Rocar De Simon U412


The Rocar De Simon U412 was a city bus model manufactured jointly by Rocar and De Simon in Romania with an Italian constructed bus body.

History

The model, introduced early 1994 and produced until 2002, was mostly used in Bucharest's bus network operated by RATB even though some U 412-260s are also used in other Romanian cities such as Braşov, Cluj-Napoca, Galati, Craiova, and Oradea.
Rocar De Simon buses also were used by the army and the MAI. Used as a coach, it was also equipped with air conditioning, and it had 2 doors. Also some Rocar De Simon buses were sold to some particulars, mainly versions with 2 doors, but also with 3 doors. 2-door versions are also available with a slightly shorter wheelbase. Rocar De Simon was built in 7 versions: U412-220 UL70, U412-220, U412-230, U412-260, U412E, U412 DAF, and some 2-door versions based on U412-260, with slightly lower wheelbase.
RATB has withdrawn all of them from service, because some of them were severely worn out, but also because RATB wanted to operate solely low floor busses with air conditioning. The only vehicle remaining operational at RATB based on Rocar De Simon is trolleybus #7459. Some of them were scrapped, but some of them are still in some garages of RATB, not in regular use for public transport, they are used for internal purposes or are proposed either for scrapping or sale.
A major problem RATB discovered at these buses after a few years of operation, was the broken chassis, either the rear console was bending, either some busses were bending at the mid, probably because frequently overloading them. It is one of the main reasons RATB removed them from regular service, apart from the fact that RATB wanted solely low floor buses. RATB removed Rocar De Simon buses from operation in mid to late 2011. All of them were replaced with low floor buses, Mercedes-Benz Citaro type.
Rocar De Simon was quite a modern vehicle at its time, actual design, having MAN Euro 2 engines, automatic transmission, ABS, electronic controlled air suspension, tubeless tires, Fluorescent lighting of the saloon, plastic seats, Blaupunkt sound system with public address with bus vox system announcing the stations, electrical ventilating rooftops, heated saloon, STOP button in the saloon and some safety features, and many of them were equipped with electronic display. Despite this advantages, it didn't proved very successful, mainly due to low number of manufactured vehicles, as only about 400 vehicles were manufactured between 1994 and 2002, and probably by concurrence and high price. However, it was bought in low numbers by other public transport companies around Romania and some particulars.
It had no successor because ROCAR went bankrupt, although its successors were meant to be either Rocar 812 series only one bus and one trolleybus were made in 1998, or ROCAR SOLARIS URBINO in 2002. Rocar De Simon was meant to be the successor of DAC/Rocar 112/212 and 117/217 series based on the older Roman 112 UD, but they continued the production of the later in parallel with De Simon until 2000. De Simon bus series, although originally had an articulated version, ROCAR never built articulated De Simon. It was the last bus ever made by ROCAR, its production ceased in 2002 some months before ROCAR officially declared Bankruptcy.
Unlike Rocar 112/117/212/217 series which were exported to some countries, Rocar De Simon was not officially exported. All built vehicles, were delivered and operated in Romania.
Rocar de Simon busses were unaffected by the bankruptcy of its mother factory, ROCAR, compared to many other ROCAR products, as spare parts were widely available, because it was produced with components also used by many other manufacturers, some of them being interchangeable. Body parts like panels, glasses, tail lights and headlights could be brought from Italy or other countries which were operating De Simon Buses.

Subtypes