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Transport in Macedonia in 2019: page 1 - buses (by Dick Gilbert)
Last updated 28 August 2024
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In 1970 I drove up from Greece, through Yugoslavia close to the Albanian border, to the Adriatic in what is now Montenegro and all the way up the coast through Dubrovnik and Split to Italy (the full story about that trip which stetched from England to Iran and back is on my webpage here). Today that journey from Greece to Italy would traverse five separate countries, and on this page we look at just one of them - Macedonia, now called North Macedonia to differentiate it from the area of Greece with the same name.
North Macedonia is a landlocked country but has some fabulous lakes which serve as home to its coastal resorts. In September 2019 I stayed at Ohrid on the northern edge of Lake Ohrid. Here are some of the buses and coaches I saw on my travels and my thanks to Marin Pazanin from Croatia for help with some of the identification.
Let's start with a quick look at Macedonain registration plates. On the left is an older plate from Ohrid (OH) and on the right is the new OH version, created to comply with regulations in the European Union which Macedonia hopes to join. Other city codes I saw included SK Skopje, DB Debar, TE Tetovo and KI Kichevo. The red and yellow badge after the city code contains the Cyrillic equivalent of the four Latin letters.
Here's another city plate - SU for Struga, at the north end of Lake Ohrid. This Mercedes O405N2 bus belongs, I believe, to Hisar Struga and Travel Agency and was being used as a school bus.
And here's another plate - BT for Bitola, situated east of Lake Ohrid. This is a 2007 Mercedes O530 Citaro E4 (registered BT.9793AD) wearing fleet number 2703 by the front door, which relates to its previous life with Hamburger Hochbahn in Germany. It now works for local company Transkop (written TPAHCKON in Cyrillic) who operate regular services all over the country.
The last thing you expect to find by a lake in Macedonia is a Chinese double decker but here is a Yutong City Master open top sightseeing bus meant to look like a Routemaster. This one is in Ohrid (OH.2980AB) and there are more of them in Skopje.
We travelled around North Macedonia in this delightful 3-axle coach, seen here parked at a spectacular viewpoint overlooking Lake Ohrid. The manufacturer's plate in the cab said it was a Mercedes Benz Turk A Travego, which indicates that it was built at the Mercedes plant just outside Istanbul, Turkey and the model name is Travego.
Here it is again, parked in Albania, not far from the Macedonian border. The operator's name is Galeb (which means Seagull) written in English on the front and Cyrillic on the side. The word over the rear wheels is Ohrid where the company is based. However, in Kichevo, about 40 miles north of Ohrid I came across a whole flock of Seagulls - see below.
We stopped for coffee at a petrol station in Kichevo and a whole bunch of coaches from the Galeb fleet were parked out the back. Some looked as though they were used regularly and others seemed to be stored. This is fleet number 324, a 3-axle 13.7 metre Neoplan Euroliner N316 SHD L (registered OH.0321AB).
This is Galeb No.307 (registered OH.502BB and looking a little tired) which I thought was a Mercedes O303. But my knowledgeable correspondent Marin from Croatia said "nos. 307 and 308 (see below) are actually Sanos S315 buses, built by the Macedonian maker Sanos, which has been practically closed since 2005. They first built O303 buses and then continued with their own model. Almost identical to the original, one of the telltale signs of the Sanos is that their rear side windows are split, but they are in one piece on a Mercedes. You may have heard of these buses under the name Ensign Charisma - they were exported to the UK in the late 1980s."
Fleet no. 308 (OH.982.BR) is also a Sanos S315 (see details above). All the vehicles parked in Kichevo had fleet numbers, whereas strangely our Mercedes Travego didn't.
Galeb no. 327 (OH.2019AB) is a MAN Lions Coach RH413.
Fleet no. 330 (OH.4347AB) on the right is a MAN with a Noge Catalan 350 body made in Gerona, Spain.
Fleet no. 332 (OH.4420AB) is another MAN with a Noge Catalan 350 body from Spain.
Galeb no. 334 (OH.6071AB) is a MAN but I'm not sure about the body. Is it another Noge?
Fleet no. 328 (OH.3665AB) is an Iveco Daily 65C15 with a Mellor Maxima body made in Bolton, Greater Manchester.
Finally Galeb no. 329 (OH.4214AB) is another Iveco Daily 65C15 with a body by Mellor Coachcraft.
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