Societatea De Transport București
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Societatea de Transport București (STB; English: Bucharest Transport Company) is the main
public transit Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of wh ...
operator in
Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
,
Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
, owned by the Municipality of Bucharest. From 1990 to 2018, the company had a different legal status and was known as the ''Regia Autonomă de Transport București'' (RATB). STB operates under
TPBI Bucharest has the largest public transportation network in Romania and one of the largest in Europe. TPBI (''Bucharest-Ilfov Intercommunity Development Association for Public Transport'') was established as a cooperating structure of the local pu ...
a complex network of
bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...
es,
trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
es,
light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...
and
tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
s. In 2019, STB had an average of approximately 1,180,000 daily individual rides of which 540,000 with buses, 520,000 with light rail and trams, and 120,000 with trolleybuses.


Overview

While owned entirely by the
General Council of Bucharest The General Council of Bucharest ( Romanian: ''Consiliul General al Municipiului București'') is the legislative body of the Municipality of Bucharest, and is made up of 55 councillors elected every four years. Together with the Mayor of Bucha ...
, STB is an autonomous company. On 13 September 2018, it became a
public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...
() and adopted its current name (not to be confused with the pre-World War II name ''Societatea de Tramvaie București''). The Municipality of Bucharest is the company's only shareholder, and it is not publicly traded on a stock market. Within the STB operates URAC (Uzina de Reparații și Atelierele Centrale), a section specialized in the tram production and repair.


Routes

STB operates 138 regular bus routes on , 15 regular trolleybus routes on , and 23 regular light rail and tram routes on throughout Bucharest and vicinity. An integrated ticket exists, for all modes of transportation around Bucharest; including the metro, bus, tram, light rail, and trolleybus.


