Transdev

History

The group was formed by the merger of Veolia Transport and Transdev on 3 April 2011. Veolia Environnement and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) had 50% shareholdings. It was initially planned for the company to be sold by an initial public offering, potentially accompanied by a rebranding, within 12 months of the merger.

On 6 December 2011 Veolia Environment, seeking to reduce debt and focus on its core businesses of water, waste and energy, announced a €5bn divestment program over 2012/13 that would include a sale of its share in Veolia Transdev within two years. At the time of the announcement, Veolia Transdev declared its intention to concentrate on four main markets (France, the Netherlands, Germany, United States), to develop UK, Asia and Australia and to divest from other countries and other activities amounting to about 9-10% of global revenue in 2012/13.

After this announcement, the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, for its part, officially reiterated its commitment to Veolia Transdev and its continued support as a shareholder to the group's development.

In early 2012 it was reported that Cube Infrastructure, a fund controlled by the French bank Natixis (Groupe BPCE), was likely to acquire about half of Veolia's stake in Transdev. The Caisse des Dépôts would take over the other half. This was not implemented, but instead, Caisse des Dépôts acquired 10% of the shares from Veolia in October 2012. Following the sale of Transdev subsidiary SNCM in late 2015, CDC and Veolia continued talks about selling Veolia's stake in the joint venture.

In 2013 CEO Jérôme Gallot confirmed Veolia Transdev would consolidate its operations down to 17 countries. Veolia Transdev has since been renamed to simply Transdev, but it is important to note that this is a different entity to the Transdev that Veolia Transport merged with in 2011, due to the partial ownership by Veolia Environnement and increased number of subsidiary operating companies as a result of that merger.

Transdev is organised into seven geographical areas (strike-through countries were former operations):

Operations in France

Transdev's subsidiary Société Varoise de Transports (SVT) operates two lines of the Bouches du Rhône district network since 1 January 2014, serving a population of more than one million inhabitants.

Transdev owned 66% of SNCM, a French ferry company operating in the Mediterranean. However, as of 2014, Transdev was planning to sell its shares. SNCM was finally sold to a Corsican firm Rocca Group in late 2015 and was renamed Maritima Ferries in January 2016.

Thello (see Italy section) operates trains between Italy and France; Transdev relinquishes its 33% holding in 2016.

In July 2015, Transdev commenced operating 17 coach routes under the Isilines brand to coincide with the deregulation of the French coach market.

Netherlands

Transdev Netherlands is made up of three operations, Connexxion, Veolia Transport Nederland and Witte Kruis. It was set up in December 2015 to group the three operations together under one brand, after bringing Connexxion and Veolia Transport Nederland under one management earlier in May that year. Each operation continues to exist separately with its branding unchanged. This arrangement was planned ever since the global rebranding of Veolia Transdev in 2013.

Connexxion is owned by Transdev-BNG-Connexxion Holding BV (TBCH), a consortium between Transdev (75% as of 2012), BNG Bank (25% as of 2012) and Connexxion Holding N.V. The consortium used to own 66.7% of shares until they bought the remaining 33.3% of shares from the Dutch state in February 2013.

Veolia Transport Nederland operates bus, train and ferry services around Netherlands since 1997. Witte Kruis (Dutch for White Cross) is Transdev's mobile care organization in Netherlands.

Belgium

In Belgium, Veolia Transdev's operations were known as Veolia Transport Belgium (VTB). VTB was sold to a consortium consisting of Cube Infrastructure and Gimv in March 2014.

Operations in North America

Transdev North America, formerly Veolia Transportation until August/September 2014, is the North American business unit of Transdev. It operates a number of public transport services across the United States and Canada.

Transdev North America's operations can be split into four divisions: Transit (buses and paratransit), Rail (trains and light rail), On-Demand (airport shuttles, taxis, private sedans and charter bus services) and IntelliRide (healthcare-related transportation).

Other North American operations inherited from the old Transdev were never part of Veolia Transportation and therefore are not part of Transdev North America.

Canada

In April 2005 Veolia were awarded the contract in York Region in suburban Toronto, Ontario, Canada running the bus rapid transit (BRT) naming the routes VIVA and joining with York Region Transit (YRT) as a one fare transit system.

York BRT Services L.P is the Transdev North America Canadian subsidiary responsible for operations in York Region:

Other Canadian operations

Transdev also operates Limocar, a coach operator in Quebec, Canada. It was inherited from the old Transdev and hence is not part of Transdev North America operations.

United States

Transdev North America US' operations include:

Former operations

Germany

Transdev GmbH operates buses and trains in Germany. It was renamed from Veolia Verkehr GmbH in March 2015.

Central Europe

In Central Europe, Veolia Transdev's operations were known as Veolia Transport Central Europe GmbH (VTCE) and included operations in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Serbia. They were sold to Arriva in May 2013.

Finland

Transdev operates in Finland as Transdev Finland Oy. It was rebranded from Veolia Transport Finland Oy on 5 February 2015.

Ireland

Transdev operates Dublin's Luas tram system. Transdev Ireland was renamed from Veolia Transport Ireland in May 2013.

