The famous Belgian brand name of
Van Hool was started by Bernard Van Hool, who started
to show his great interest in mechanics in his early
years.
During the Second World War, transportation
in Belgium became difficult, as most vehicles were
requisitioned by the German forces. Bernard started
a small transportation company with his youngest
brother and a mechanic. They refurbished a number
of lorries and started their business. After the Second World War,
buses running in the country were obsolete and there
was a lack of touring cars. The transportation company
was changed to a coach tour company with their rebuilt
coaches in 1946.
In 1947, the coach builder was established.
In the first years, design was made to individual
buses. It was not until 1951 that serial production
had begun.
Nevertheless,
the Belgian market was not big enough for the expansion
of business. Van Hool started its first exports
in 1949. Thousands of buses were sent to Africa
in 1950's.
In 1957, Van Hool contracted with
Fiat to fit Fiat engines and other mechanical parts
in Van Hool vehicles. It was then become the integral
bus manufacturer Van Hool-Fiat. The sales volume
had been increased many times by then.
There were several important moves
in the 1960's: the introduction of fibre glass panel
in buses in 1963, the production of tankers and
semi-trailers in 1965, and the export of stylish
coaches to Britain in the same year.
In 1971, Van Hool started its overseas
plant in Zaragoza, Spain to cater for the orders
from Africa and Latin America. The oil crisis in 1973 beat the bus
industry hard. Van Hool diversified the business
into manufacture of other machines. In 1976, the
limited company Van Hool was founded.
In 1980, Van Hool built the first
apron buses and started this famous business. In
addition, the A500 of 1985 was the first model of
low floor bus of total length. In 1987, Van Hool
made an exclusive agreement with ABC Bus Companies
in Florida, and entered the market in large scale
in North America. Three years later, 22 Europe built
articulated buses were delivered to Montreal, Canada.
In 1990, Van Hool took over LAG,
and buses are built under EOS Coach Manufacturing
Company NV. In 1991, a new look of the established
T8 series was unveiled. It became popular in the
European coach market. New markets in Italy and
Greece were opened with the co-operation with local
body builders there. In 1995, the T9 series was
put into market. Van Hool has become a household name in
the bus and coach business both in Europe and in
the US, with an annual production of some 4000 vehicles
and the capability of building a wide variety of
models to customer request.
Several
generations of Van Hool buses can be distinguished.
From 1947 until the mid 1950's buses were built
on a variety of chassis for the Belgian market.
Van Hool's big success came when an agreement with
FIAT was reached, leading to the Van Hool-FIAT semi-integral
vehicles which gave Van Hool its dominant position
on the Belgian market. During this period the first
export orders also came. Because of legal requirements
Belgian buses started adopting a quite standardized
appearance, with large batches built for the Vicinal
Railways, Belgium's national public transport company.
By
the mid 1960's both the Vicinal Railways and the
Belgian municipal operators had their own standard
bus models which were built mainly by Van Hool and
Jonckheere. For the private operators, some 150
of whom with around 1,500 buses operated under the
banner of the Vicinal Railways and the Belgian National
Railways, different models were produced. Those
were often built on chassis, with AEC, DAF, Volvo,
Leyland and Mercedes as the most popular ones, though
there were also some on local Miesse chassis. Two
versions were available from the mid 1960's until
around 1977. One was a very square bus, the other
one had a body that was derived from Van Hool's
contemporary coaches. The latter model changed during
the beginning of the 1970's.
During
the mid 1970's, the Vicinal Railways and other Belgian
operators designed, in collaboration with the bus
builders, a new standard vehicle, with large windows,
a relatively flat floor up to the rear axle, with
a step towards the rear, a wide front entrance and
center exit, rear engine, large windscreen and destination
display. The model was built on chassis as well
as an integral bus. Van Hool called it the A120.
A special version, with a front end similar to export
buses for Sweden, was called the A120P. Large numbers
of the A120 were built for all Belgian operators,
with limited export, mainly to Luxemburg.
During
this period Van Hool exported many buses, with its
main markets in the Benelux countries, France, the
UK, Scandinavia and various African countries. Though
there was a lot of variation, one could still distinguish
the typical Van Hool designs.
As
virtually each European country had its own bus
industry and public transport companies were state
owned or depended heavily on state subsidies, the
main products were standardized vehicles for the
home market. This started changing by the end of
the 1980's when European Union regulations called
for European wide tenders of government subsidized
purchases. The privatization process of public transport
companies also meant companies had more liberty
in buying the vehicle of their choice. For Van Hool
this was the opportunity to enter new markets. A
new bus family was designed, this time not to respond
to specific requirements of Belgian operators for
a standardized vehicle, but to Van Hool's own design.
