GRC-OSY

Volvo B7LA -Saracakis

News: per 1 October 2020 300-400 extra buses are required for central city lines because of the COVID-19 measures. A two year contract was given to KTEL to provide these buses. This results in variety of olde and new buses, all of which received the Athens city bus colours.
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In 1929 the Electric Transport Company was formed to operate tram, bus and trolleybus lines in Athens. From 1956 onwards it only operated trolleybuses. In 1970 a new public sector company, the Electric Buses of Athens, Piraeus and the Suburbs (ILPAP) was established and took over the trolleybus operations. In 2011 ILPAP was merged with the bus company ETHEL to form one new company, OSY (Road Transport Ltd). All shares are held by the Athens Public Transport Organization (O.A.S.A.). OSY still operates an extensive trolleybus network in Athens and Piraeus.

The bus fleet in 2019 is becoming aged. There are short buses (Neoplan N4007 -ELBO and Solaris Urbino 8.6), articulated buses (Volvo B7LA -Saracakis, Mercedes-Benz O405NG2 -ELBO and Solaris Urbino 18), CNG buses (Renault/Irisbus Agora CNG, Irisbus Agora CNG, Irisbus Citelis CNG) and standard 12-meter diesel buses (Irisbus Agora, Mercedes-Benz O405N -Mannheimer and Mercedes-Benz O405N2 -ELBO). A few of the Mercedes-Benz O405N2 are used on the airport express services and have only two doors instead of three. Othe airport express buses are the articulated Solaris Urbino 18.

The livery of the buses is white with yellow and blue stripes and figures. The CNG-buses are white and green with “balloons”.

The numbering of the various series is rather confusing. Most often the last three digits of the registration are used, sometimes (with some of the Solaris Urbino 8.6) only two and sometimes all four (Renault Agora CNG). In some cases, the first of the three digits does not follow the registration plate and some buses apparently received new registrations that are not linked to the bus number anymore. As a result, different buses may have the same number.

The 6000-series Neoplan buses can be found in service in Piraeus. The Van Hool and Neoplan trolleybuses replaced a fleet of Russian ZIU 9 trolleybuses, delivered between around 1980 and 1989. They were numbered in the 2000 to 5000-series. They in turn replaced old Italian trolleybuses, numbered below 1000 and in the 1000-series.

Mercedes-Benz O405N -Mannheimer

Mercedes-Benz O405N2 -ELBO

Mercedes-Benz O405NG2 -ELBO

Neoplan N4007 -ELBO

Renault/Irisbus Agora CNG

Irisbus Agora CNG

Irisbus Agora

Irisbus Citelis CNG

Solaris Urbino 8.6

Solaris Urbino 18