Ventura Group News 2017

[Mercedes]

Shoot.

[712M]

Artic #190 is currently running on route 841. The first time I've ever seen an artic on this route.

[Leyland B21]

Artic #190 is currently running on route 841. The first time I've ever seen an artic on this route.

Happens every summer. You will see it on 835s and 926s too most likely

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[pakenhamtrain]

Ventura have introduced live tracking for thier V/Line services. Showing the exact location of the bus.
http://www.venturabus.com.au/track-my-vline/

[K230UB]

Ventura Dandenong #150 Mercedes Benz OH1418 was scrapped in December, pistons melted and the repairs outweighed the value of the bus.

[Heihachi_73]

Built 8/1995, it probably didn't have much time left on the road anyway. Was it a diesel runaway which caused that to happen or what?

[scott]

Seen yesterday was (1218) Austral Denning Highlander of 1995 vintage sporting a refreshed paint job.

[boronia]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/inne ... 6e4fc913ac

[B10BLE]

Several buses at the Moorabbin depot seem to have been involved in a break-in/vandalism incident, concrete blocks used to press down the accelerator of buses, smashing into a building in another property writing off several vehicles in said other property, seen on 7 News. Buses seem to have extensive damage but they don't look like write offs.

[Roderick Smith]

See http://www.facebook.com/7NewsMelbourne/ ... 7762914301

Roderick.

[Heihachi_73]

Yahoo7 shows a number of late model Volgren route buses in the photos, Optimus and CR228L bodies (both Volvo and Scania chassis, going by the wheel designs).

[DENAIR]

Moorabbin does not have modern Scanias

[Heihachi_73]

Unless the other style of wheel was a Mercedes one instead - it's the one that ran into the truck. Unfortunately with those Yahoo7 photos being a pathetic resolution it doesn't really help, I can't even make out the fleet numbers on the sides, although the smashed Optimus with the bumper hanging off would be 1021 going by the rego (9462AO is easily viewable).

[Leyland B21]

Hi all,

Have been seeing #214 doing routes based out of Pakenham over the last week. Can someone please advise if this is a temporary or permanent transfer from Seaford?

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[Artzy]

Hi all,

Have been seeing #214 doing routes based out of Pakenham over the last week. Can someone please advise if this is a temporary or permanent transfer from Seaford?

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#214 went from Seaford to Dandenong when 709 extension started. It was the transferred to Pakenham not long afterwards (for the Casey network changes I think?)


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[Heihachi_73]

I noticed today that the old 742 Heatherdale terminus and bus stop on Forster Rd has been removed and the nearby outbound Heatherdale Rd bus stop moved on top of the bridge. Is Ventura finally planning on running all buses to Eastland instead of terminating every second one short in peak and making people in Ringwood wait 40+ minutes? I haven't checked to see if the route deviation via the side streets has been changed.

Edit: Never mind, it's been gone for several months, and the peak services are still as abysmal as ever. Shows how many times I used Heatherdale station in the past, to not even notice the rarely-used bus stop was missing...

[pakenhamtrain]

Sighted #7(Volvo B10M MkIII/Volgren) doing a Cranbourne bound 841 around 5PM today. First time I've seen a high floor on that route in quite some time.

[Craig]

Sighted #7(Volvo B10M MkIII/Volgren) doing a Cranbourne bound 841 around 5PM today. First time I've seen a high floor on that route in quite some time.

The Ventura Twitter account suggests they had a few breakdowns during the AM peak, which would explain it.

Kind Regards


Craig

[BroadGauge]

Route 788 seems to be copping quite a bit of overcrowding in the AM peak lately based on Ventura's Twitter feed. I presume this trip must be run with one of the articulated or 14.5m buses and yet is still having to turn away passengers?

