By operator

Ventura has the most of articulated buses in Melbourne, with 25 in their fleet – some used on school runs in the outer eastern and south-eastern suburbs.

Photo by Thomas Hobley, via Wikimedia Commons

And others out of Frankston on routes along the Mornington Peninsula.

CDC Melbourne has six articulated buses scattered across their depots, mostly for school and charter work, along with one for the route 601 Monash University shuttle.

Sunbury Bus Service has three articulated buses – two for route service, the other for charter work.

Kinetic also has six articulated buses used on routes from Doncaster to the Melbourne CBD – two older buses in the silver ‘SmartBus’ livery.

And four newer ones in PTV livery.

And a ring in

SkyBus Melbourne was once a big operator of articulated buses on the Southern Cross Station – Melbourne Airport run.

But since the 2015 introduction of double deck buses, they’ve been bumped down to other services or moved interstate.

Footnote: articulated buses interstate

Sydney is a big user of articulated buses, despite their network working alongside a busy rail system.

Canberra is another big bus city, so ACTION has a number of articulated buses.

Adelaide runs both standard and articulated buses along their oddball O-Bahn Busway.

And Brisbane City Council is a massive bus operator competing against the Queensland Government owned Queensland Rail, deploying articulated buses to their network of parallel busways.

Photo by EamonM25, via Wikimedia Commons

Footnote: double deck buses in Melbourne

Articulated buses aren’t the only oddball vehicles on Melbourne’s bus routes – there is also an even smaller handful of double deck buses.

Sources

The ‘Australian Bus Fleet Lists’ website lists the details of virtually every bus and coach operating on Australia’s roads – here are the gory details for the buses I’ve listed above:

• Ventura Group
• CDC Melbourne
• Kinetic Melbourne
• Sunbury Bus Service
• SkyBus Melbourne

You can find the articulated on those pages by searching for the ‘AB’ (Articulated bus with standard seating) seating code.

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Farewell to Metcard

Ten years ago the old Metcard magnetic stripe ticketing system was on the way out, replaced by new Myki smartcards.

The old ticket machines being removed from stations.

But ticket gates at stations weren’t fast enough to handle the new tickets.

And the requirement to ‘touch off’ after a train journey created massive queues at railway stations in evening peak.

The government’s solution – a ‘Touch. Hold. Go’ re-education campaign.

‘Don’t swipe’.

‘Don’t wave’.

But the eventual solution was throwing more Myki readers at the problem, and replacing them with faster ones.

Rail scenes that are gone

I headed out to brand new station of South Morang, which a decade ago was the end of the line.

An empty trackbed leading north towards the current terminus of Mernda.

At Greensborough the old manual safeworking system was still in use – station staff handing over a metal baton to the driver, indicating that it was safe to proceed into the single track section.

At Heidelberg there was still a single track towards Rosanna.

Bell station was still at ground level.

The last few Hitachi trains were still in service.

The heritage listed timber gates at Ballarat station were yet to be destroyed by a runway train.

And something a little different – a passenger train stopped at Lal Lal station, midway between Geelong and Ballarat.

It was there to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the railway being completed.

Regional Rail Link

At Footscray demolition of shops along the Nicholson Street bridge was completed.

With work underway on the signals below.

Ding ding on the trams

The tram tracks along Elizabeth Street were being relayed, requiring an array of excavators to break up the old concrete.

While the newly established Public Transport Victoria was doing what Victoria does best – removing the branding that came before them.

And something else familiar was the “When the Tram Stops, You Stop” campaign found on the back of trams – a half-arsed attempt at addressing the spate of motorists driving past stopped trams and hitting passengers.

But a decade later such campaigns have made no difference – tram passengers ending up in hospital after being hit by hit-run drivers – the only solution is physical separation.

Forgotten bus liveries

A decade ago the Public Transport Victoria livery was yet to be rolled out bus fleets, with Davis Bus Lines in Ballarat still having their brown livery.

Benders Busways in Geelong still had buses in green.

And McHarry’s was still using the “Geelong Transit System” livery, rolled out way back in 1983 as the first attempt to unify public transport in Geelong.

And some other bits

Another update from the Myer Lonsdale Street site – demolition was done, and tower cranes were being lifted into place.

And a fad from a decade ago – ‘My Family’ stickers.

By 2014 the backlash was well underway, and now they’re just a memory.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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I posed that very question on a bus spotting discussion group years ago.

How do people pronounce route numbers – for example 215 as “two one five”, “two fifteen” or “two hundred and fifteen”?

And came to the following conclusions…

They’re normally spelt out as digits, like “two three seven”.

