O305/O305G Farewell Tour - 30/07/2011

[Mr OC Benz]

Hi guys,

I'm here to seek interest in a farewell tour involving a Transperth Mercedes Benz O305 and Mercedes Benz O305G. As their life will becoming to an end no doubt once the Volvo's start hitting the front line, I believe it is important that we farewell these buses and even more so in their colours. There are only two operators who operate them for Transperth now, Swan Transit and their artic 483 from their Southern River depot, 488 from their Canning Vale Depot and Southern Coast Transit (Veolia) 463, 475, 491 and 496 from their Mandurah and Rockingham depots.

We will be hiring a Mercedes Benz O305G UQB483 from Swan Transit for the tour. However I would like to get a O305 out for a short period of time.

If such a tour is to be held, I need to be satisfied by the numbers of people who may attend.

A possible idea for when we come up with an itinerary is to follow some old bus routes that no longer exist as we know them.

Please post below if you are interest. We are looking at a cost of $20 per person.

The tour will be held on Saturday 30 July 2011.

Regards,
Mr OC Benz

Photos of the buses are available on perthbus.info Just go to Mercedes Benz O305 and Mercedes Benz O305G...

[jonwil]

I would be interested in a tour to farewell these fine machines.

[Bus-1809]

Defs add me in Zack as you know that I'll assist with planning...

[High Floor Bus]

Your so right Zack , the 305s will be gone be for you know it with little or no fanfare, i'l be kicking myself Forever & a day to miss the tour .
So i be in that for sure 100%.

[Leyland B21]

Hi guys,

I'm here to seek interest in a possible farewell tour involving a Transperth Mercedes Benz O305 and Mercedes Benz O305G. As their life will becoming to an end no doubt once the Volvo's start hitting the front line, I believe it is important that we farewell these buses and even more so in their colours. There are only two operators who operate them for Transperth now, Swan Transit and their artic 483 and rigid 497 from their Southern River depot and Southern Coast Transit (Veolia) 463, 475, 491 and 496 from their Mandurah and Rockingham depots.

If such a tour is to be held, I need to be satisfied by the numbers of people who may attend, I would like to get the organising under way ASAP as we don't really know how much longer these buses have in service.

A possibly idea for a route plan is to re-trace old bus routes prior to Mandurah Line. But first I'd like some interest!

Please post below if you are interest and if anyone can assist in getting it together please let me know. A price will be determined depending on numbers and qoutes from the above companies.

It is likely the tour will happen on a Saturday or Sunday.

Regards,


Mr OC Benz

Photos of the buses are available on perthbus.info Just go to Mercedes Benz O305 and Mercedes Benz O305G...

The original early 80's route for Mandurah was route 117. Prior to the Dower St Terminus, it ran as follows 3 times a day. Fremantle Station, Elder Pl, Goldsborough St, Cantonment St, Market St, South Tce, Wray Ave, Hampton Rd, Cockburn Rd, Rockingham Rd, Original Kwinana Bus Station, Rockingham Rd, Patterson Rd, Mandurah Rd, Fremantle Rd, Mandurah Tce, Gibson St, Sholl St Terminus. Then loop around via Pinjarra Rd, Anstruther Rd, Cooper St, Sholl St returning to terminus. Then via Pinjarra Rd, Mandurah Tce and reverse of above.

Was modified around 1981/82 to the same route except Sholl St terminus was moved to Dower St outside Mandurah Football Oval running as above to Anstruther Rd but instead of turning left at Cooper, it turned right to Dower St. Returning via Elizabeth St, Anstruther, Pinjarra rd, Mandurah Tce and as above.

route 115 was added into the mix as a shortened run between Kwinana & Mandurah at the time of modification.

Route 115/117 was deleted around 1996/1997 to become route 168 between Rockingham & Mandurah. This involved The entire length of Mandurah Rd Baldivis losing the service.
Route 168 - Rockingham bus Station, Council Ave, Ennis Ave, Fremantle Rd, Mandurah Tce, Gibson St, Sutton St, Pinjarra Rd, Anstruther Rd, Cooper St, Dower St. Returning via Elizabeth St, Anstruther Rd, Pinjarra Rd, Sutton St, Tuckey st, Mandurah Tce and reverse of above.

