STA Privatisation / Franchising

[Daniel]

I have noticed with Punchbowl for the routes they can't changeover near their depot they use one of several depot utes.

Or the company Barina... or the owner’s Lexus!

[Swift]

The 3 cylinder Mitsubishi Mirage would be a good choice. Plenty of low k used examples out there and hybrid like economy.
The consensus is they are proven reliable. Some have reported a rear axle alignment issue though. Owners love them, but motoring reviewers don't. TSA would love their fuel consumption.

[robert]

Region 6 route histories under private operation now uploaded to http://www.sydneybusroutes.com/

[Frosty]

The 3 cylinder Mitsubishi Mirage would be a good choice. Plenty of low k used examples out there and hybrid like economy.
The consensus is they are proven reliable. Some have reported a rear axle alignment issue though. Owners love them, but motoring reviewers don't. TSA would love their fuel consumption.

But every fleet/ corporate operator favourite car company is Toyota either with the Yaris, Corolla, RAV4 or HiLux. My suggestion would be a diesel HiLux.

[boronia]

Would you buy any diesel for work that will barely see the engine get warmed up? Does wonders for the PF.

[Swift]

The 3 cylinder Mitsubishi Mirage would be a good choice. Plenty of low k used examples out there and hybrid like economy.
The consensus is they are proven reliable. Some have reported a rear axle alignment issue though. Owners love them, but motoring reviewers don't. TSA would love their fuel consumption.

But every fleet/ corporate operator favourite car company is Toyota either with the Yaris, Corolla, RAV4 or HiLux. My suggestion would be a diesel HiLux.

If buses can get by with five cylinders, why not choose three for their cars? The smaller engine will warm up faster as per Boronia's point. Owners are achieving over 40 miles per gallon with the CVT in urban driving.

[Leyland B21]

Interline,Punchbowl the former Grenda operation in Melbourne I can think of.

Grenda Corporation? Been Ventura for last 7 years but yes they use Yaris Vehicles for driver swaps and yes nearly all depots are not far from major hubs. Dandenong and Seaford and Moorabbin depots being great examples

Edited: Oops you said former. I misread.


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[MAN 16.242]

than to go to the expense of buying a car, the hassle and cost of servicing it separately to the buses and setting aside space in the depot for them, unless you are prepared to park them on the street, should parking be readily available that way. You can buy an awful lot of diesel fuel for the price of a vehicle just to ferry drivers around.

You're forgetting that every bus that's wasted being used to ferry one staff member at a time around is a bus that's not available for providing services to the public, therefore increasing the number of vehicles that are needed in the fleet overall.

If a depot needs 40 buses to provide peak services, plus 2 to be available for driver changeovers, you need 42 buses instead of 40.

It makes absolutely no sense to spend $1,000,000 to purchase two more buses than you really need to allow for vehicles to be available for driver changeovers, when you could spend $40,000 purchasing a pair ofToyota Yaris hatchbacks for that purpose.

Exactly & if you got a big operation across 1 or many depots you will need a lot more than just 2 buses or cars for change overs.
Here are some examples from Melbourne of approx how many change over cars are needed.
Transdev Melbourne = 80-90
Dysons = 40-50
CDC Victoria =40

Now if each of these cases you had buses instead of cars it would mean a lot extra buses that are doing very little expect driver change overs.

[burrumbus]

A couple more examples.
Tullamarine Bus Lines.Tulla can effect driver changeovers on all bar two of their 7 routes at their depot.The other two runs buses run of and on at Broadmeadows and Roxburgh Park.Therefore I don't think Tulla use cars or utes at all.One of the most effiecent operations around.
Dysons Wangaratta operation use 7 small cars to ferry drivers from their Wangaratta depot to the starting points of school runs at Beechworth,Myrtleford,Moyhu,Whitfield,Benalla ,Yarrawonga AND Corowa.That covers the operation of 15 school/route service buses.Thats obviously much cheaper than returning each bus back to Wangaratta.

[Andy O]

Lets not forget Transdev Melbourne who use changeover cars to do driver swaps outside the depot across the road.

[burrumbus]

Which depot Andy ??

