 replaced a SNCF railway line shut down in 1938. You can get pictures of today's STAO coaches from my website: http://www.mobilite53.com/phototheque.htm.  Verney was also a railcar maker and some of its railcars used to run on the 1 meter gauge railway line from La Blanc to Argent not far away from Tours. You can see pictures of Verney railcars here: http://autorails.free.fr/Verney-x210.htm.  STAO Mayenne runs as well some urban servies in Laval (but it is not the main provider).  In Normandy STAO still runs the urban services in Flers but not in Alençon.  In Brittany TIV now runs urban services in Fougères.  All the coaches of STAO Sarthe run on biofuel (apart from a few that run services on regional lines).  In the area of Tours, and in Poitou, Verney now runs much less services. 

 

 
     
   
     
   
     
     
     
   
     
   
     
     
     
   
     
   
     
     
     
   
     
   
     
     
     
   
     
   
     
   
     
     
   
     
   
     
     
     
   
     
   
     
     
     
   
     
   
     
     
     
   
     
   
     
     
     
   
     
   
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
I would be very pleased to learn more about these operators if any French readers of this page have further information ! Si les lecteurs français de cette page pouvaient m’apporter des informations complémentaires à propos de ces autocaristes, je leur en serais reconnaissant !
Click here to return to main index page stn arret de car Cliquez ici pour retourner à la page d'accueil pour la Normandie