Route 168 was co-ordinated to connect with the former route 126 (now the 825)

168 was deleted on commencement of the Mandurah Line opening to the current 558


Route 117 was operated entirely out of Freo (Clontarf Rd) except for Sundays when Rocky depot had the 1 run departing Freo in the morning as the rest of Sundays service were all 115's falling into Rockys shifts due to proximity of Kwinana bus Station for route 115
Jase

[Mr OC Benz]

We will be working out a route plan later on, I've got most the old timetables anyway. At the moment we'll just make sure we can get the buses and then we'll work out where and when we'll go to places and let everyone informed about the tour date and other details about the tour closer to that date!

[Mr OC Benz]

Just a quick update, we are looking at a Saturday or Sunday during July to hold the tour. And to narrow it down even more, the tour will not be held while trains are disrupted on weekends in July which are Sat 2nd-Sun 3rd and Fri 15th to Sun 17th. And it won't be held on the weekend Sat/Sun 9th/10th of July as it does not give us enough time to plan. It'll be in the later period of July. Possibly the week before school returns.

[PoweredByCNG]

G'day all,

Some runs that NEED to be retraced would be Rockingham to Perth via route 116 and East Perth to Fremantle rail replacement route 760 via Loch Street, Claremont. This part of the journey NEEDS to be done in (475) or one of the other two remaining 'Bumblers' for authenticity's sake.

[ADX666]

OMFG, I'll sooo be in that!, that is sure to bring me back from the near dead!

[Mr OC Benz]

Good to hear.

We are most likely to lean towards using UQB463 and UQB475 if possible from Veolia/Southern Coast Transit. It'll probably be one bus each section and as PoweredByCNG mentions, we'll try to retrace those routes plus some other. I'm hoping for possibly a visit to BPSWA aswell to line up the three O305 rigids. 171, 339 and 463. But we'll work it out. We are deciding whether to do a twilight starting after lunch to make it feel more enjoyable or whether to just do it through the day. If we choose twilight it'll be Saturday. And as for it being in July, its a very wet month, so if your planning to come, bring some wet weather gear in case it rains!!!

I'll get back to you guys when we may be able to set some things in concrete...

[ADX666]

Awesome news, heres hoping!

[tbc1983]

I'm interested!

Cheers!

[jonwil]

Re-creating the old rail-line-shutdown route in an O305G would be great.
Just getting seat time in these machines would bring back memories of riding to/from school in them all those years ago (including memories of getting in trouble for messing with/pressing the big yellow stop buttons in the front seats of some O305s)

Do any of the still-operating O305s have those yellow stop buttons?

[Mr OC Benz]

I always used to hit the bell with my foot if I was sitting in the front seat. Been a while since I used to ride them in their last days in service over the last decade. Amazing to see that a small amount of them have made it into 2011. UQB475 turns 32 years old on the 07/08/2011 which also happens to be a Sunday! The Volvo artic is due in August too, but of course training and etc will hold it back so 475 should make it to 32 before being withdrawn. As for UQB463 it turns 27years later on in September. It might make it to 27 years too hopefully.

[UQB709]

Is 488 still in service?

[Bus-1809]

488 is still going strong. I have heard that SCT may possibly be getting 3 B12BLE's in August. One would assume this is because they don't actually have a Green & Silver artic at the moment. Also assuming that the CNG powered one doesn't suddenly arise from the dead and return. I think it's getting to a stage where we need to start placing bets on whether 3000 or CAT 11 makes it make into service first!

[L3113]

I'm in!!!!

[Mr OC Benz]

I would like to do the tour with Swan, but unfortunately, they don't do charters, and unless there's someone here who knows Smithy, then not much chance...

[Mr OC Benz]

Please note guys, that until we are able to negotiate with Veolia Southern Coast Transit and be satisfied and confirmed that the tour can go ahead, exact planning will not be taken in yet until this has been complete. We are currently brainstorming ideas, but its no use if it can't be done!

I'm hoping something can be arranged next week so that the tour can go ahead.

[Bus child]

I would be very interested in the tour.

Bus Child

[Mr OC Benz]

After a suggestion from a fellow board member, we will now be getting into contact with Swan Transit to see whether we can arrange a deal for a tour using their vehicles. We will keep you guys informed on the latest.

[MAN_LOVER]

Yes i am interested

[wayfarer]

yes , I will go absolutely.. again strangely for some reason... and yesI agree that the tour should trace a defunct route or 2

[ADX666]

Hmm, if we are going to retrace some sct routes, wouldn't it make more sense to utilise sct stock?

[Bus-1809]

Well if they use Swan Stock, they'll change it to Swan/Connex Running... No route has been finalised yet 666