Postbus

Today the ÖBB-Postbus GmbH is the country's largest bus company serving regional and interurban traffic with about 4000 employees and 2100 buses.

The corporation also comprises the ÖBB's former railway bus service (KÖB) as well as the Czech ČSAD Autobusy company in České Budějovice acquired in 2004.

The post transport had its main base place at Citadela, a former army depot in Vyšehrad, Prague, and in 1926 it had 216 buses in the whole Czechoslovakia.

The same year, another postbus route was started in southwestern Finland between Turku and Mynämäki and in 1922 a third service began between the northern city Oulu and Taivalkoski.

[4] The busiest year for the Finnish Postbus network was 1971, with 222 bus lines around the country run by more than 420 buses famous for their bright orange colour.

[5] In Germany, a postbus system for passenger and freight operation, run by the Reichspost authority and its post-war Bundespost successor, existed until May 1985.

After World War II, post bus service was resumed by the Bundespost authority in West Germany, running more than 4,000 vehicles in the mid-1950s.

Later years saw a significant decline in demand, with the increasing prosperity of society in the Wirtschaftswunder period and the growing use of the automobile for private transport.

By 1995, the newly established Bundespost successor, the privatized Deutsche Post stock company, had retired completely from bus service and the yellow vehicles disappeared from public roads.

However, there are foreign postbuses in Germany with international scheduled services (e.g. from Austria in the Berchtesgadener Land area and in Oberstdorf; from Switzerland in southern Baden-Württemberg).

Deutsche Post DHL Group sold its long-distance bus unit, Postbus, to the German market leader Flixbus on 3 August 2016.

[6] In July 1982,[7] the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, John Wilson, initiated a postbus service in County Clare, one of the most scenic areas of Ireland.

Soon after its introduction tourists discovered the postbus that took them through the breath-taking County Clare scenery to visit The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher.

Unlike the British postbuses these vehicles are built on full-size coaches chassis with a box body and a tail lift in the rear end to accommodate heavier goods and even pallets sent along with the mail.

The company operates 869 bus lines with 2,193 buses in Switzerland, transporting over 140 million passengers annually on its 11,869 km long network.

[citation needed] In April 2009 the Royal Mail ended its postbus services in much of the Scottish Highlands and Islands region.