This became the A500-family, which later was extended
with the A300 low floor bus family.
Van
Hool produces a wide range of coaches, from short
vehicles up to 13.5 meter long double deckers. The
main market is in Western Europe and Northern Africa,
but in addition Van Hool has become the third largest
supplier of full size coaches in the US, after MCI
and Prevost. For this venture close collaboration
with ABC as the Van Hool distributor and agent exists.
In
addition to buses and coaches, Van Hool is an important
supplier of truck trailers and specialized vehicles.
It is the 3rd largest producer world wide of tank
trailers. It also built apron buses in various sizes,
though none were delivered the past few years.
Over
the years, Van Hool has had several production sites
in other countries. Van Hool Spain built many buses
and coaches during the 1970's and 1980's, but eventually
became an independent company and was renamed Hispano
Carrocera. At the request of CIE (Irish Railways),
Van Hool took over production of buses for that
company during the second half of the 1970's as
Van Hool-McArdle. After a few years, however, Van
Hool withdrew from the agreement. Van Hool helped
set up bus building in Tunesia by STIA. Beginning
of the 1970's, Van Hool took a stake in Cummins
in Brazil, together with Cummins US and Marcopolo,
making its know-how available. Currently De Simon
(www.desimon.it) in Italy finishes Van Hool buses
for the Italian market while a Greek company has
been doing the same for that market.
This
update, however, concentrates on the current Van
Hool bus range, as introduced by the end of the
1980's.
The
A500/508/600/700 family, 1985
Mid
1970's a new standard bus model was developed by
the Belgian public transport operators and the industry.
Van Hool called this model the A120. It had a rear
engine, wide doors, large windows and a relatively
low floor in the front part, with a step behind
the central exit door. Large numbers were built,
mainly for Belgium. Soon afterwards, Van Hool developed
both and articulated bus and a midibus, using a
new concept. As a rear engine in an articulated
bus was still complicated at that time, Van Hool
wanted to keep the engine in the front part of the
vehicle. As an underfloor engine would have meant
raising the floor height, Van Hool decided to locate
the engine on the floor, in the passenger compartment,
on the left hand side of the vehicle, between the
axles. Several series articulated buses using this
concept were built for Brussels, Liège, and
the Vicinal Railways in Belgium. The same concept
was used for the midibus, which in addition with
a single rear wheels gave it a full flat floor and
an excellent passenger flow in conjunction with
the rear door. This made the bus very suitable for
high frequency short distance inner city services.
Only three were sold in Belgium, but the model became
quite successful in France.
Van
Hool used the concept of this engine location in
a new full length integral bus, which was presented
at the UITP congress in 1985, called at the time
the A280. This standard length (11.80 m) model had
a curved front end, lower floor than the previous
standard A120 model, and an MAN engine that was
located between the axles on the left hand side
of the bus, on the floor. This permitted a low floor
over the full length of the bus and the possibility
of a rear platform with wide rear exit doors. Several
prototypes were built and tested before series production
began. From 1986 until 1989 some 30 were built,
among others 3 for the STIC (city service in Charleroi,
Belgium), 10 for the then still existing Vicinal
Railways in Belgium (SNCV/NMVB) for city services
in Aalst, 9 for TL, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2 for
VMCV, Montreux, Switzerland, and 4 for a French
company in Draveil. In 1988 the model was renamed
A500, referring to the floor height of around 50
centimeters (48 cm in reality). Over 600 buses were
delivered up to 1998, when the model was basically
phased out, though a few were delivered later. Over
300 went to Belgian operators and over 200 to France,
but there was also a batch of 40 for ETUSA in Algeria
and a few for Italy. Interestingly the model was
used for airport services in various places. In
addition to Brussels Zaventem Airport, 2 went to
Riga Airport in Russia, 3 to Leeds and Bradford
Airport in the UK, and 6 to Dublin Airport in Ireland.
Most had MAN engines, but the Leeds and Bradford
Airport buses had Cummins engines. The normal door
layout was three wide doors, but the SNCV, Belgium,
had a series of experimental 2-door buses with a
far rear exit. These had model designation A500/1.
The A500/3 was a French version built in 1997.
A
special version was the one with seats placed directly
on the floor instead of on a platform. This version
was called A500PL (Podestloos) and was built for
TEC Liège-Verviers in Belgium. With 180 buses,
Brussels city service STIB was the largest customer
for the model.
