VST standard painting

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A Trogenerbahn train in the VST standard paint scheme in the urban area of St. Gallen

The VST-unit painting , also VST paint , VST-unit painting , VST paint , VST unit Orange or VST Orange , was a project of the Association of Swiss transport companies (VST). In 1974, the association recommended theirs to all of its member companies as part of a Switzerland-wide color test , originally planned for ten years

uniform orange to paint . However, the Swiss Federal Railways and PostBus Schweiz AG , which as federal companies have only been part of the association since the 1999 rail reform , were not involved .

description

In the VST design, the car body was kept in pure orange ( RAL 2004) signal color , warning color or safety color . This was supplemented by a light gray (RAL 7035) contrasting or decorative stripe of different widths, usually all around, underneath the window edge. However, the decorative stripe was partly interrupted in the entry areas. As a rule, owner labels and vehicle numbers or other inscriptions were also light gray. The paintwork of the doors, however, was inconsistent. For some companies, they were also light gray or, alternatively, unpainted or made of anodized aluminum to make them easier to recognize when entering the building . The same applied to the roof design. Another option was an additional second light gray stripe between the lower edge of the roof and the upper edge of the window.

The eye-catching, bright design in the spirit of the 1970s, thanks to its better visibility for other road users, was primarily intended to serve road safety and accident prevention . The reason for this was not least the motorized individual traffic, which continued to rise sharply in those years . In addition, a cross-company corporate design in public transport with a high recognition value would have been created. The new paint was also linked to the issue of anchoring a general right of way for trolleybuses and buses in road traffic law - analogous to trains and trams .

However, the bright paint was not able to prevail across the board, among other things, it was associated with the classic color of garbage disposal . In addition, the VST orange would have replaced the traditional corporate colors , which were often based on the respective city ​​colors .

prehistory

The first attempts with yellow and orange paintwork to improve the visibility of vehicles in public transport began in 1973 at the municipal transport company in Bern . For this purpose, four of the six Daimler-Benz / Vetter articulated buses of the type O 317 G delivered this year were delivered in different paintwork variants. All cars were given a black contrasting stripe under the windows, while the area above this stripe was white for one car per basic color. In the course of an overhaul in autumn 1973, the FBW / Ramseier & Jenzer GTr51 number 29 was also given the completely yellow paintwork with black contrasting stripes, supplemented by an overhead banner with the words "danger recognized - danger averted - yellow for your safety". This vehicle, which remained in service until 1984 or 1985, was also called Waschpi because of its eye-catching paintwork . As the last vehicle of this experiment with a yellow primer, the standard trolleybus number 30 was delivered in 1974 with a white upper half of the vehicle.

Be 4/8

A Be 4/8 from FART, this design served as a model for the VST standard paint scheme

As early as 1973, organized Solothurn Zollikofen-Bern-Bahn (SZB) and the United Bern-Worb-Bahn (VBW) in advance of the joint procurement twelve new railcars of type Be 4/8 , five of them for SZB (48-52 ) and seven for VBW (41–47), a color competition with a vote and a raffle among their passengers. There were six different designs to choose from, which were based heavily on the pop paintwork used by the Deutsche Bundesbahn at the time . Including two with the basic color orange, with the door areas in both variants also being light gray:

  • Suggestion A: wider, light-gray belly band, additional light-gray stripe between the roof and windows
  • Suggestion F: narrower light gray stripes at floor level

The new trains finally went into operation on the 1974 summer timetable with a combination of the two proposals mentioned. The narrow strip from suggestion F was able to prevail, but was ultimately arranged under the window edge instead of at floor level. It was complemented by the additional strip between the roof and the windows, which was based on proposal A. This design ultimately served the VST, also based in the federal city of Bern, as a model for its nationwide color recommendation. In addition to the twelve Be 4/8s of the first series already mentioned, all 16 trains of the second series produced in 1977 and 1978 were painted orange. These include seven more units for the SZB (53-59), two more units for the VBW (60-61), the five units for the Lugano-Ponte-Tresa-Bahn (FLP) and the two units for the Ferrovie autolinee regionali ticinesi (FART).

VST standard trolleybuses

A Geneva VST standard trolleybus delivered in 1975 in VST standard paintwork, but deviating from the standard with interrupted contrast stripes in the front area

The delivery of the 119 VST standard trolleybuses also began in 1974 , with the first tranche of 26 cars being allocated to the Bern trolleybus network in the same year . While the first 16 cars were still yellow and white (test painting of car 30) or green and white (cars 31–45), the paintwork recommended by the VST was already used for cars 46–55. This was followed by Basel (ten cars in 1975), Geneva (18 cars in 1975), Lausanne (18 cars in 1975 and 1976) and Neuchâtel (ten cars in 1976). And the second series for Bern, the six cars built in 1977, was again orange. In the end, 72 out of 119 cars had the VST orange from the factory, only the public transport company of the City of Zurich with their 31 vehicles kept their traditional paintwork in the city colors blue and white. In addition, the Bern trolleybus 30 was subsequently given the VST orange instead of its test painting from 1974.

