PostBus Switzerland, PostBus Ltd., italic=no in Swiss French, italic=no in Swiss Italian, and italic=no in Romansh is a subsidiary company of the Swiss Post, which provides regional and rural bus services throughout Switzerland, and also in France, Germany, and Liechtenstein. The Swiss PostBus service evolved as a motorized successor to the stagecoaches that previously carried passengers and mail in Switzerland, with the Swiss postal service providing postbus services carrying both passengers and mail. Although this combination had been self-evident in the past, the needs of each diverged towards the end of the twentieth century, when the conveyance of parcels was progressively separated from public transportation. This split became official with the conversion of PostBus into a separate subsidiary of the Swiss Post in February 2005. The buses operated by PostBus are a Swiss icon, with a distinctive yellow livery and three-tone horn. The company uses an image of a posthorn as a logo on its buses and elsewhere. On some mountain roads, indicated by a traffic sign of a yellow posthorn on a blue background, the public transport, in particular the postal buses, have priority over other traffic and traffic users must follow instructions by public transport drivers.
History
1849: Creation of the postal network diligence.
1906: First service of PostBus between Bern and Detligen.
1919: Inauguration of the line crossing the Simplon Pass.
2005: PostBus Switzerland established as a subsidiary company of Swiss Post
2006: PostBus celebrates its centenary.
2011: PostBus launches free WiFi in Postbuses and becomes the first Swiss public transport operator to add fuel cell buses to its fleet.
Operations
Switzerland
Services are provided by PostBus Switzerland, a subsidiary company of Swiss Post with its headquarters in Bern. The company is responsible for 869 bus routes with 2,193 buses in Switzerland, transporting over 140 million passengers annually on its long network. The routes are either operated directly by PostBus itself, or by local bus companies under contract. PostBus offers extensive services in public, public-private, and private transit, including:
PostAuto: Bus lines
PubliCar: Dial-a-bus service for lightly traveled routes
PostBus Switzerland also operates the bus service for Liechtenstein.
Germany
The German villages of Büsingen am Hochrhein and Randegg are also served via a connection with the Swiss towns of Schaffhausen and Ramsen. The German town Singen benefits from a connection to Switzerland via a PostBus service to and from Ramsen.
Coaches
During most of the 20th century, PostBus coaches were made in Switzerland by either Saurer, Berna, or FBW.
Criticism
In June 2018, members of the Executive Board of PostBus were dismissed by Swiss Post after PostBus manipulated its accounting records concealing profits in order to collect excess subsidies.