In
addition to the over 600 buses mentioned above,
TEC Charleroi in Belgium received in 1998 85 A500/2
with Caterpillar engines. These had the A300 body
model but the floor height of the A500 and thus
complicate model recognition considerably.
Several
other models received the same new body model. The
prototype of the short version was called A500M,
but later renamed A508, with a length of just under
9 meters. It was basically the old AU138 with the
new body model. It is only 2.3 meters wide, whereas
the larger buses are 2.5 meters wide. The prototype
came in 1987 and a total of over 550 were built
until 1998, when it was phased out in favor of the
A308 full low-floor bus. As with the A500, some
of the last vehicles have an A308 body, making them
externally indistinguishable from the real A308.
Door layout is normally with a front entrance and
rear exit, though 5 buses were built for a Dutch
company with central exit doors. Most had MAN engines,
but there were considerable numbers with Cummins
engines for De Lijn and TEC in Belgium. Five Dutch
buses had DAF engines and 15 Swedish ones received
Volvo engines. The largest customer was ETUSA in
Algeria, which received 151. Another Algerian company,
EGSA, added another 4. France was the second best
customer, with 205 which went to a variety of customers.
Some 88 went to Belgian operators, 35 to Switzerland,
38 to Spain, 10 to the city service of Aachen in
Germany, 16 to Sweden, and 8 to the Netherlands.
Airport use was again responsible for some deliveries
to other countries. Six went to Turkish Airlines
in Istanbul, 8 to Washington Airport in the US,
2 to Bahrain Airport Services in Bahrain and 1 to
Luxair in Luxemburg.
An
even shorter version was called A507 (7.68 m) but
only 34 were built, of which 33 went to OAS in Athens,
Greece, and 1 to Stadtwerke Marburg in Germany.
On
the other end of the scale the articulated 18-meter
version was built, called the AG700. It is the direct
successor to the A280, but with the new body model.
The first ones appeared in 1989/1990 and went to
Canada, where 22 entered service with the Société
de Transport de la Rive Sud in Montreal. Another
3 went to Montreux in Switzerland. Just over 200
were built until 1997, when it was replaced by the
AG300 and AG500 series. In addition to the 22 for
Canada and the 3 for Switzerland, 10 went to Algeria,
20 to Spain, 101 to France and 47 to Belgium. The
single largest customer was STRD in Dijon, France,
which took 66. The concept was again the same, with
the engine on the floor on the left hand side of
the vehicle behind the first axle, but with a slightly
higher floor due to the articulation. The length
of this vehicle is typically 17.7 meters, but may
vary. Door layout may be 3 or 4 doors.
A
rare version is the AG900 of which only 6 were built
in 1992. Five went to STRAN in St Nazaire, France,
and 1 to operator Voyages Goddyn, also in France.
It basically is an AG700 with a higher floor and
narrow entrance and central doors. The third door
is wide. As a result they have a higher seating
capacity. They are used as school buses.
In
1996 Van Hool introduced the articulated version
with the floor height of the A500, called the AG500.
It has the body model of the low floor AG300 but
has the higher floor of the A500 with a step at
the entrance and a somewhat different wheelbase.
Externally, however, both models are difficult to
distinguish. This version was bought by De Lijn
in Belgium, who took over 60 since 1996. Because
of the higher floor wheels are less intrusive and
more seats can be accommodated. De Lijn's full low
floor AG300 have 48 seats while the one-step AG500
has 59.
Externally
similar but conceptually different was the interurban
version, called the A600, in which a low floor height
was considered less important than a high seating
capacity. This vehicles was the continuation of
the successful A120. The engine was placed in the
rear of the bus under the floor, with as a consequence
a higher floor, especially in the rear end, with
a step behind the center door. Engines are mainly
MAN or DAF, but there were also a few with Mercedes
and Cummins engines. A few buses of Belgian private
operators later received Gardner engines. Length
is typically 11.7 m and floor height is 500 mm at
the front door and 545 mm at the center door. Because
of the higher floor in the rear, door layout is
with a front entrance and a central exit. Since
the introduction of the model in 1989 over 1050
have been produced. Of these over 1020 were for
various Belgian customers, 33 for France, 20 for
Luxemburg, and 2 for Germany, making this a model
for the home market. With a Cummins engined prototype
a futile attempt was made to enter the UK market.
The
A600 bodywork was also made available on chassis.