Other vehicles delivered from the factory with the VST paint

In addition to the Be 4/8 multiple units and the VST standard trolleybuses, the following rail vehicles and trolleybuses received the VST paintwork ex works:

The Be 4/8s used in the Bern region and the individual Winterthur trolleybuses were sometimes jokingly called Mandarinli because of their paintwork . In addition, the color concept could be found in numerous bus companies. For example, in the car Mendrisiense SA , in the Auto AG Schwyz , in the Auto AG Uri , in the bus AG Gossau , in Autokurse Oberthurgau AG, at the automobile company Kirchberg AG , the bus operation Aarau , the bus operation Solothurn and the surrounding area , on Chemins de fer Fribourgeois Gruyère-Friborg- Morat - but procured only in 1981 Mercedes-Benz O 305 G with the number 111, at the Compagnie des Transports en commun, La Chaux-de-Fonds , in which Compagnie Genevoise des Tramways Électriques in the Rheintalische Verkehrsbetriebe (RhV), Stadtomnibus Olten AG , Städtische Verkehrsbetriebe Bern , Transports en commun de Neuchâtel et environs , Verkehrsbetriebe Herisau (VBH) and Zugerland Verkehrsbetriebe .

  • A train of the Wynental and Suhrental Railway in VST livery

  • A midibus from Aarau in VST paintwork, with differently wide stripes

  • FBW -Autobus 152 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1986

Subsequently provided with the VST coating

A few companies also painted their old vehicles in the VST colors:

  • the Trogenerbahn, the Wynental- and Suhrentalbahn (WSB) and the Lugano-Ponte-Tresa-Bahn painted all the old wagons in their portfolio in orange, analogous to the new trains mentioned above, in order to maintain a uniform appearance for the entire vehicle fleet. In the case of the latter company, this also included vehicles not used in passenger transport, these were the Ze 4/4 4 postal motor vehicle built in 1952 with its Z 8 trailer and a railway service vehicle .
  • the Schweizerische Südostbahn (SOB) painted its four type ABe 4/4 railcars with the numbers 11-14 orange when these vehicles built in 1939 and 1940 were extensively modernized in 1978-1982.
  • on the Aigle-Sépey-Diablerets-Bahn (ASD), the VST-Orange only affected the two old type BDe 4/4 multiple units with the numbers 1 and 3 from 1913, plus the three associated two-axle trailers 32-34. In the case of railcar number 3, the circumferential stripe in the front area was also designed as a so-called ornamental point , i.e. it was also bent in a V-shape.
  • on the Geneva tram , the five Duewag articulated cars with the numbers 795-799 orange, which were taken over in 1974 by the Aachen tram and were originally built in 1958 and 1959 for the Mönchengladbach tram , were primarily used. In addition, some Swiss standard trains from the early 1950s received the VST orange in Geneva . In 1974, this initially affected motor vehicles 704, 715 and 724 as well as trailer 308, followed by motor vehicle 734 and trailer 321. In addition, some older Geneva trolleybuses, buses and bus trailers were given the same paint job.
  • the Meiringen-Innertkirchen-Bahn painted their two used Fuchs railcars with the numbers 6 and 7, taken over in 1978 by the Upper Rhine Railway Company , orange
  • At the Chemins de fer du Jura (CJ), the only vehicle that was used on a trial basis was the EMU BDe 4/4 number 606 from 1953 orange.
  • the Régional du Val-de-Travers (RVT) only painted its EAV control car Bt 203 from 1964 on a trial basis in accordance with the VST specifications.
  • the Chemin de fer Pont-Brassus (Pbr) only painted their light metal car type "Seetal" with the road number Bi 476 orange.
  • The 1959 Saurer bus prototype number 359 for the Zurich City Transport Authority was the only Zurich vehicle to receive the VST paint in 1974.
  • the Neuchâtel trolleybuses 15, 22, 23, 25, 26 and 28 as well as the trolleybus trailer 183 taken over from Lucerne
  • the Bremgarten-Dietikon-Bahn (BDB) their old-building railcars BDe 4/4 10 and 11 as well as the explosive wagon X302 and the troughed trolley wagon X350

  • Old building trailer B 37 of the WSB

  • The ABe 4/4 number 12 of the SOB with a particularly wide stripe and integrated company logo

  • Railcar 1 of the ASD with associated trailer, both differing with two-part stripes

  • A Geneva standard train in VST livery

  • Railcar 606 of the CJ remained a loner with his company

  • Railcar 7 of the MIB with two narrow strips, 1980

  • The Bi 476 of the PBr, 1980 in Vallorbe

  • Subsequently repainted front-hood bus of the RhV in Altstätten , 1984

  • Trough trolley X350 of the BDB, 2009

Modifications and further developments

Many transport companies ultimately decided against the VST color concept, but were still more or less inspired by this. For example, the RVT, which originally had a dark red house paint and finally decided in the 1980s for a slightly lighter red in combination with the light gray contrasting stripes under the window band known from the VST concept. The CJ, CMN , FW , SGA and YSteC also took on the same color division .