History

The original STB appeared on 14 April 1908, as a 40-year concession that had as its goal the electrification of all the tram lines in Bucharest as its goal. It inherited a fleet of horse-pulled trams and more recent electric trams. Up to the 1930s, it was the only way of public transportation in Bucharest, only operating trams until the introduction of Leonida-Renault/Chevrolet/Henschel buses. In 1936, STB changes its name to ''SCTB (Societatea Comunală de Tramvaie București)''. After World War II, in 1948, it was taken over by the Romanian state and changed its name to ''ITB (Întreprinderea de Transport București)''. Despite some achievements in the late 1940s-early 1950s (introduction of the first trolleybus in 1949 and also the introduction of the first post-war tram, V951 Festival), it encountered various problems due to the very low medium speed, overcrowding due to the rapid expansion of the city, which were all put as a justification to build a metro in 1953. Despite this, the metro project was postponed due to the fragile economy of the Romanian state in the 1950s. The 1960s brought an era that would help expand the ITB. The first modern and locally-made trolleybuses were introduced (
Rocar Rocar (also T.V. or Autobuzul) was a van, light truck, bus and trolleybus manufacturer based in Bucharest, Romania. The firm also produced light offroad vehicles and later heavy road vehicles. During its existence, the company produced over 350,0 ...
TV2E in 1958 and TV20E in 1970) and
Karosa Karosa (, ) was a bus manufacturer in Vysoké Mýto in the Czech Republic. It was the biggest manufacturer of buses in Czechoslovakia. In 2007, its name was changed to Iveco, Iveco Czech Republic, and now the company produces buses under the name ...
, and TV buses were also put into service. Starting with the 1970s, it acquired more modern vehicles, such as the V3A in 1971-1972, the
Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster The Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster, sometimes simply known as the Leyland Worldmaster, was a Mid-engine design, mid-underfloor-engined single-decker bus or single-decker bus, single-decker coach (bus), coach chassis manufactured by Leyland Moto ...
(bodied by Hargaaz and Merkavim in Israel) buses in 1969, in 1973-1974 the
Ikarbus Ikarbus a.d. (full legal name: ''Ikarbus – Fabrika autobusa i specijalnih vozila a.d.'') is a Serbian bus manufacturer based in Zemun, Belgrade. It was originally established as an aircraft manufacturer in 1923, under the name Ikarus. In 1954 ...
Zemun IK4 buses from Yugoslavia, the Tatra T4R trams from Czechoslovakia, and the Ikarus 260 and 280 buses from Hungary in 1974. The peak of the ITB network was maintained between 1977 and 1982 before the Bucharest Metro was built. The
Rocar DAC Rocar DAC was a series of buses and trolleybuses produced by the Autobuzul (later Rocar) company of Bucharest, Romania, between 1979 and 2000. They were available in both standard 12-meter models and articulated, 17-meter models. The first exa ...
buses and trolleybuses were introduced in 1979, set to replace some of the older material the ITB used, that dated from the 1950s and 1960s. Once with the 1980s, the network noticed a decline, mostly because according to city planners, the ITB routes could not run on the same route as the metro lines. This, combined with mass demolitions in the 1980s, would bring a total re-shape of the tram and trolleybus network, and the introduction of the so-called Maxi-Taxis. The most noticeable result was the disappearance of the North-South trolleybus corridor in 1987, once the M2 line of the metro was completed, and with its opening, a small network in the neighborhood of Berceni was left. This was supposed to be applied as a "local network", disconnected from the main network that crossed the whole city, and to be used in smaller neighborhoods, with the plan to apply it to the whole city, and remove the main trolleybus network. The tram network also saw a major reshape, which is noticeable if one compares a 1984 map of the ITB network with the one from 1992. In 1990, after the
Romanian Revolution The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent Civil disorder, civil unrest in Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily ...
of 1989, the ITB was reorganized as the ''RATB (Regia Autonomă de Transport București)'', which took care of the bus, trolleybus and tram services in the town, inheriting a fleet that dated from the 1970s and 1980s. At the same time, the taxi and maxi-taxi services were separated, allowing them to be operated by private operators for the first time. During the 1990s, it slowly modernized its fleet, beginning with Ikarus 260 buses from 1991, then continuing with the modernization of the V3A tram types in 1993,
DAF SB220 The DAF SB220 was a full-size single-decker bus chassis produced by DAF Bus International from 1985. Initially only built in left hand drive, in 1988 a right hand drive version was launched for the United Kingdom market. An articulated vers ...
-Hispano Carrocera/ELVO/Castrosua in 1994, the Rocar DeSimon in 1995 and the
Ikarus 415T The Ikarus 415T is a type of trolleybus produced by the Ikarus bus manufacturer in Hungary in 1992 and between 1997 and 2002. Subseries These trolleybuses have 3 subseries, as shown below: Ikarus 415T.1 The first trolleybus of this type was ...
in 1997-2002. At the same time, RATB acquired second-hand vehicles donated from various West European towns, such as Saviem SC10U from Paris, Saurer 5DUK-A from Geneva, Rathgeber m4.65/m5.65 from Munich and Duewag T4 from Frankfurt. During this time it also inherited a few rare models made by Rocar in the Giurgiului neighborhood, and also another few rare examples made by others. The last second-hand vehicles were a Renault PR100 from Lyon in 2004 and 40 IVECO TurboCity U480 buses from Milan in 2006. RATB has seen a decline in the number of operating vehicles with the 2000s, when the ROCAR-DAC vehicles that were running since 1979 were retired, seeking to be replaced with 1,000
Mercedes-Benz Citaro The Mercedes-Benz Citaro is a single-decker, rigid or articulated bus manufactured by Mercedes-Benz/ EvoBus. Introduced in 1997, the Citaro is available in a range of configurations, and is in widespread use throughout Europe and parts of Asia, ...
buses brought between 2006 and 2009. It also acquired 100
Astra Citelis The Astra Citelis is an urban solo trolleybus with a low floor, bodywork by Astra Bus Arad, Romania, on an Irisbus Citelis The Irisbus Citelis is a low-floor city bus produced by Irisbus from 2005 to 2013 when it was replaced in production b ...
trolleybuses during 2007 and 2008. Starting with 2009, RATB started retiring its last DAF, Rocar DeSimon, and IVECO vehicles still in usage, most of them being withdrawn on 11 March 2011. A few others were left in service until 1 December 2013, when the remaining DAF SB220 buses were completely withdrawn. Since then, RATB's bus fleet consists of only Mercedes buses. The last trams that were made in the 1980s were also retired in 2007 (V3A) and 2010 (V2A), being replaced with partially low-floor trams. Starting with 2011, series production started for the Bucur LF tram, one of the most modern that is currently running in the city. Starting with 2015, the first Ikarus 415T trolleybuses were scrapped. Despite this, RATB has relatively poor maintenance, with some vehicles sitting in depots for more than 3 years due to a lack of money for spares. No replacement has been announced for the aging fleet. On 13 September 2018, RATB was re-organized again and changed its name to STB, bringing back the old name that it initially used after an absence of 82 years. On 1 December 2018,
Otokar Kent Otokar Otomotiv ve Savunma Sanayi A.Ş., also known simply as Otokar, is a Turkish bus and military vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Sakarya, Turkey. Otokar is a subsidiary of Koç Holding. History Otokar was founded in 1963 as Turkey's ...
buses entered service, that come in non-articulated and articulated versions (being also the first new articulated vehicles of the company, after the retirement of the last articulated DAC trolleybuses in 2007). This introduction was marked by controversy, due to the buses' ongoing breakdowns and defects of the various components (doors, heating pipes, etc.), with citizens of Bucharest criticizing their build quality and contract signed under suspicious circumstances (allegations of corruption). Little over 400 of these buses are supposed to enter service within 2019. In July 2020, the first Mercedes-Benz Citaro Hybrid buses entered service, displacing several of the Otokar buses on other lines; the new Citaro C2 buses have similar specifications to the models ordered in several other European cities. On 20 January 2022, the employees of the STB staged a strike, demanding the resignation of chairman Adrian Criț. This act was condemned by the
Mayor of Bucharest The mayor of Bucharest (), sometimes known as the general mayor, is the head of the Bucharest City Hall in Bucharest, Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast ...
, who said that the strike had political undertones, and the following day, the Bucharest Courthouse declared the strike illegal. In December 2022, the first Astra Imperio Metropolitan trams were put into service.


