Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 370 i Australasian Bus & Coach

“We are keen to deliver improved services through our local knowledge.” ADELAIDE’s Light City Buses (LCB) is under negotiation between current operator Broadspectrum and Transit Systems’ subsidiary Torrens Transit, according to Transit Systems. Torrens Transit has signed a contract to acquire Light City Buses (LCB) and it will involve the transfer of more than 370 buses and 700 employees into the Torrens Transit network, it’s stated. The services to be transitioned were previously operated by Torrens Transit between 2005 and 2011, says Transit Systems. With a history spanning 18 years in Adelaide, Torrens Transit is the only Australian-owned operator in the State and will lean on its own local network knowledge to work with Government to investigate and implement service improvements, including the potential relinking of services across the areas…

“Touted as ‘Europe’s first e-mobility plant’, here Irizar will build electric buses and other commercial vehicles.” A NEW ELECTRIC commercial vehicle-manufacturing facility covering 18,000sqm and with a claimed initial capacity to make 1000 electric vehicles per year has opened in Aduna, Spain, recently according to Irizar. Touted as ‘Europe’s first e-mobility plant’, here Irizar will build electric buses and other commercial vehicles – including their main components and systems - for use in urban scenarios, with the plant currently churning out one electric bus every two days, it’s claimed. Production is set to double from September 2018 due to full order books, says Irizar. Focused on sustainability, it is ‘A-class rated’ in energy efficiency – currently the highest in Europe – using excess steam from another factory in the area…

“Already today we can connect new vehicles upon request.” BREAKING: VOLVO BUS AUSTRALIA will scrap subscription fees and offer to connect all new buses delivered in Australia from October, 2018, to Volvo’s telematics system – Connected Services – free of charge, it was announced. “It has taken us a few years to get to this point where we have realised the benefits of the tool are so great for both the operator and for ourselves that we should remove subscription fees and provide connectivity as standard on all of our new vehicles,” explained Lauren Downs, general manager Volvo Bus Australia. “Already today we can connect new vehicles upon request, and then from October all new buses – where permitted by the operator – will be connected prior to delivery with…

“…definitely is a positive for driver visibility and gives the bus a modern, open appearance.” IT TAKES A FEW MOMENTS to fathom what great exports Northern Ireland has produced, but once the penny drops it’s a quality list of who’s who. There’s F1 ace Eddie ‘Irv the Swerve’ Irvine; pro golfer Rory McIlroy – who once formed a sporting power couple with tennis star Caroline Wozniacki; and who could forget the legendary Manchester United footballing icon George Best – who famously quipped, “I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars – the rest I just squandered.” With reputations for doing things that stand out like that, it’s no doubt Northern Ireland’s Wrightbus has high expectations to meet. And it does so with oodles of class and…

THE STRENGTH of a journey-planning system is its ability to encourage and ‘psychologically welcome’ travellers in the first place, before they even think about using an app. Hence any data-integration systems used are paramount to making passengers feel ‘relaxed, safe, connected – and in control’. This helps prioritise catching a bus or train over personal car use. And this is why comprehensive systems – like the Mobitec/Consat MX4 computer system on Sydney’s Northern Beaches B-line bus system – is proving invaluable. Since being implemented in November 2017, the system on the strikingly-bright yellow MAN double-deck buses showcases arguably the world-leading passenger information technology to the domestic market. As Transport for NSW explains, the B-Line Program is an integrated package of service and infrastructure improvements designed to provide more reliable journeys…

Got a cool, crazy or candid picture of busie people doing busie things – or even if they are not busie things, but fun – that you’d like to share on our social page? Then feel free to pop them along to fabian.cotter@bauertrader.com.au…

“A lighter bus also equates to a greater passenger capacity.” AUSTRALIAN BUS MANUFACTURER VOLGREN has partnered up with key industry players to investigate how Rare Earth Element (REE) Scandium could help lighten electric bus bodies (or a bus body) – crucial for larger battery fitment, extended range and increased carrying capacity, the company announced. The consortium of engineers, manufacturers and researchers – which is in its early days – involves Volgren – Australia’s largest bus body builder; Deakin University, via a PhD Scholarship (Volgren’s third); Victoria-based Scandium miner Clean Teq; and Sydney-based Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC). The alliance aims to find out how Scandium, a rare earth mineral, can be used to help produce the next generation of lightweight electric buses. With many public transport pundits worldwide stating electric…

“The bus is equipped with sensors and an autonomous navigation controller.” IF NOT THE DEEPEST then it’s looking like certainly the most realistic underground autonomous experiment in Europe – if not the world – with the Paris RATP Group, CEA List and Iveco Bus holding the first ever European demonstration in “a fully autonomous garage”, recently. The collaboration conducted the ‘collective passenger transport’ demonstration in a fully autonomous bus depot in the level 3 basement of the Lagny bus centre in the 20th arrondissement in Paris. It was all part of the European Bus System of the Future 2 (EBSF 2) programme launched in 2015 and co-financed by the European Union. The closest to this test was arguably two years ago when Volvo touted the world’s first driverless truck to…

IT’S THE FLASHING LIGHTS that get you. It furrows the brow, flushes the face and gets the heart racing. Any assured complacency rapidly dissipates into abject fear and panic, masked by the need to appear cool, calm and collected in the face of the law, as your pull your car into the marked alcohol and drug testing areas. Once ushered past the bright-orange witches hats, Amanda (not her real name), a Melbourne mother of two, recalls the night she was stopped for a random breath test after a quick pub catch-up with girlfriends a few years ago. A breathalyser reading of 0.048 was much too close than she thought she’d be, but enough to allow her to get home without arrest. “That was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done,” she…