Ventura Bus ‏@VenturaBus 17h17 hours ago
7:34 Safety Beach to Frankston - Sorry Bus Full

Ventura Bus ‏@VenturaBus Feb 20
7:34 Safety Beach to Frankston - Sorry Bus Full

Ventura Bus ‏@VenturaBus Feb 17
7:34 Safety Beach to Frankston - Sorry Bus Full

Ventura Bus ‏@VenturaBus Feb 16
7:34 Safety Beach to Frankston - Sorry Bus Full, and currently can not take anymore passengers

Ventura Bus ‏@VenturaBus Feb 15
7:34 Safety Beach to Frankston - Sorry Bus Full, and currently can not take anymore passengers

Ventura Bus ‏@VenturaBus Feb 14
7:34 Safety Beach to Frankston - Sorry Bus Full, and currently can not take anymore passengers

Ventura Bus ‏@VenturaBus Feb 10
7:34 Safety Beach to Frankston - Bus Full

Ventura Bus ‏@VenturaBus Feb 9
7:24 Dromana to Frankston - Bus Full

Ventura Bus ‏@VenturaBus Feb 8
7:34 Safety Beach to Frankston - Sorry this bus is full, and can not take anymore passengers

You'd hate to have to wait 53 minutes for the next bus only to find out that it's full as well!

Ventura Bus ‏@VenturaBus Feb 16
8:27 Safety Beach to Frankston - Sorry Bus Full, and currently can not take anymore passengers

Ventura Bus ‏@VenturaBus Feb 10
8:27 Safety Beach to Frankston - Bus Full

Ventura Bus ‏@VenturaBus Feb 9
8:27 Safety Beach to Frankston - Bus Full

It's not surprising when there's only a total of four buses in the morning peak to service 40,000+ people! Perhaps it's time for PTV to fund some extra services?

[Matty G]

Hello,

Five buses operate on Route 788.... two of which are arctics. They are normally allocated to shifts that have high school student loadings.
There is at least one, if not two long and lows also rostered, which contain the same number of seats as the arctics.

Funnily enough, the Twitter posts re: the overcrowded 7:34 and 8:27 ex Safety Beach to Frankston are both normally arctic services.

Cheers.

[scott]

Sighted #7(Volvo B10M MkIII/Volgren) doing a Cranbourne bound 841 around 5PM today. First time I've seen a high floor on that route in quite some time.

This post prompted me to do a check of the fleet list for the oldest Ventura ex Grenda B10M still active, (111), a 1986 B10M MKII based at Dandenong would appear to be the oldest active B10M in the fleet, approaching 31 years old this year.

[tonyw]

I remember when these were brand new, 1986. I lived in Endeavour Hills at the time. They were so modern.

[tonyw]

It looks like Ventura has transferred a number of older buses to Ivanhoe. Going past this morning I noticed at least three blue liveried Scanias, one white bus with blue and yellow stripes and an ex-Grenda bus.

[The Cap a tan]

It looks like Ventura has transferred a number of older buses to Ivanhoe. Going past this morning I noticed at least three blue liveried Scanias, one white bus with blue and yellow stripes and an ex-Grenda bus.

Those buses are there for rail replacement. I think it's a rail crossing removal project on the Sunbury/Bendigo line.

[Heihachi_73]

I remember when these were brand new, 1986. I lived in Endeavour Hills at the time. They were so modern.

That particular Volgren body style held its ground too, all the way through to the mid 1990s with a few minor revisions, even a low floor version of that shape was made (e.g. the first series of Invicta LoRiders/Dennis Darts, which were the backbone of the 664 and 670 among others for many years). That body style was light years ahead of PMC's offering which adorned the Leyland Tigers of the same era, not to mention the MK1 Ansair body (AFAIK the very modern MK2 buses complete with their air conditioning, digital flip-dot displays and uninterrupted rows of large sealed windows weren't quite out yet). However, I believe the long-runner award really belongs to the later CR221(L) body instead, even more so if you count the later bodies up to and including the Optimus as evolutions of the same design - it makes you wonder if a later front clip (e.g. CR228L) could be added to an older bus to make it look newer, just like the old trick of putting WB fronts on an older HQ/J/X/Z. In a way, the "sad-faced" CR222Ls could do with a makeover, they really do stick out like a sore thumb, and the front was the only thing the PTV crinkle-wrap didn't touch (not that Ventura ordered any, as they were with Northcoast by the time they came out).