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Mate, Canberra goes off! Don’t let anyone tell you any differently. I mean, I’m not talking about some dodgy retro-feel treasure hunt to Fyshwick for mothballed fireworks and what not, but from a proper public transport and naïve tourist experience, it is on! Like Donkey Kong. Bear with me… So, recently I attended the inaugural BIC 2018 Travel to Learn and School Bus Summit and second National Coach Connections Summit in Canberra. I must admit it’s been a while since I’ve been to downtown ‘Berra’, but I embraced that and found myself instinctively going into ‘deer in the headlights’ tourist mode. That is, travelling around city or place X with no idea what’s going on (okay, maybe a little bit), but just see how one would get from A to…
EXCLUSIVE: CUSTOM BUS GROUP – the official new business name of the iconic Australian brand Custom (Coaches) – is “in a position to put in a viable proposal to Brisbane Council” given the recently announced global tender to produce ‘Brisbane Metro vehicles’, new owner Scott Dunn confirms. First announced in 2016, Brisbane Metro is a $944 million project using high-capacity, high-frequency articulated ‘vehicles’ (buses) incorporating new stations and platforms akin to a light rail or rail system. Speaking exclusively to ABC magazine from its brand-new location in St Mary’s, in Sydney’s West – which no more than five weeks ago was a vacant timber yard but is now a modern and bright manufacturing facility with streamlined bus-production processes in action – Dunn says the Brisbane Metro tender matches well with…
LESS THAN SIX MONTHS away from the next Victorian election, the state government is now offering metro bus operators a new seven-year contract with “no end-of-term access to staff, depots, fleet and IP (intellectual property)”, according to BusVic. A statement issued exclusively to ABC magazine by the powerful state bus association effectively officially confirms industry rumours of a change in government policy and a ‘massive win’ for most Melbourne metro-based bus operators, if not operators in the entire state. The statement reads: “The State Government has developed a fourth bus service contract option to address bus operators’ concerns.” “Most operators have chosen that fourth contract option, which is a non-exclusive, seven-year, fixed-term contract with no end-of-term access to staff, depots, fleet and IP. “Industry is very pleased the Government has…
AUSTRALIAN BUS-BODY BUILDER Coach Design is to celebrate its 1000th bus-body milestone next month on 20 July at an official function in Acacia Ridge, Queensland, the company reports. Coach Design founder Chryss Jamieson was an apprentice coach builder in 1970 after leaving school at the age of 16. After serving six years learning the trade with Brisbane City Council, he moved on to a position with a prominent Brisbane coach builder specialising in luxury five-star coaches. After gaining a huge amount of experience in luxury coach building, in 1986 the “timing was in place to follow his dreams of creating his own coach building business,” it’s stated, with his business partner, Desiree Jamieson. According to the company, it survived initially doing bus and coach repairs, spray painting and turning old…
GERMANY’S LARGEST bus operator and transport authority, Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), has ordered 15 fully electric-powered Mercedes-Benz Citaros to ‘enter the electric era’, just months before the product has made its official international debut, the company reports recently. The coup follows an earlier-reported record-breaking order recently for up to 950 city buses from Berlin, meaning its comprehensive bus fleet will offer its city commuters a locally made emissions-free Citaro, as well as the combustion engine-powered, low-emission variant of this “world bestseller”, it’s stated. This is already the third order of electric Citaros before the world premiere at the forthcoming 2018 International Commercial Vehicle Show (IAA). Till Oberwörder, head of Daimler Buses, said: “We are very pleased that the largest German bus operator is also opting for Mercedes-Benz where fully electrically powered…
A UNIQUE AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE research and development opportunity has arisen via a local and international business partnership that puts South Australian manufacturing in the spotlight, it’s reported. Australian mass transit specialist Transit Australia Group (TAG) and international electric driverless technology company EasyMile will join forces to endeavour autonomous EV technology and applications here in Australia, with South Australia’s Precision Buses a key player in the mix. TAG is one of Australia’s largest privately owned mass transit companies, with a unique end-to-end offering that includes bus design and manufacturing, urban network design, planning and operation, and workforce development and training, it’s stated. Its advanced bus manufacturing arm is Queensland’s Bustech - Australia’s only bus OEM (original equipment manufacturer) with chassis designed, engineered and made in-house. EasyMile currently operates in Asia-Pacific, Middle-East,…
