Postbus (Austria)

A postbus is a public bus service that is operated as part of local mail delivery as a means of providing public transport in rural areas with lower levels of patronage where a normal bus service is uneconomic. Postbus services are run by the postal delivery company and combine the functions of public transport and mail delivery/collection. A standard passenger fare is payable to the driver/postie.

Horse-driven mail coach and public transport services were frequently combined prior to the advent of motorized transport. The travel writer Anthony Lambert describes the concept in Switzerland, "the Swiss postbus system ... evolved from the 19th century mail coach service..." and further that "the Swiss believe ... that the only sensible way to organise public transport services is to achieve the maximum integration between modes." The service became used widely in Europe by the 1960s, though in recent years there has been a progressive separation of services in some countries.

In Austria, the postbus system is known as . From 1907 onwards power-driven vehicles were operated by the Imperial-Royal Post- und Telegraphenverwaltung, gradually replacing the former stagecoach service. In the course of the privatisation of the Österreichische Post, the Österreichische Industrieholding sold the postbus branch to the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) group in 2003.

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 first postbus lines in Bohemia started in the days of Austria-Hungary, in 1908. The first lines were Pardubice – Bohdaneč (11 km, 64 minutes) and Pardubice – Holice, other lines came later. In 1914, bus transport in Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia consisted of 23 lines in all, at which operated 33 postbuses and 13 private buses. During the World War I, bus transport was interrupted, vehicles were requisitioned by the army and rebuild to trucks.

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