[MAN 16.242]

Which depot Andy ??

Keysborough. Change over cars are used for southbound trips and was done so in the Ventura & Grenda days too. Northbound trips drivers just walk 2-3 minutes to the bus stop.

[marcnut1996]

I'm just curious, which 4xx routes does State Transit still operate? If I'm not wrong, I think it is just 400/410 (jointly operated with TSS), 458 and 459.

[J_Busworth]

I'm just curious, which 4xx routes does State Transit still operate? If I'm not wrong, I think it is just 400/410 (jointly operated with TSS), 458 and 459.

400, 410 & 458

Route 459 was axed a fair while back now.

I also note that TSA got some 3xx routes(305, 308, 348 & 389), which typically are Eastern Routes, and some 5xx routes(502, 504, 508, 526 & 530), which are typically Northern Routes. Maybe some renumbering so that all TSA inner west routes carry the Inner West 4xx designation? Then again, given routes like the 389 aren't really R6 routes anyway, that wouldn't work.

[marcnut1996]

Yes, my bad, I forgot 459 has been discontinued. A bit strange that 458 didn't get passed on to Transit Systems like M41 and 460.

[booma]

Would you buy any diesel for work that will barely see the engine get warmed up? Does wonders for the PF.

Bus Depots have Diesel on tap.

[stupid_girl]

I'm just curious, which 4xx routes does State Transit still operate? If I'm not wrong, I think it is just 400/410 (jointly operated with TSS), 458 and 459.

400, 410 & 458

Route 459 was axed a fair while back now.

I also note that TSA got some 3xx routes(305, 308, 348 & 389), which typically are Eastern Routes, and some 5xx routes(502, 504, 508, 526 & 530), which are typically Northern Routes. Maybe some renumbering so that all TSA inner west routes carry the Inner West 4xx designation? Then again, given routes like the 389 aren't really R6 routes anyway, that wouldn't work.

I don't think it is necessary to re-number. The adjacent Punchbowl Bus Co operates both 4xx and 9xx routes and it's working fine.

[BroadGauge]

The Saturday Telegraph is reporting that Transit Systems are offering significant cash incentives to drivers whose services run on time:

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/ ... fc8f545516

[Swift]

Isn't a five minute smoko between trips enough?
So much for the saying you are paid to be late rather than run early!
Doesn't this just encourage rushing?

[rogf24]

I think they should seriously consider splitting the 303, 370 and 418. Handing over some of the 3xx and 5xx routes I think made some sense but the 348 (and M20) is one I don't really understand. The other ones have at least some justification, they're all really, really close to region 6, the 389 has history in region 6 as the 443 and the 440 also runs close to it and the M10 and M50 will no longer run to the South Eastern Suburbs once light rail opens. It's just the 348 and M20 that puzzles me.

Also, in that $5000 article, it mentioned the Transports Workers Union NSW. Have they already taken over from the RTBU in region 6?

[stupid_girl]

It seems TSA has changed the prepay only routes to opal only routes. (inspired by the adjacent region 7 )

To be honest, I don't know why we need two different terms for the same thing.
https://transportnsw.info/travel-info/w ... epay-buses

[Tonymercury]

The Saturday Telegraph is reporting that Transit Systems are offering significant cash incentives to drivers whose services run on time:

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/ ... fc8f545516

What are the drivers supposed to do about the traffic?


Notes unable to access article.

[Fleet Lists]

It seems TSA has changed the prepay only routes to opal only routes. (inspired by the adjacent region 7 )

To be honest, I don't know why we need two different terms for the same thing.
https://transportnsw.info/travel-info/w ... epay-buses

The Opal only is misleading - it implies that Opal single trip tickets can be used but then goes on to say that they can not.

[boronia]

Perhaps it should read "Opal Card only" ??

[busdriver12]

The Saturday Telegraph is reporting that Transit Systems are offering significant cash incentives to drivers whose services run on time:

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/ ... fc8f545516

What are the drivers supposed to do about the traffic?


Notes unable to access article.

Yeah bit pointless putting up a link to a paid site. Maybe someone who does could copy/paste?