“Four one one“.

“Six oh five”.

Or “seven three three”.

But for round numbers, it’s “two hundred”.

“Two fifty”.

Or “Four twenty”.

Out in the sticks

Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo bus route numbers are all low numbers, like “one”.

And “twenty five”.

And on trams

The same logic applies for one and two digit tram route numbers, like “eight”.

And “forty eight”.

The exception being the three digit route “one oh nine”.

Further reading

There is a logic to the way route numbers are assigned to Melbourne buses and trams.

• Hidden meaning in route numbers by Daniel Bowen,
• Seven part series on the history of bus routes by the Bus and Coach Society of Victoria, and
• History of tram route numbers by the Melbourne Tram Museum.

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Something new

Work started at the eastern section of Southbank Boulevard and was completed in three stages.

• Stage 1 A – Early works: Early July to 21 September 2018
• Stage 1 B – Tram occupation works: 22-30 September 2018
• Stage 1 C – Civil and footpath works: 1 October 2018 to August 2019

Rebuilding the route 1 tram tracks on a new alignment.

With bike lanes along either side.

Four bus routes also travel along Southbank Boulevard:

• 216 Sunshine Station – Brighton Beach
• 219 Sunshine South – Gardenvale
• 220 Sunshine – City – Gardenvale
• 605 Gardenvale – Flagstaff Station

So something new was provided – a ‘platform stop’ for bus passengers.

The bike lane passing right beside the bus stop on a raised hump.

With cyclists on the bike lane having to give way to bus passengers.

This design having replaced the original plans where the bike lane disappeared through each bus stop.

But will it work?

Trams have been stopping in the middle of the Melbourne roads for years.

Despite the fact the motorists keep driving past tram stops, leaving a trail of injured passengers.

And Melbourne also has a precedent for cyclists travelling along a bike lane sharing space with passengers boarding public transport vehicles – the tram stops on Swanston Street.

Back in 2011 nobody had any idea how to use them.

But in the years since you could almost consider them a success.

And there is one problem yet to be solved – there doesn’t appear to be legislation backing the ‘cyclists stop behind buses’ sign at the bus stop.

Road rule 163 describes “driving past the rear of a stopped tram at a tram stop” – but makes no mention of passing stopped buses to the left.

And so far the new ‘platform’ bus stop has yet to see a bus stop at it – CDC Melbourne route 605 has been diverting around the area since July 2018 until work is completed on Southbank Boulevard, and Transdev bus routes 216, 219 and 220 no longer pass through the area, having been split into two sections in September 2018, and then completely reformed in November 2019.

But with the completion of the Southbank Boulevard works not coming until 2021, it will be some time until we find out whether cyclists will ever be asked to share the road with bus passengers.

March 2020 update

Looks like I didn’t need to wait that long – route 605 is returning to Southbank Boulevard from Sunday 29 March.

From Sunday 29 March, Route 605 bus services will return running along Birdwood Avenue.

It'll also be renamed Route 605 #Gardenvale to City (Queen Street) to better reflect the starting point and destination.

For more info and to view the new timetable: https://t.co/1GlRQ1M1nH pic.twitter.com/9NpDmyiRFG

— PTV (@ptv_official) March 9, 2020

Footnote

City of Melbourne diagram of the area.

And the bus stop itself.

Further reading

• City of Melbourne: Transforming Southbank Boulevard project page
• ‘Shared Cycle Track Stop’ at the National Association of City Transportation Officials

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CDC Melbourne photo

Some background

Here is the media release from the Minister for Public Transport

First New Hybrid Bus Ready To Hit Melbourne Roads

5 April 2019

The first of 50 new Hybrid technology buses for Melbourne’s bus network will take its first passengers next week, thanks to the Andrews Labor Government.

The new Victorian-built buses will be progressively rolled out across the next three years and will operate across bus routes in Wyndham, Oakleigh and Sunshine.

The buses will reduce fuel consumption and the impact on the environment, while improving passenger experience by delivering a quieter and smoother ride.

The Labor Government’s order for 50 new Hybrid buses into the CDC Victoria bus fleet is the single biggest order of hybrid buses in Australia.

The body construction and fit out for the new buses is being carried out in Dandenong by Volgren, supporting Victorian jobs and backing the local automotive industry to develop new capability and innovation.

All 50 buses will feature low floor layouts and are Euro 6 emission standard, the highest and cleanest level for commercial vehicles worldwide.

Hybrid technology uses the electric battery when idling and travelling under 20 km/h. The bus noise is significantly reduced when idling at stops and departing from stops, while trials in Victoria found Hybrid buses used 30 per cent less fuel.

