ABC is the leading bus and coach publication in Australia, providing operators with vital information and market intelligence to help them keep their BUSiness moving. ABC is the major source of vehicle and equipment classifieds for the industry.
YOU could have cut the tension in the office with a knife. And I don’t mean some regular old two-dollar-shop chopping block one, but a proper indestructible ‘cut though anything’ blade you used to see on looping late-night TV ads at, like, 3.00am or something. The Samurai-esk Ginsu 5000, or whatever. One of those. ‘Do we zoom in? Do we zoom out? In? Or out? Halfway? Right up close? Up the nostrils? Or let’s just leave it blank…’ I could feel the zeal and passion of the ABC magazine troops all the way from the interstate office I was in, so ‘debilitatingly’ perplexing was this issue’s covershot. I didn’t think it would be when I first randomly spied it online while searching for something completely un-bus-related, from memory. Most probably…
IN ADDITION TO taking a look at Volgren’s latest manufacturing process, Victorian Minister for Trade and Investment, Innovation & the Digital Economy and Small Business, Philip Dalidakis MP, joined CEO Peter Dale in inspecting a completed low-floor city bus before the vehicle is exported to Japan, it’s reported recently. The bus is one of 30 units that are soon to be shipped to Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which operates around 1,450 buses in the Greater Tokyo region. The Optimus low-floor city buses built on a Scania NUB E6 chassis will be the first of their kind in Japan, Volgren states. Built in Dandenong, the buses are 100 per cent compliant to stringent Japanese vehicle specifications including the country’s complex on-board passenger information systems, ticketing equipment and emergency exit requirements. The visit…
FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER the last major bus industry census, Bus Australia Network (BAN) has launched the latest attempt to garner a current snapshot of the scene, and all Australian bus and coach operators are actively encouraged to participate, reports the Bus Industry Confederation (BIC), recently. This industry “census” is not unlike the Australian Population and Housing Census undertaken by every Australian household once every five years, it’s stated. A comprehensive bus and coach industry census is well overdue, according to BAN. The last attempt of a national survey of this kind was undertaken in 2003 by the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies at The University of Sydney. This 2018 Census intends to be a more comprehensive study of where we are at as a whole in Industry and our…
“... this is a timely and viable alternative.” WITH A RANGE OF up to 1,000km, Scania says its new Interlink Medium Decker coach for liquefied gas (LNG) operations helps extend the broad range of alternative fuel options to sustainable intercity coach journeys, it’s reported, recently. “Whereas there are several options for carbon-conscious city and suburban bus operators, there have been fewer alternatives in [the] long-distance travel market that we are now addressing,” said Karin Rådström, head of Buses and Coaches at Scania. “As LNG is becoming increasingly available throughout Europe, as well as in many other parts of the world, this is a timely and viable alternative.” LNG operations have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by 20 per cent while also substantially reducing nitrogen oxide and particulate matter emissions,…
IMPROVED BUS FREQUENCY between Bondi Beach and Circular Quay in Sydney will see rapid 333 ‘bendy buses’ at stops every three minutes to ease congestion, the NSW State Government announced. Touted as one of Australia’s most frequent bus services between two of the country’s most famous landmarks, the ‘bridge to the beach’ articulated bus service – starting late September, 2018 – will run as often as every three minutes during peak weekday periods and then every six minutes during the day and every 10 minutes at night, seven days a week outside weekday peaks, State Transit states. The overnight 333N (Nightride) bus will operate all-stops between the City and North Bondi, making it easier to get home, it’s claimed. NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance said, “This turn-up and go bus…
JUST WHEN ELECTROMOBILTY was stealing all the passenger car, bus and general public transport limelight, hydrogen could be pinching a lot of it back in the clean-fuel game given the CSIRO’s – Australia’s national science agency – successful refuelling of two fuel cell vehicles, with massive potential for a new hydrogen production and export industry. As reported by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), its chief executive, Larry Marshall, was one of the first to ride in vehicles (a Toyota Mirai and Hyundai Nexo) powered by ultra-high purity hydrogen, produced in Queensland, using CSIRO’s membrane technology. This technology will pave the way for bulk hydrogen to be transported in the form of ammonia, using existing infrastructure, and then reconverted back to hydrogen at the point of use, it’s…