Another variant was to extend the light gray portion to the entire window area, such as the BDe 8/8 of the Bremgarten-Dietikon-Bahn (BD), which were repainted from red to orange, the Wohlen-Meisterschwanden-Bahn and the Chemin de fer Orbe – Chavornay . The same applied to the Lausanne-Echallens-Bercher-Bahn (LEB), which repainted the originally dark green vehicles to match the orange concept, although the new vehicles delivered in 1985 were then green again. And also the Biel-Täuffelen-Ins-Bahn (BTI), the Solothurn-Niederbipp-Bahn (SNB) and the Oberaargau-Jura-Bahnen (OJB), which became a joint venture in April 1984, opted for light gray ribbon windows and combined them but also with the surrounding strip known from the VST concept.

The Chemins de fer fribourgeois Gruyère – Friborg – Morat (GFM), in turn, opted for an individual silver-orange paintwork for their rail vehicles. The Sihltal-Zürich-Uetliberg-Bahn used the colors orange and red for their vehicles, while the trains of the Uetlibergbahn had an orange base coat with red decorative stripes and doors, the vehicles of the Sihltalbahn were red with orange accents.

  • Different basic color at RVT

  • Variant of the FW

  • Variant of the SGA, taken in 1986

  • Variant of the YSteC

  • A BDe 8/8 of the BD

  • Old and new paint scheme of the OJB

  • An orange-silver GFM train, around 1980

  • Variant of the SZU for the Uetlibergbahn, 1982

After trying

Most of the vehicles painted orange were repainted after the VST test (especially trains and trolley buses), provided they were not already taken out of service (especially buses) due to their short lifespan. However, some companies stayed - at least for a certain time - with the orange paint scheme, but the color distribution and proportions varied over the years. For example, the Bern – Solothurn regional transport, which still uses vehicles with a similar paintwork today, or the Geneva transport company - which has since been renamed Transports publics genevois. The Lugano-Ponte-Tresa-Bahn has largely retained the VST color scheme of its vehicle fleet, but modified the details, so the fronts are now completely light gray.

  • Slightly modified version for the Lugano-Ponte-Tresa-Bahn

  • Heavily modified version for regional transport Bern – Solothurn

  • As early as 1977, TPG relied on light gray window areas for new vehicles, and from 1988 further design elements, as seen on the right-hand tram, were added

  • Modified design from Lausanne, this car originally also had the VST paintwork

  • In Olten, the VST paintwork remained practically unchanged, here a Mercedes-Benz O 405 with a Hess body in 2007

Similar painting concepts

Tram in Milan, 2009

The Eurofima , are at the Swiss Federal Railways Member and headquartered in Basel , has also led the mid-1970s, a unit an orange paint with light gray contrast stripes below the window edge. This Eurofima C1 paint scheme, which was first introduced in Italy in 1973, was to be found in a total of five countries up to 2008 and applied to certain passenger coaches used in international traffic .

In the second half of the 1970s, Italy also introduced a nationwide uniform orange paint scheme for all public city transport, albeit without light gray contrasting stripes. This design was called aranciata ministeriale for Ministerial Orange , according to the ministerial decree of April 18, 1977 that led to its dissemination. However, there had been a uniform paint scheme in city traffic since the interwar period, but it was light green and dark green. In 2001 the requirement was lifted again.

In 2004, the tariff association A-Welle launched another uniform paint scheme for all transport companies in the network area, whereby the vehicles, which are otherwise white, have a wavy paintwork in the lower part, which differed in color depending on the transport company. Even the postbuses, which are typically painted yellow, have now been integrated into the concept. Following the VST standard painting, this represented the first attempt in Switzerland for a comprehensive painting concept in public transport.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Neue Zürcher Zeitung of January 5, 2005: End of the line for orange trolleybuses - Swiss standard vehicles are retiring
  2. ↑ bvb.ch
  3. ↑ voev.ch
  4. ↑ a b trolleybus.ch
  5. ↑ Mercedes O 317 G at www.tram-bus-bern.ch
  6. ^ Roman Wegmüller: Die Berner joint trolleybuses No. 21–29 , 2016, p. 15
  7. ↑ Tschüss Mandarinli - Hello new S7 , article on rbs.ch from October 6, 2014 ( memento of the original from September 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rbs.ch
  8. ↑ espazium.ch
  9. ↑ The articulated trolleybus number 38 of the Bern Municipal Transport Authority on trolleybus.ch
  10. ↑ prellbock.ch
  11. ↑ Auto AG Uri - 100 year anniversary - August 26, 2006 (PDF) at www.svenibus.ch
  12. ↑ Autobus GFM on fribus.weebly.com, accessed on February 10, 2020
  13. ↑ rail-info.ch
  14. ↑ a b Les livrées (French) on www.snotpg.ch
  15. ↑ bus-bild.de
  16. ↑ wittigbahn.ch