History of Veolia

[WMAveteran]

The January 2011 edition of TRAINS contained an informative article on the history of Veolia Transportation which now operates the VRE.  "Veolia's earliest incarnation was as COMPAGNIE GENERALE des EAUX (in France), which took possession of a spring in 1855.  Then the company built water distribution systems in French cities.  Next, it expanded to waste disposal and water purification.  By the time public transportation was considered a municipal obligation, it owned horse car and trolley systems.  More than a century ago, it began operating buses and now commuter and light rail systems."  " . . . Veolia now claims to be the largest privately operated surface carrier of passengers in the world with its U.S headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill."  According to the article Veolia "Maintains more than 200 transit contracts throughout U.S. and Canada, as well as foreign contracts." 

Timeline:
1) 1853: "Emperor Napoleon III established COMPAGNIE GENERAL des EAUX, a water company in Paris"
2) 1998: "Renamed Vivendi"
3) 1999: "Renamed Vivendi Environment, 'Connex' handled rail operations"
4) 2003: "Renamed Veolia Environment"
5) 2005: "Renamed Veolia with four divisions: water, environmental services, energy, and transportation services called "Veolia Transportation" 

[WMATAGMOAGH]

The January 2011 edition of TRAINS contained an informative article on the history of Veolia Transportation which now operates the VRE.  "Veolia's earliest incarnation was as COMPAGNIE GENERALE des EAUX (in France), which took possession of a spring in 1855.  Then the company built water distribution systems in French cities.  Next, it expanded to waste disposal and water purification.  By the time public transportation was considered a municipal obligation, it owned horse car and trolley systems.  More than a century ago, it began operating buses and now commuter and light rail systems."  " . . . Veolia now claims to be the largest privately operated surface carrier of passengers in the world with its U.S headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill."  According to the article Veolia "Maintains more than 200 transit contracts throughout U.S. and Canada, as well as foreign contracts." 

Timeline:
1) 1853: "Emperor Napoleon III established COMPAGNIE GENERAL des EAUX, a water company in Paris"
2) 1998: "Renamed Vivendi"
3) 1999: "Renamed Vivendi Environment, 'Connex' handled rail operations"
4) 2003: "Renamed Veolia Environment"
5) 2005: "Renamed Veolia with four divisions: water, environmental services, energy, and transportation services called "Veolia Transportation" 

I'm sure it is a nice article, but VRE is now operated by Keolis, which is a subsidiary of SCNF (the French National Railway) and has no connection to Veolia.  Veolia does operate lots of transit systems (both bus and rail) in the US, here is the list from Wikipedia:

    * Antelope Valley Transit Authority in Los Angeles County, California,
    * Atlanta : In suburban Gwinnett County, Georgia, Gwinnett County Transit operates bus routes within as well as Express Bus routes to Atlanta.
    * Austin : Capital MetroRail and bus routes throughout Austin and surrounding communities. In March 2009, employees of Veolia Transportation were said to have tested trains on rail sections without prior approval and hence the Capital MetroRail was delayed.[11]
    * Boston : Veolia operates the MBTA's regional computer rail operations in conjunction with Bombardier Transportation and Alternate Concepts, Inc.[12] as the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad.
    * Charm City Circulator operates service throughout Downtown Baltimore.
    * Denver, CO : Regional Transportation District (RTD) routes throughout the metro-wide District.
    * Las Vegas: RTC Transit in Las Vegas including The Deuce & MAX,
    * Los Angeles : Metrolink, 2005-2010. A Connex/Veolia engineer texting on-duty was responsible for a head-on collision causing 26 deaths and 135 injuries, the deadliest incident in Metrolink history, leading the Metrolink board to return to the previous contractor, Amtrak.[13]
      Main article: 2008 Chatsworth train collision
    * Miami : Tri-Rail, a train system won in 2007 in the Miami metropolitan area of Florida,
    * New Orleans : New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, won in 2008
    * Phoenix : the Valley Metro bus system serving the Phoenix metropolitan area of Arizona with contracts in Phoenix, Mesa and Tempe,
    * Sacramento : In suburban Yolo County, California, Yolobus provides public transportation.
    * San Diego : San Diego Metropolitan Transit System bus routes and the SPRINTER DMU rail system in San Diego County, California,
    * Victor Valley transit serving the Victorville, California area.

[WMAveteran]

Oh yes, quite, thanks for the correction.  That's what I get for posting while watching the Australian Open in the early morning hours (lol).