Updated August 12 - also take a look at bus pictures from Provence in France at bottom of page
Direct links to other pages in English: Oops! - Winter driving - Bus as a hobby
| Summer in the Scandinavian countires is special, and it is reflected in bus operation. Due to a long winter and a slow starting spring summer is being taken seriously with relatively low work activity and much vacationing. This is the time to enjoy! July is a month with minimum work activity, and during school holidays from mid-June through mid-August rush hours in the big cities hardly exist any more. Trains and busses operate on a lower activity level, 15 minute schedule are reduced to 30 minutes schedules etc. | |
| The exception is buses to tourist areas and beaches with limited parking facilities. An example is Sporveisbussenes line 30 from Nydalen to Huk where articulated busses are used in the summer months only. This is only part of the crowd waiting for me on August 10 - a 32°C/90°F-day at Huk. Within seconds my MAN NG312 #948 (see below) was filled to the rim. |
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| #948 relaxing at Huk for two minutes before returning to Oslo downtown. Unfortunately this bus is not airconditioned (well - actually the small roof top box indicates A/C for the driver, but its cooling effect is minimal), so imagine the conditions for both driver and passenger when more than 100 persons entered the bus on this hot day in August. |
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| August 2003: #818, old beat-up Volvo B10R at end station of line 30 Bygdøy i august 2003. A heavy duty solid vehicle, but not much beauty with its scratches and dents. But the bus is close to 20 years old with a mileage of several million kilometres. Assembled by now discontinued Arna karosserifabrikk in Bergen. |
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| Driving in the Moss area is more relaxed, and may take you to some beautiful and countryside places, like this gravel road that the bus to Svindal and Nordby takes. This is about 10 miles from downtown Moss. The bus is a Mercedes-Benz O407Nü. No passengers at this time, they left at slightly more urban areas, so no problem to take a photo stop. Sill 5 miles to the final destination. |
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| Same bus, another day (July 27 2004), same route 580, but on an empty return back to the depot I took it for a spin along an alternative return path which is only operated on school days. (I would have to learn this route anyway). I stopped twice in the beautiful landscape close to the large lake Vansjø South East of Moss. |
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| Here the O407Nü crosses a small stream that connects to lake Vansjø. Very quiet surroundings, I met no cars and fortunately no honking horns while stopping the bus for the photo sessions. |
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| Citaro on Pendulum 3 passing the local beach Fiske, close to downtown Moss, on July 28. |
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| Citaro on Pendelum 2 passes the channel bridge between the island of Jeløy and downtown Moss early June 2004. |
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| Citaro #233 on Pendulum 1 at a short stop at Rosnes - still at the island of Jeløy, 2 miles from downtown Moss, June 3 2004. |
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| Citaro #230 at destination Refsnes, still at the island of Jeløy in Moss, June 7 2004 - early morning. |
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| MAN NG313 #729 parked at the Nydalen bridge one minute after end destination Nydalen at line 37 in Oslo. A pictoresque waterfall is just behind the brigde. Date is June 6 2004, Sunday evening. Since the bus was empy I took it for an extra spin. The automatic destination machine naturally changed the sign to "Out of traffic", which I forgot to prevent. This looked so stupid that I faked the picture with the real destination of Helsfyr. |
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| This is French bus company SAP's depot at Vence in the South of France. SAP is part of Keolis, which is one of three largest bus companies in France. SAP's fleet consists mainly of Setra buses. Picture taken Sunday June 20, 2004. |
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| This is a new Setra S315NF #6003 in operation
at between Nice and Antibes in France. Picture taken June 26, 2004. Bus
company is BuzAzur. The operations are outsourced from Conseil General des Alpes-Martimes to local bus companies forming the TAM (Transport Alpes Maritimes) network which is a joint operation between the County Council and 30 coach companies. All in all, it represents 100 routes, 250 buses, 1,800 bus stops and 10 million passengers a year. |
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| Back in Oslo, metro line 5 has been discontinued between Tøyen and Hasle due to a new tunell joining the old one. For three months, traffic between the two stations will be maintained by shuttle buses. Two articulated buses team up at each arrival and bring the passenger to the next station. Easy job for a driver, since there is no ticketing or controlling - just drive, smile and be happy. Picture of this MAN NG312 taken June 28 at the turnaround close to the Munch museum exhibiting the famous paintings of Edward Munch. |
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| August 4, the light summer nights are being replaced by darker - but warmer - August nights. Picture taken at Tveita where MAN NL263 #625 on line 69 to Lutvann waits for departure 15 minutes later - or rather lurking in the shadows before moving to the start position som hundred meteres away. Very often this line 69 is operated by Merecedes Cito's or midi MANs, but I specifically asked for a "real" bus - because this is a LOOONG shift. Basically line 69 is a side extension of the Metro line 2 Østerås - Ellingsrudåsen, bringing passengers from Tveita to Hellerudtoppen and from Haugerud to Lutvann. |
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Updated August 12 2004