This version is called the Linea and was introduced
in 1992. Known deliveries so far include 13 Scania
L94, 44 Scania L113, 22 Volvo B10M, 23 Volvo B10B,
and 4 Volvo B10R with private operators in Belgium,
2 Volvo B10M and 1 Volvo B10B for Sweden, 15 IVECO
391.12.29A with ZWN (now Connexxion) in the Netherlands
and 46 Mercedes Benz O405 for TITSA, Tenerifa, Canary
Islands. Most have front and central doors, though
there are a few Volvos with front and rear door.
The chassis make is always prominently displayed
on the front and rear ends of the vehicle.
The
first A500, A600, A508 and AG700 had round headlights.
After a few years these were replaced by square
ones. Other small improvements were also made over
the years. An obvious one was the use of less curved
windscreens, similar to the A300-series and the
suppression of the black strip above the windows,
leaving a narrow white roof line. The A500, A508
and AG700 were phased out by 1998 in favor of the
low-floor A300-series. The AG500 also remained in
production. Though Van Hool was thinking of phasing
out the A600, there still is demand for this vehicle
and in 2002 it was modernized and became the New
A600.
The
A300 low-floor buses, 1993
Based
on the A500-family, Van Hool designed a new low-floor
bus, called the A300, which was presented in 1991.
Floor height was further reduced to some 33 cm,
using the same concept of the engine on the floor
between the axles. New axles permitted a lower floor
over the full length of the bus. The difference
with the A500 was immediately visible as the side
windows of the A500 reached to the roof line, whereas
in the A300 they were placed lower, leaving a broad
strip between the windows and the roof line. However,
as mentioned before, some A500 were later built
with an A300 body, making them almost indistinguishable.
It typically has a 3-door layout. The A300 met with
considerable success with over 800 sold since its
introduction. Deliveries started in 1991/1992 and
several went to VMCV in Montreux, Switzerland, which
seems to be taking some of the first deliveries
of many new Van Hool types. Some 350 went to Belgium
so far, with the balance going for export. The Netherlands
so far became home to 105 A300, of which 46 for
Utrecht had LPG engines. Most of the over 60 delivered
to Italy since 1993 were finished by De Simon. Palermo
in Italy received 5 in 2001 with open platforms.
OAS in Athens bought 111 in 1994. France received
at least 122, with Dijon, Tours, Rennes, Nancy and
Aeroports de Paris as major customers. Bilbao, Murcia,
Albacete and a few smaller operators in Spain received
56. Dubai Aviation took 3 and several went to Germany.
Engines are mainly by MAN, though there are also
considerable numbers of DAF engined A300. All the
LPG engines are DAF. A few German A300's have Mercedes
engines.
Again
shorter versions were produced. The most common
is the 9 meter A308, of which over 200 have been
built since 1991. Belgian operators De Lijn (Flanders)
and STIB (Brussels) took 116. French operators received
33, and small numbers went to Switzerland, Germany,
Luxemburg, Denmark and the Netherlands. British
Airways took 32 right hand drive versions for Heathrow
Airport services and Dubai Airport took one. Special
development included CNG and Hybrid buses. Four
of the latter were tested several years in Dordrecht,
the Netherlands. A few of the French buses are about
50 centimeters longer (9.44 instead of the standard
8.90 m) and are called A308L.
In
addition there is the A309 which is around 10 meters
long, and the A310. The latter has a width of 2.5
meters, as the full-length buses, whereas the A308
and A309 are only 2.3 meters wide. Only one A310
was built in 1995 as a demonstrator. Later it was
sold to STACA, a private Belgian operator. Two A309
were built for a Swiss operator in Bern. While the
A308 and A309 have the single rear wheels, the A310
has double wheels, making it more a shortened A300
than a lengthened A308.
The
articulated bus is known as the AG300 and is conceptually
similar to the A300. Over 400 have been built since
its introduction in 1993. This bus meant the first
larger entry for Van Hool into the very nationally
oriented German market, with some 60 sold to various
companies, such as Krefeld and Duisburg. Similar
numbers went to France (Strasbourg, Rennes) and
Italy (Torino, Venice). The latter were finished
by De Simon in Italy. Lausanne and Bern in Switzerland
took 25. Utrecht in the Netherlands received a batch
of 15 with DAF LPG engines. Though MAN engines were
most common, quite a few buses had Mercedes engines,
not only all the Italian and German ones, but also
some of the French ones.
A
special development was the double-articulated bus
with a length of some 24 meters, called the AGG300.
One was a 1992 AG300 that received a third section
in 1993. It was used as a demonstrator for, among
others, Utrecht in the Netherlands, in Switzerland,
Oberhausen in Germany and both the TEC and De Lijn
in Belgium. It was recently sold to Angola. A second
one was built in 1998 for the TEC in Liège,
Belgium, where it is still used. The first series
production is of the New model, as described below.
