Keolis

With a history that goes back over a century, Keolis’ founding constituent parts were already key players in a number of diff erent public transport domains.

• In the automobile industry, the company STA was created in 1908 as a subsidiary of Renault; this later became SGTD;
• Lesexel was founded in 1911 with a view to developing power generation and supply, particularly with regard to tram systems;
• STRV was established in 1964 to service the regional bus market. It was a subsidiary of SNCF and was later renamed Cariane.

Over the course of the 20th century, various restructuring operations, mergers
and acquisitions took place, bringing out two key players, VIA GTI (whose ancestors were SGTD and Lesexel) and Cariane.

In 1999, the SNCF became leading shareholder in VIA GTI, which merged with Cariane to become VIA Cariane. In 2001 VIA Cariane was renamed Keolis.

The group was already established in some foreign countries through minority
shareholdings, and has spent the last ten years growing on this base and consolidating its French business.

2002
Acquisition of the majority shareholding (75%) of Groupe Orléans Express, leading operator of passenger coach transportation in Quebec. Gain of the British passenger rail franchise Southern in partnership with Go-Ahead

2003
Acquisition of a majority shareholding (70%) in Swedish bus operator Busslink

2005
Gain of the Southeastern rail franchise in the UK, with Go-Ahead

2006
Birth of an independent rail company in Germany through Keolis Deutschland,
which won the operating contract for Hellweg-Netz

2007
Whole owner of the Danish bus company City-Trafik

2008
Purchase of majority shareholding in the Belgian bus company Eurobus Holding,
and founding of Keolis Vlaanderen

2009
New activities in Melbourne in Australia, Washington, DC in the USA, Bergen in Norway and Bordeaux in France

2010
Equity tie-up with EFFIA. Renewal of urban contracts in Lyon and Lille, France

2011
Purchase of Tectrans in the USA. Keolis wins the Orléans urban network in France

2012
Whole owner of the Dutch subsidiary Syntus. Expansion into a thirteenth country, India. Keolis won a contract in Hyderabad, the country’s 6th most populated city

2013
The Keolis Group, via its American subsidiary Keolis Transit America, won a contract to operate part of the bus network in Las Vegas