Sweden

Transdev, known as Transdev Sverige AB, operates a number of subsidiaries in Sweden. The company was rebranded from Veolia Transport Sverige AB on 2 February 2015. Its subsidiaries are:

Transdev also won the tender to operate bus services in Umeå from 13 June 2016.

Ceased contracts:

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, Transdev operates Transdev Blazefield, Green Tomato Cars, Trident Niven, Black Car Service, Cabfind.com, and holds an 18% shareholding in Nottingham City Transport.

Transdev Blazefield is a bus group with operations in Yorkshire and Lancashire. It has five operating subsidiaries:

Transdev owns three car services in London. Green Tomato Cars is an environmentally friendly passenger car service in London and was established in 2006. Trident Niven, acquired in December 2012, is a London-based private hire company and has a fleet of 100 cars. Black Car Service, established in May 2014, is a new corporate chauffeured car service in London, with a fleet of 150 black unbranded Volkswagen CCs (as of May 2014).

Transdev also owns an 18% share in Nottingham City Transport, the largest municipal bus operator in England.

Former UK operations

Arrow Light Rail, a consortium between Transdev, Nottingham City Transport, Bombardier Transportation, Carillion, Galaxy and Innisfree, was contracted to build and operate the Nottingham Express Transit for 30.5 years from 9 March 2004. However, the contract was ripped up in 2011 when Tramlink Nottingham was selected as the preferred bidder for the construction of Phase 2 of the light rail. The last day of operations of Arrow Light Rail was 16 December 2011, few months after the establishment of Veolia Transdev.

Transdev also owned and operated London United Busways and London Sovereign, two of 20 bus operators serving London, until it was sold to RATP Group in March 2011 and April 2014 respectively.

Australia & New Zealand

Transdev Australasia operates:

East Asia

Veolia Transport-RATP Asia (VTRA) is a joint venture between Transdev and RATP Group, created in 2009 between Veolia Transport and RATP Dev.

Currently, VTRA had no fixed name after Veolia Transdev's global rebranding in 2013. While the name VTRA still exists, such as when VTRA bidded for a bus contract in Singapore (but the sightseeing bus operations are already known to be operated by VTRA since September 2014) and retained the name VTRA, other name variations have also been used. Hong Kong Tramways and RATP Dev refer VTRA by the name "RATP Dev Transdev Asia" (RDTA), while Transdev refers it as "Transdev RATPDev".

Veolia Transport China Limited (VTCL) was a subsidiary of VTRA and was in charge of its operations in China (Nanjing and Hong Kong). Before VTRA was set up, VTCL was the Chinese subdiary of Veolia Transport, and had a joint venture with Nanjing Zhongbei since September 2008. This joint venture later was continued between VTRA and Nanjing Zhongbei. The VTCL name was not mentioned in Transdev, RATP or the old VTRA websites, but was instead mentioned in the Hong Kong Tramways website until it was revamped in 2015.

VTRA operates:

Former operations

VTRA also owned Reolian who operated buses in Macau since August 2011 until July 2014, after the company filed for bankruptcy in October 2013.

Italy

Thello was a joint venture between Transdev and Italian state owned railway company Trenitalia, operating train services between France and Italy.

Portugal

Transdev Portugal operates Metro do Porto light rail in Portugal, as well as bus and coach services all around Portugal. It was rewarded the AveiroBus network with 24 buses, 1 ferry boat and 2 boats, effective from 1 January 2017.

Spain

Transdev is one of the few companies that make up TramMet, a joint venture company that operates two tram lines in Barcelona: Trambaix and Trambesòs. Transdev has 66% stake in the operating companies of the tram networks, and 5.53% of the concession companies.

Additionally, Transdev, together with Saycr and Ineco, forms the Tenemetro, S.L., which has 14% stake (Transdev 8.5%) of Metropolitano de Tenerife (MTSA), the operator of Tenerife Tram. This tram operation was passed down from the old Transdev.

Colombia

Transdev, in conjunction with three other operators, runs a 84 km right-of-way bus line of TransMilenio system in Bogotá.

Chile

Transdev operates Redbus Urbano in Santiago, Chile. It is Transdev's largest bus urban networks with revenues of more than 70 million euros in 2012.

Morocco

Transdev operates the Rabat-Salé tramway in Morocco for a contract of six years awarded 2010, with operations started in May 2011. It is Morocco's first light rail service. Until Veolia Transdev's rebranding to Transdev in 2013, the Moroccan tramway was operated under the old Transdev's name and logo.

Israel (light rail)

Transdev inherited from Veolia Transport the Jerusalem Light Rail project that Veolia Environment had been trying to sell since at least 2009.

As of December 2011, the agreed sale of the Jerusalem Light Rail to Egged was reported to have been held up by the Israeli state. Egged will however need Veolia's expertise for at least five years to run the light rail successfully. The sale was finally approved in August 2015.

Israel (buses)

Transdev also operated buses in Israel as Veolia Transport Israel (more commonly Connex Israel):

The buses in Modi'in were sold to Kavim in July 2013, while the rest were sold to Afikim in September 2013.