PostBus hits 100m kilometre landmark
PostBus Switzerland has covered more than 100m kilometres during 2010 – the first time the company has achieved this landmark. By driving 103.6m kilometres, the Swiss Post subsidiary covered 5.4% more ground than in 2009.
Furthermore, a total of 121.2m passengers used the PostBus service in Switzerland during 2010 – representing a growth of 2.7% on the previous year.
Travellers had the use of 798 routes across the country, which was 1.9% more than the number of services available in 2009.
The company also oversaw the creation of 128 new jobs in 2010. PostBus now employs 1,785 people (up 3.8% on 2009). Furthermore, it employs 1,514 PostBus drivers (up 4.3%).
PostBus Switzerland also continued to expand its market position in city and conurbation transport last year. It now operates the local buses for Lyss (Canton Berne) and Uzwil (Canton St Gallen).
In Frauenfeld (Canton Thurgau) it successfully retained the city bus network put out for public tender. The ten-year contract includes an increase in the service offering and the purchase of two hybrid buses. It also succeeded in extending, and in some cases, expanding the contracts for local buses in the tourist destinations Klosters, Lenzerheide and Samnaun.
Furthermore, the service frequency of the local buses in Brig and Sion was increased.
The company is also continuously investing in new technologies to improve its mobile passenger information service. It now offers information in real-time for its routes in the Libero, Zurich (ZVV) and, more recently, also in the Ostwind integrated fare networks:
“5,000 people have already downloaded the app for the latter to their smartphones. Due to the popularity of this service with passengers, PostBus Switzerland is currently exploring the possibility of extending it to routes in other regions. It was also the first public transport company to launch an “augmented reality” application that offers excursion tips via mobile phone. Moreover, a Wifi test recently launched in the Sion area allows passengers on PostBuses to surf the Internet for free,” the company said.