30 Hybrid buses will be phased in over the next 12 months, with all 50 buses to be in service on CDC routes in Wyndham, Oakleigh and Sunshine by 2022.

With the hybrid buses now appearing across CDC Melbourne routes.

Not the first hybrid

Hybrid buses were first trialled in Melbourne a decade ago.

Melbourne to host Australia’s first hybrid bus trial

June 28, 2009

Hybrid buses are set to hit Melbourne’s roads in an Australia-first trial aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions by a fifth compared with conventional buses.

Two hybrid-electric buses will go into service on two suburban routes in the $500,000 joint Victorian and federal government trial.

The trial will assess the viability of hybrid buses in reducing the carbon emissions of public transport.

If successful, the cleaner buses could be rolled out across the network.

“We believe the hybrid-electric bus trial will show how improvements in transport technology can deliver air quality improvements and reduce our carbon emissions,” Victorian Climate Change Minister Gavin Jennings said.

“It is estimated this hybrid-electric technology will provide a saving of around 20 per cent on fuel and greenhouse gas emissions compared to a conventional diesel bus.”

Grenda Corporation will trial a hybrid bus on its 900 route from Stud Park to Caulfield, in Melbourne’s southeast.

A second bus will be put in service on Ventura Buses’ 250 route from bayside Garden City to La Trobe University in the northern suburbs.

Two different technology platforms were used in the 2009 trial, with the Grenda bus still in service today, but the Ventura bus was put into storage following mechanical difficulties.

So why weren’t more hybrid buses ordered following the trial a decade ago?

Not even the first ‘real’ order

Latrobe Valley Bus Lines launched their Australia first fleet of hybrid buses back in August 2018.

Volgren, Volvo and Latrobe Valley Bus Lines unite in hybrid low-floor Aussie first

16 August 2018

The first of eight new Volgren-bodied Volvo hybrid chassis buses for Latrobe Valley Bus Lines (LVBL) – and the first full service hybrid in Australia – is being launched in Moe, Victoria, offering “up to a 40 per cent fuel saving” and cleaner Euro 6 emissions standards.

Dandenong-based bus body-building company Volgren is building the new Volvo Euro 6 buses on a hybrid chassis imported from Volvo in Sweden.

Volgren – now the first Australian manufacturer in the country to successfully deliver a bus body on the new Euro 6 Volvo B5LH hybrid – says it worked closely with the Volvo development team in Sweden, sharing concepts and refining the design of both the body and chassis, ensuring each stage was validated and complied with Australian Design Rules.

The completed prototype breaks new ground in bus body design and manufacturing assembly processes, says Michael Kearney, Volgren’s Product Engineering manager.

“The design and construction of the Euro 6 hybrid bus is quite different [to a traditional bus], with high voltage battery packs, radiator, air compressor and associated equipment all mounted in the roof,” Kearney explained.

With the majority of this hybrid’s components in the roof, those responsible for engineering, manufacturing and production had to rethink the assembly line. In fact, Kearney says, innovative changes were developed to accommodate the new build process to enable the Euro 6 hybrid to fit within the factory processes normally dedicated to the assembly of diesel buses.

So beaten to the punch there.

More diesel buses

At the same time as the State Government was boasting of 50 new hybrid buses, they announced an order of 100 brand new exhaust belching diesel buses!

From their media release:

Renewing Melbourne’s Biggest Bus Fleet

15 December 2018

The Andrews Labor Government will buy 100 new buses to support Melbourne’s public transport network, giving passengers across the city better buses to get wherever they need to go.

Minister for Public Transport Melissa Horne today announced the Labor Government will invest $16 million over the next two years to replace and modernise the ageing state-owned bus fleet used on routes operated by Transdev Melbourne.

The new bus order will improve reliability and comfort for passengers, with Transdev exploring passenger-focused improvements including onboard Wi-Fi, mobile phone charging and improved passenger displays.

Many of the buses operated by Transdev are older than the industry average and are susceptible to reliability issues, particularly during hot weather.

The new buses will be built in line with the Government’s Local Jobs First policy, meaning they will be made with 60 per cent local content and create more than 20 new jobs for locals in Dandenong, Truganina and other potential locations.

I wrote about Transdev’s fleet maintenance issues last year, so the new buses are much needed.

Due to the size of the order, it was split between two bus builders.

Ballarat automotive manufacturer OzPress Industries has partnered with South East Asia’s largest bus body builder Gemilang, to deliver 50 new buses for Victorian passengers.

