If you’re talking about the world’s rarest vehicles, your mind might wander to things like the Ferrari 250 GTO, of which less than 40 were ever made, or the Lamborghini Veneno, with only five of these ultra-rare models ever built. Both of these are put to shame by a wacky Citroën bus, however, as just three were made and only one is now left in existence.
The U55 Cityrama was built in the 1950s with the sole purpose of ferrying tourists around the French city of Paris. Citroën built just three examples of the double-decker bus, which features a distinctive glass design that looked straight out of a retro sci-fi comic.
The buses operated tours around the streets of Paris until the 1980s, according to Hagarty, before they were retired from service and lost to obscurity:
With a design inspired by the iconic Bateaux Mouches that toured the River Seine, the 50-seat, glass panelled Cityrama buses, built by Paris’s oldest coachbuilder, Carrosserie Currus, offered unmatched views of Paris in eight languages – but a string of breakdowns (and a fire which burned a U55 to the ground) meant that they had to go.
Cityrama, a new and upstart tour operator, riding high on the publicity the buses created, plumped for a new fleet of Saviem coaches for the 1960/61 season, running the U55s alongside the new buses until the 1980s.
In one last hurrah for the U55, however, an example appeared in Louis Malle’s 1960 film, Zazie dans le Métro, before they were sold on or broken up. Records vary as to how many Currus built; as few as three and as many as ten may have existed.
The last remaining Cityrama is now at a workshop in France, where heritage association, Fondatione de Patrimoine, has spent the last two years working to revive one of the rarest and weirdest buses to have ever existed. Now, YouTube channel The Tim Traveller is giving all of us an inside look at how the restoration is going.
Fondatione de Patrimoine is currently two years into a five-year rebuild of the last remaining Cityrama bus, after securing funding for the work via crowdfunding back in 2022. This means that the bus is far from finished, in fact, it’s in more than 100 different pieces while the engine is worked on, the chassis is repaired and its hulking glass bodywork is brought back to life.
The process of doing this has seen the team machine bespoke parts for its aging Citroën engine, while components for the chassis have been sourced from the countless Citroën 55 trucks that litter rural France.
When it comes to the distinctive frame of the bus, the team started by dismantling everything and documenting all the parts they had and which parts they needed to complete the rebuild. Then, they sanded down all of the 70-year-old metalwork to treat any issues or cut away any components that were beyond saving.
The next step will be to remove the top deck of the bus so that it is easier to work on, it will also allow the team to address any structural issues lower down in the bus - as these are harder to fix with so much weight pushing downward.
Now, the first stage of the project is now nearing its end. Next, the crew will work on finishing the frame and glasswork, before refurbishing the interior and getting the radio system back up and running. The project aims to bring the Cityrama bus back to being “better than new,” which will include adding rust protection and a few other upgrades.
It’s a really fun rebuild project to watch unfold, and will definitely be one to keep an eye on over the coming years as it edges ever closer to completion. You can monitor the progress of the rebuild over on the Fondatione de Patrimoine Facebook page.
If this whet your appetite for ambitious builds, then the restoration of this six-figure Rolls-Royce is a fun way to get your fix. Or you can head here to see how a motorized penny farthing was built out of tractor parts.