In the first half of the 20th century, the region between Lake Zürich and the Zürcher Oberland was served by a number of rail lines. These included a standard gaugesteam railway, the Uerikon-Bauma-Bahn, and two metre gaugeelectric tramways, the Wetzikon-Meilen-Bahn and the Uster-Oetwil-Bahn. These three lines were operating with large financial losses, and it was decided to replace them with buses. The VZO was founded to operate these replacement service, and over the years more routes in the area were added.[2]
In 2008, the VZO started operating in Rapperswil-Jona, where it now operates five routes of the Stadtbus Rapperswil-Jona on behalf of the municipality of Rapperswil-Jona.[1][3]
In this area the company operates 55 daytime routes, and seven nighttime routes, with a total route length of 276 kilometres (171 mi). The routes are operated from depots in Grüningen, Wetzikon, Rüti and Meilen.[4]
The Zürichsee and Obersee lakeshore on the northeastern side are also provided by the Verkehrsbetriebe Zürichsee und Oberland, furthermore the local buses within the localities Busskirch, Jona, Kempraten and Rapperswil of the municipality of Rapperswil-Jona in the canton of St. Gallen.
Fleet
The company operates a fleet of 88 buses, of which 48 are articulated buses, 35 are full-sized non-articulated buses, 3 are midibuses and 3 are minibuses. All buses are low-floored and have particulate filters. The standard livery is blue and grey, but buses used on the Rapperswil-Jona city bus network carry a red and grey scheme. Some buses carry non-standard colours.[5]
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