Based
on the A300, Van Hool developed 3 other models which
are technically different, the A320, A330 and A360.
The A320 has a rear engine and a floor that slopes
up slightly behind the rear axle. This means that
front and rear axle are of the model as used for
low-floor vehicles. In the rear of the bus some
space is lost because of the engine, but there is
still space for a rear door. The A330 has a vertical
rear engine on the floor in the left rear corner
of the bus. While it does take up space there, the
floor is flat over the full length of the vehicle
and a larger rear platform and a door can be provided.
The A360 has a rear engine under the floor and a
step behind the center door. The front part is full
low floor, which distinguishes it from the A600,
which has a normal floor in the front part. So,
in summary, Van Hool has combined engine location
and type of axle to provide a range of vehicles
with various low-floor configurations:
A300: engine between axles on floor,
full length low floor, length 11.99 m.
A320: horizontal engine in rear under
floor, low floor until behind rear axle, then
sloping up, length 11.66 m.
A330: vertical engine in left rear
corner on floor, full length low floor, length
11.99 m.
A360: horizontal engine in rear under
floor, low floor in front part, step behind
rear door, length 11.85 m.
All
these vehicles are between 11.6 and 12 meters long,
but dimension vary according to the market, which
may call for special adaptations, such as the A320C
for France. The A320 and A330 were presented in
1997, the A360 was already developed in 1994. The
A320 and A360 use DAF, MAN or Mercedes engines,
the A330 only MAN. The first A360 later received
a Gardner engine. Some 185 A320 were built so far,
some 60 A330 and 140 A360, with production continuing.
The A320 was sold in France and Belgium, the A330
in Belgium, France, Italy and Switzerland, and the
A360 in Belgium and Germany, with a few in Switzerland
and one in Luxemburg.
The
New series, 2001
In
May 2001 Van Hool presented the redesigned New Look
A300-range at the IUTP conference in London. At
the October 2001 Kortrijk show more buses were shown.
The model is a continuation of the existing A300/600
series with improvements and a new body design.
First presented were a prototype New A320 and New
A330, a New AG300 for Connexxion in the Netherlands,
and a New A308 for Montreux in Switzerland. An A330
for TEC and an A360 for De Lijn, both in Belgium,
were still of the old model. Series deliveries started
end of 2001 with a series of 33 New AG300 for Connexxion
in the Netherlands, used on a new 26 km high speed
dedicated bus system between Haarlem, Schiphol Airport
and the south-eastern part of Amsterdam. A second
series of 16 AG300 was destined for the Rive Sud
company in Montreal, which already owns 22 AG700.
In May 2002 the first double articulated New AGG300
were delivered to the town of Utrecht, for a heavy
traveled corridor between the main railway station
and the university area. In 2002 the first New A600
was built for a Belgian operator. An important new
customer is Oakland in California, which ordered
40 AG300 and 119 A300, presumably of the "New"
series. They will have Cummins engines.
Special
propulsions
In
recent years, Van Hool has been experimenting with
hybrid vehicles (the A308H), compressed natural
gas (CNG) vehicles and LPG vehicles. The latter
are quite successful and can be found in various
cities around Europe.
Van
Hool's first trolleybus was a prototype based on
the older AG280 vehicle, built in 1980. It resulted
in an order for 20 vehicles for a new system in
Gent, Belgium, which was opened in 1989. These buses
were also of the AG280T model, though to a slightly
modernized design. The new A300 range has also been
built in trolleybus version. The 12 meter A300T
was built for in 2000 for Athens, Greece, with a
series of 75 for ILPAP. The articulated version,
AG300T, was built for Arnhem in the Netherlands.
The first bus, 0201, delivered in 1994, was a so-called
Duobus, with electric propulsion and a normal diesel
engine. The series version, 0202-0210, delivered
in 1997, only had an auxiliary engine for emergency
use. In 1994/1995 Montreux in Switzerland received
a series of 18 AG300T, and Salzburg in Austria one
in 2000. In 2002 similar vehicles were built for
Esslingen (9) and Solingen (20), in Germany. In
spite of being built after the introduction of the
New series, these featured the old type of bodywork.
Conclusion
With
the introduction of its new bus range end of the
1980's, Van Hool has managed to establish a firm
market presence in a range of European countries,
notably Belgium, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands
and Spain, while it also managed to enter new markets
in Italy and Germany. The recent orders from North
America further extend the market. Since its presentation
in 1985 some 5000 buses of the A500/300/600 range
have been built.
