Transdev Melbourne News 2017

[Fleet Lists]

Except for the travelling public.

[JRBUS123]

Just received more information regarding the new buses that will be used for Transdev's services. #134-#163 will be Gemilangs whilst #164-#168 (numbers yet to be fully confirmed by Gen Man) will be Volgren Optimuses all of which will be Scania K310UB's. In total there is an order of 34 buses. I reckon with that there will be some older fleet scrapped (particularly some of the high floors still operating which Transdev took from Ventura during the 2013 takeover). Maybe they could get rid of the buses that cause the most danger to customers so passengers do not have to go in any bus that may cause danger or health issues.

To say the least Dysons will be around for a while yet. And who knew that Ventura's loss of the contract would result in just about all metro bus operators(including Ventura) earning some extra business, Transdevs faults is everyones gain.

Except for the travelling public.

Well I think it depends really. Going on a bus from another operator is good for us as it means we can go on a graffiti-free and safe bus rather than any Transdev one which will most likely have graffiti up at the back and possibly break down (which unfortunately is common). For the travellers that go on the Smartbus routes regularly it isn't really any benefit for them however it's good to those who ride on the less popular runs where Transdev normally put their spare vehicles on which is where the replacement buses that have been operating in this crisis (eg; 364, 293, 281). I wonder why Transdev chose Dysons as the preferred replacement bus operator for this current crisis. Are their buses cheaper to rent than other companies? It would be really interesting to know.

Kind regards, JRBUS123

[burrumbus]

Availabilty of buses and drivers,I suspect,JRBUS123.

[MAN 16.242]

Crisis 1 saw more missed trips than normal which was partly due hire buses not being allowed out after 9pm after week 2, which resulted in large gaps in evening on Sunshine depot routes. Added to this is trips missed when some extra hire buses gotten at last minute. There very littile benefit to public from these type of crisises other than hire buses less likley to break down. But if buses were maintained in first place it wouldn't be such an issue but these are issues you get when tender bid is low.

The idea of improved services for no or less costs was never going to work. We've seen Greenfield proposal scrapped as most resources could reuse where done so in 2014 changes meaning Greenfield proposal had big cuts but thankfully was scrapped. Then there was the issue of normal bus shortages due no extra buses each time peak fleet requirment increases. Plus as been discussed poor maintence to help meet low bid.

If to look at postives since take over the main 2 are
*Route changes: Some 2014 changes fixed complex corridoors i.e 250/251/253
*On time running: Not saying perfect but been lot improvment to run times. To give example the ex MBL runs might seem bad now but that nothing compared to old MBL run times where hour late often happened even on Sundays! and when no congestion the last bus on Sumday use be often 30 minutes late.

[Andy O]

Probably not unusual with Transdev Woes, but yesterday (Saturday) I noted (300) Merc O405/CC operating Route 200 during the morning.

[BroadGauge]

Probably not unusual with Transdev Woes, but yesterday (Saturday) I noted (300) Merc O405/CC operating Route 200 during the morning.

Apparently it was seen out in service on New Year's Day (January 1st) as well.

When these routes were operated by National Bus (Ventura), all weekend services comnenced being wheelchair accessible in 2005. I never thought that in 2018 they would have regressed!