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Revolution For years all buses in The Netherlands were yellow and were operated by state owned companies. It was all very stable and predictable. Visit Holland today and you won't see a yellow bus in sight, the result of revolution caused by competitive tendering which was introduced in 2001. Connexxion, the rump of the state owned business, now finds itself competing with newcomers such as Arriva, Veolia and QBuzz for concessions throughout the country. Concessions changed hand on a regular basis involving whole scale vehicle redeployment. Evolution Inevitably with such fluidity in the market, large numbers of new buses have been required with over 1500 vehicles entering service during the last couple of years. In Amsterdam the city GVB fleet has been spruced up with some Mercedes Citaro bendybuses (top). Connexxion, who run urban services in the city, has seen their tired fleet of DAFs replaced by such vehicles as this tri-axle VDL Citrea (lower left). In addition they also have a fleet of 35 MAN Lion City buses such as this one at Amstel station (lower middle). Arriva has recently gained the concession to the north west of Amsterdam where an Omnicity bendybus is seen heading (lower right). |
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| Gas and Hybrid Buses |
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New Power The Netherlands has been slow to convert to hybrid buses, but a substantial amount of gas powered vehicles are now in evidence. HTM from Den Haag have 135 MAN Lion CNG vehicles in service such as this one at the seaside resort of Scheveningen (top). Qbuzz, who are owned by NS (Dutch Railways), operate 88 MAN examples including this one at Leeuwarden in the north of Holland (lower left). Veolia (who part own Connexxion) run concessions in their own right using buses such as this MAN CNG seen in Leiden (lower middle). Connexxion has a batch of these Van Hool A300 hybrids operating in South Holland, such as this one in Gouda. |
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Local Express |
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Interliner Connexxion operate the remnants of the once large Interliner inter-urban express network. A Volvo is seen at Schiphol Airport. |
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Q-Liner Q-Liner is the brand used for former Interliner routes in north Holland. A Connexxion Mercedes is seen in Heerenveen bus station. |
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Q-Liner Qbuzz also operate Q-Liner services in north Holland. One of their Mercedes vehicles is seen in Drachten bus station. |
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Q-Liner Connexion has a batch of this impressive Lion Regio's. This tri-axle example is seen in Heerenveen bus station. |
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Q-Liner Arriva originally operated all the north Holland services and still use the name on routes around Utrecht. A Mercedes Integro is seen in Gorinchem. |
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BrabantLiner The remaining former Interliner routes in Brabant have been re-branded BrabantLiner. A Volvo from Veolia BBA is seen in Utrecht bus station. |
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