Liveries and logos

The oldest livery that can be traced goes back to the 1940s when a golden ochre was used on trams. In the 1950s, with the formation of the ITB, the livery adopted was of cream for the lower (underside) and upper (from the windows to the roof) parts, whilst the rest was of a dark-red paint. For trolleybuses, the dark-red paint was only used for the underside and for a small stripe under the window. On buses, the part below the windows was full dark-red and the one above them was just cream. Alternatively, on trolleybuses, some TV20E models were painted with a lighter-blue instead of dark-red. From 1979 onwards, with the introduction of the DAC diesel buses and trolleybuses, the livery was modified: it featured a reversal of the livery applied on TV trolleybuses, where the dark-red became cream and vice versa, and the stripe was moved towards the middle of the bus in regards to its height placement. At this time, the blue livery began to be painted onto some of the newer trolleybuses. In 1986, the livery would be changed once again, to feature a unified design that featured a thick cream stripe in the middle and an overall red body (this was reversed on trams), after a row of experimental liveries between 1985 and 1987. However, by 1990, not all vehicles were painted. The first RATB livery was applied in 1991, it was supposed to be a transitional livery until a better design would be found. Most older vehicles were painted in an overall yellow livery, that was first introduced on the new Ikarus 260 buses brought from Hungary, however, the Ikarus livery was the standard one applied on the 260 and 280 buses that were developed in the 1970s. None of the less, most refurbished vehicles were outshopped with this livery until 1997. At this time, up to 2006, RATB began experimenting with various liveries, because the general sense of "freedom" meant that drivers could personalize their vehicles. A new white RATB livery appeared in 1996, with yellow stripes applied below the headlights on trams, after experimenting on V3A-93 trams. Most trams and buses with the colorful liveries (for example the V3A-FAUR trams came from the factory painted in pink, and V3A-M2000 trams had a blood-red front end, whilst some DAC trolleybuses had advertisements for various products that covered them) were all repainted into this livery, with the only exception being Ikarus trolleybuses that retain their factory paint job, and Bucur LF trams that include silver and olive green design. A new livery has been adopted for the new Otokar buses, with a white rooftop, black window band, and turquoise-blue bodywork. The blue color reflects the usage of blue for bus routes on official maps for the past 50 years. The current logo was adopted once with the company name change in 2018, whilst the old RATB logo has its origins in 1983, when the new ITB logo was adopted. With the reception of new Astra Imperio Metropolitan trams starting from 2022, STB rolling stock transitioned to a green colour scheme which has been applied on all newly delivered STB trams, buses and trolleybuses. Some, but not all, trams from the older Bucur and V3A-93 types have also been repainted in the green colour scheme.


See also

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Transport in Bucharest Bucharest has the largest transport network in Romania, and one of the largest in Europe. The Bucharest transport network is made up of a metro network and a surface transport network. Although there are multiple connection points, the two syste ...
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List of trolleybus routes in Bucharest This is a list of the 16 trolleybus routes running in Bucharest, Romania, operated by the city's public transport company, STB as of March 2024. For more information about Bucharest's trolleybus network, see Trolleybuses in Bucharest. Routes mark ...


References


External links

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Site with pictures of the RATB fleetSite with vehicles, routes and more about RATBSite with lists of stations for every line, schedules, maps, route planner
{{DEFAULTSORT:Societatea de Transport Bucuresti Transport in Bucharest
Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
Rolling stock manufacturers of Romania Tram manufacturers