About 200 delegates and their guests participated in this year’s 2018 QBIC Conference held at the Sebel Pelican Waters Resort, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast May 5-7, engaging in major issues affecting the state’s bus and coach operators and manufacturers. “Attendance at our recent event was fantastic and the feedback received has been extremely positive,” said QBIC executive director David Tape. “I must thank all presenters for providing relevant and informative sessions and, to our event sponsors, thank you. Your support is greatly appreciated by our association. “To everyone who attended, thank you for taking time out to join us. It gives my team and me great pleasure to bring the bus and coach family together each year,” he added. Themed “Digitalisation the New Era”, a range of top speakers took…

THE OATENS’ PASSION FOR BUSES started in 1996, when Michael started driving buses at the Victorian Snowfields on a weekend basis. This lasted for about three years, at which time he was approached to help for a two-week stint in Melbourne for a local company. That arrangement lasted six years. In 2002 he bought a second-hand Denning Landseer, spending a fair chunk of money rebuilding it before establishing his own company called Executive Coach Travel. Michael Oaten added another used bus to the fleet soon after – this time from Transborder Express in Canberra - followed by another two for charter and day-tour work in Victoria. Starting his own company at the ripe age of 30, his passion for the bus industry has continued ever since. When the opportunity to…

FIRESTORM - in conjunction with Novo Transport Systems - has developed a door monitoring system to complement the existing OEM door systems and comply with TS-155. Kieran McHatton, general manager of Firestorm, and Scott Kyle of Novo Transport Systems have been developing the NTS-155 door system since January, ready for release in line with the TS-155 NSW legislation. “The door system was an extension of some existing projects we were currently developing,” McHatton said. “We developed the system as a ‘bolt-on’ solution that integrates with the existing OEM door systems. “With testing now complete, we are ready to start defining bus-specific configurations for our clients,” he explained ned.. As a system, the NTS S--155 155 provides data logging with a time, location and date stamp via integrated GPS. The Voice…

CONNECTED VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY to keep traffic flowing as part of the NSW Government Innovation Initiative trial announced recently to tackle congestion will hopefully include buses, according to Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight Melinda Pavey. At this stage, only select trucks will soon be able to ‘talk’ to traffic lights using connected technology to reduce the number of times they stop at traffic lights. Late-running buses are specifically targeted through this initiative, it’s stated. KEY POINTS: • Give participating freight vehicles priority at traffic lights using a new application of the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS); • Run over three months, the results will be evaluated to determine congestion effects; • Be across 40km of important freight routes in Pennant Hills, Parramatta and King Georges roads; • Include more…

BREAKING: MULTIPLE INDUSTRY SOURCES have confirmed that Automotive Holdings Group International’s (AHGI) strategic relationship as official Australian distributor for China’s Higer Bus Company is at an end. AHG is the largest automotive retail company in Australia. With an involvement with Higer Bus since 2011 – initially providing floorplan and working capital finance to previous distributor White Motor Corporation, as stated - AHG eventually assumed that role in 2015. Perhaps further signalling an end to the relationship, AHGI general manager Neil Bamford – who took on the role in 2013 to, “drive the business through its next growth phase”, according to the Higer Bus Australia website – recently announced via LinkedIn his role as MD at Adventurer AWD Buses. Speaking to ABC magazine only 24 hours earlier regarding the current status…

“Aristotle held the conviction that without active physical presence and participation in society ... we are nothing.” I have been working on the programs for the Coach Connections Summit, the Travel to Learn and School Bus Summit (June 27 Canberra) and the BIC Conference (October 7-10 Cairns). It got me thinking about the quality speakers we are attracting but, more importantly, why we even hold these events: to hear and see, to look in the eye, to hear the timbre of the voice, the tremble, the confidence and the doubt. Aristotle in ancient Greece espoused these characteristics as the reason it is important to be present and a participant in the process: to be present in order to fully understand, learn and obtain information and knowledge, and develop self-thought by…

Oaten has no plans to have a big company – he’s happy with the way things work. “There are more headaches, more drivers, more problems with being a bigger company,” he said. “We may increase a few buses or decrease a few buses; we have a second new coach on order at the moment and we’ve got some newer coaches we’ve bought second-hand so we’ll just keep developing our company.” The last second-hand coach he bought was only three years old, and still runs well at nearly seven years. “Its life expectancy is good, they’re Australian-built coaches so all my new ones are Coach Design, which will still be good in 20 years. Unlike some … after two to three years they rattle and have noises. “My Coach Designs still…

There were 103 brand-new buses delivered throughout Australia in May, marking the second-best figure to date in 2018 – only five short of March’s peak of 108. In terms of chassis manufacturers, Volvo maintains top spot, marking 37 deliveries, just short of its best effort of 41 the month prior. Scania remained in second, delivering 21, matching its previous month’s tally. Yutong was one of the strongest-selling manufacturers in May, making 16 sales, its best figure for the year. MAN also hit double figures in a strong month for the brand. Onto the body builders, Volgren keeps going from strength to strength, continuing its month-on-month growth to notch up 41 deliveries, 10 more than its previous best of 31 in April. Yutong, accompanying its chassis sales, also built 16 bodies,…