The remaining 50 buses are being built at Volgren’s Dandenong factory, providing further Victorian employment opportunities connected to the upgrade of Melbourne’s bus fleet.

So why are the new buses for Transdev not hybrids? Apparently cost is the reason – the government is desperate for new buses, and isn’t willing to prise open their chequebook to help the environment.

And behind the times in technology

Electric buses are now the future of public transport, with the Chinese city of Shenzhen hitting the worldwide news in 2018 when they moved to a 100% electric bus fleet.

Photo by 写意人生, via Wikimedia Commons

From The Guardian:

Shenzhen’s silent revolution: world’s first fully electric bus fleet quietens Chinese megacity

12 December 2018

Shenzhen now has 16,000 electric buses in total and is noticeably quieter for it.

The benefits from the switch from diesel buses to electric are not confined to less noise pollution: this fast-growing megacity of 12 million is also expected to achieve an estimated reduction in CO2 emissions of 48% and cuts in pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, non-methane hydrocarbons and particulate matter. Shenzhen Bus Group estimates it has been able to conserve 160,000 tonnes of coal per year and reduce annual CO2 emissions by 440,000 tonnes. Its fuel bill has halved.

The main roadblock – cost:

China’s drive to reduce the choking smog that envelops many of its major cities has propelled a huge investment in electric transport. Although it remains expensive for cities to introduce electric buses – one bus costs around 1.8 million yuan (£208,000) – Shenzhen was able to go all-electric thanks to generous subsidies from both central and local government.

Availability of changing stations:

To keep Shenzhen’s electric vehicle fleet running, the city has built around 40,000 charging piles. Shenzhen Bus Company has 180 depots with their own charging facilities installed. One of its major depots in Futian can accommodate around 20 buses at the same time. “Most of the buses we charge overnight for two hours and then they can run their entire service, as the range of the bus is 200km per charge,” says Ma.

And geography.

Shenzhen is fairly flat, but the hills of nearby Hong Kong have proven too much in trials of electric buses. Other cities in northern China have struggled with battery power in the extreme cold of winter.

But availability of ‘clean’ electricity doesn’t need to be – Victoria built a $198 million solar farm at Numurkah to power our tram fleet, so we could do the same to power electric buses.

So why does it matter?

Once an operator buys a new bus, they’ve committed to using it around Melbourne for the next 20+ years.

Back in the late-1990s some bus operators delayed the introduction of ‘new fangled’ low floor buses to their fleets. Twenty years on, we’re still feeling the impact of this decision, as passengers in wheelchairs get left behind whenever an inaccessible high floor bus shows up.

Our tardiness introducing clean buses will have the same impact on Melbourne of the 2040s – today’s ‘new’ diesel buses will be even more polluting as they age.

Footnote

Australian bus body manufacturer Volgren has their fingers in many pies – they’re building the 50 hybrid buses for CDC Melbourne, 50 diesel buses for Transdev, and now their first electric bus.

Australian bus builder Volgren to produce its first all-electric vehicle

May 14, 2019

Australian bus body manufacturer Volgren has commenced production of its first ever electric bus, as part of what the company hopes is a larger transition to zero-emissions transport.

The milestone is the culmination of a five-year development period for Volgren, which has sought to be pro-active in shifting to all electric buses, while wanting to ensure passengers enjoy a reliable service.

Volgren says it is Australia’s largest producer of bus bodies and has previously partnered with major chassis manufacturers including MAN, Volvo and Scania.

“We’ve known for some time that the bus industry was about to go through its biggest transformation in three or four decades. And we wanted to approach this shift with the best information at our disposal.” Volgren business development manager Jon Tozer said in a statement.

“We wanted to understand the products, the technologies and the solutions available in the market before beginning our work in earnest,”

Volgren will complete its first prototype electric bus in June, with an operating range of 250km. The prototype will be produced at Volgren’s Australian headquarters in Dandenong in Victoria.

The bus will be equipped with 324kWh of battery storage, that can be charged in four to five hours between routes upon returning to its depot.

Due to the falling cost of battery technologies, Volgren believes the bus market is on the cusp of being cost competitive with existing diesel fuelled options.

While all electric buses still have higher up-front purchase costs, significantly lower operating costs, including reduced fuel costs, mean that electric buses will soon be cheaper over the full life of the vehicle, if not already.

“When you take into account the significant operation saving in maintenance and energy costs per kilometre, as well as the significant fall in the cost and increase in energy density of batteries over the last few years, we’re nearing the point where total cost of ownership will soon be the same as it is for a diesel, if it isn’t already.” Tozer said.

I wonder who will be the first Victorian bus operator to take up the opportunity?

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