Volvo B7R Volgren New School Buses for Link SA

[The Modeller]

Some Shots of the new B7R Volvos at Mt Barker Depot. Some arrived today.
There will be 6 of these at Mt Barker.

[Crispy!]

Great Photos

[Haydown500]

to be used on school runs that link sa won over smaller businesses that are now going broke becuase of this company!

[TT]

That's an awful lot of investment in new buses to do an hour or so in the morning and an hour in the afternoon, and to wipe out some of the smaller local businesses that burgatest400 refers to. Will they be used for charters or route shifts in between school runs?

[CB80]

to be used on school runs that link sa won over smaller businesses that are now going broke becuase of this company!

If you cant compete then this is whats gonna happen...

[noofnoof]

oooohhh, are those Volgrens? one school excursion here in Brisbane we had only 20 students a bus like that, equipped as a school/charter bus not a coach. Possibly one of the best buses I've ever ridden on, extremely clean, well turned out, and smooth.
Yah, here's an exterior shot.

[The Inspector]

Well considering alot of the smaller companies were running older buses that would need replacing whos to know if they could afford the upgrade without government assistance.

A nicer way would have been for Link SA to go buy out the other operators and their contracts so they atleast got something rather than just knock them off.

[B7RLE]

Ahh i wondered where they were destined for when i saw them at Volgren Dandenong before christmas

[Willie]

Scott,

Whilst your suggestion is nice in theory, the reality is that to buy the operators would have been of very little gain to LinkSA

The contracts were all due for renewal, a very very high percentage of the buses the operators had on these school services were non compliant for re-tender, which basiclly would have left LinkSA with alot less money, a whole heap of useless vehicles, way too many trading names and small businesses than anyone would ever need and still the need to re-tender for these contracts and still by the compliant buses.

The contracts were for a period of 15 years, any operator ( well any credible operator) would have no difficulty finding finance for vehicles to service such contracts and should not need to rely on any assistance other than regular contract payments.

Burgatesta400,

Like any industry, The bus industry is a competitive force, I personally think LinkSA should be commended for the commitment and service upgrades they have and continue to provide regional SA, I dont see anyone taking leaps and bounds like they have be able to, Look at such services as Angaston > Adelaide this used to mostly operated by ageing Mercedes school buses, now its rare to see anything other than a very modern low floor Scania on it, LinkSA in my eyes are competitive innovators.

[TT]

I trust all the interstate viewers to this post have noticed the 25 km/h speed sign on the back of the buses, unlike 40 in every other state. Having driven country school buses with stops on open highway I still think 110 down to 25 is a big ask.

And seeing bus 403 there with the roo bar partially hiding the "school bus" signwriting reminds me of a private contractor many years ago who had to get his signwriting redone (or the roo bar removed) for that very reason, as SA regs require the words Caution and School Bus to be there and visible, and in black writing at least 100 mm high from memory. Nitpicking I know, and I guess now that we have the orange wig wag lights the visibility of the wording not so much of an issue.

[Apollo]

The buses with bullbars are all ex Volvo stock. Just about all the rest of the LinkSA ordered buses are in the SA school bus yellow and do not feature any bullbars. I delivered one to Adelaide a few weeks ago. Nice buses. There are at least 15 or more yellow ones i think.

[The Modeller]

4 yellow one's at Aldgate Depot. They will end up at Strathalbyn.

[TT]

Being a lover of yellow EDSA buses from Bedfords and Commers thru to Inters and Hinos, those photos are almost as good as it gets. Wow! Strathalbyn kids won't know what's hit them.

[Merc 248]

I like the yellow .

Can i ask are these yellow buses used on school runs only?

[The Modeller]

These buses will only be used for school runs and school charter.

[Spannerhead]

Does anybody have any leads on the sale of the retired fleet of old yellow buses?

[retiredbendy]

I thought 'SouthLink, Mt Barker' only stored ''Mitsubishi Rosa #34' and 'Volvo B10M #3306?
I only asked this question because in the 'First lot of pictures', you can see a few Scania L94UB Volgren 'CR224L's behind (next to) the 'Link SA' buses and you can also see, by the looks of it, ex Volvo B10M #3260 parked on the left hand side.

Cheers,
retiredbendy

[ScaniaK320]

Bring back the Inters and the Leylands

[busrider]

I thought 'SouthLink, Mt Barker' only stored ''Mitsubishi Rosa #34' and 'Volvo B10M #3306?
I only asked this question because in the 'First lot of pictures', you can see a few Scania L94UB Volgren 'CR224L's behind (next to) the 'Link SA' buses and you can also see, by the looks of it, ex Volvo B10M #3260 parked on the left hand side.

Cheers,
retiredbendy

The fleet lists are not an accurate reflection of all the buses currently at Mt Barker depot, but I think their fleet is rotated with Aldgate, making it hard to keep a proper fleet list for Mt Barker...

[Jumbles]

Does anybody have any leads on the sale of the retired fleet of old yellow buses?

Saw that Evans and Clarke Auctions were selling a few a while back....Don't know how that went for them....

[Jumbles]

I trust all the interstate viewers to this post have noticed the 25 km/h speed sign on the back of the buses, unlike 40 in every other state. Having driven country school buses with stops on open highway I still think 110 down to 25 is a big ask.

And seeing bus 403 there with the roo bar partially hiding the "school bus" signwriting reminds me of a private contractor many years ago who had to get his signwriting redone (or the roo bar removed) for that very reason, as SA regs require the words Caution and School Bus to be there and visible, and in black writing at least 100 mm high from memory. Nitpicking I know, and I guess now that we have the orange wig wag lights the visibility of the wording not so much of an issue.

110 -> 40 is still a big ask to, TBH.

I had some funny idea that speed limits could only reduce by 30km/h at a time, so 40km/h (or 25km/h) past buses (or Emergency Vehicles, for that matter) might be unenforceable in zones that allowed speeds more than 30km/h above that. As a slight side note, I think this is one of the advantages of the variable speed limit signs....if you need to slow traffic from 110 to 40 because Emergency Vehicles are operating, you can use 3 signs on the approach 110->80, then 80->60 then 60->40.
Also, this means a lot of people get away with speeding past roadworks because they merely have to show that the speed zones were incorrectly set up.

That said, could have been totally misled there....