Victorian Bus Observations 2024

[Heihachi_73]

The Optimus hybrids have to be some of the worst put-together buses I've ever been in. All they ever do is rattle and the interior fittings are falling apart by the minute even on the newer buses. 4001, 4026 and another unknown number all needed to have paper jammed between the posts to stop them from while one of the newer builds mentioned above by scott had the hex bolts falling out of the pipe fitting next to the disabled seats and causing the pipe joint to rattle. The diesel buses of similar vintage, including the Gemilangs, are of infinitely better quality. Whoever also decided to place the USB charging ports 1.5m above the seats in the ceiling aircon duct is a pure genius. At this rate a bubble bus would be an improvement over these.

Edit: 4012 is also a rattler.

In other news, today I waited 24 minutes in 6°C for a 901 Melbourne Airport bus in afternoon peak (got to the bus stop at 6:12, next bus scheduled at 6:22, got on bus at 6:36). The 901 "Smart" bus is every 12-15 minutes (6:08 followed by 6:22 followed by 6:38 at the Ringwood Maccas stop) during peak which is ridiculous enough (it's every 15 minutes off-peak and every 30 minutes every other time to make sure everyone just drives their government-subsidised cars with their Weet-Bix box license and pays top dollar to for-profit Big Oil at the pump - also a shout out to Shell/Coles/Reddy Express servos for being 40 cents more expensive than literally everywhere else - most servos in the east being around the 170-179 range for petrol; Shell staying put at 219.9).

[scott]

The Hybrid Optimus Scania's are quite variable in quality as you say, perhaps they need to put more secure fixings in the poles.
One of the 2024 builds with the Ventura doors(as mentioned in my earlier post) was giving trouble with the rear door and the driver was concerned that the fault would worsen, jam on the interlock and leave him stranded, but I am sure these will be addressed under warranty by Volgren.
Been riding a lot more of the Hybrids as they begin to replace the older buses on the orbitals, which are now mostly 5 years old.

The USB port location is ridiculous, I heard a 9-10 year old school girl tell her mum, what a stupid place to put them, as she could not reach them if she had to charge something. Ventura's idea of putting them on the pillars is a much better one.

Also saw an Optimus Hybrid 4049 in an all over wrap for the State Governments "Dont Cut In Front Of Buses" campaign.

They should spend the money fixing up the potholes.

[Heihachi_73]

Wouldn't surprise me if potholes aren't even the government's responsibility anymore after Daniel Andrews' Labor took a page out of Jeff Kennett's Liberal book and sold off VicRoads.

[BluDART]

A few observations from the Kinetic fleet;
Buses 682, 684, 686, 953, 8000, 8001, 8002, 8003, 8007, 8008, 8012, 8013, 8014 and 8015 have all recently been converted to PTV livery.
Buses 994, 995, 996, 997 and 998 have been transferred from Sunshine back to the eastern operations.
Bus 948 got a new set of Hanover displays to replace a faulty front desto unit

Also designs for the Doncaster Park and Ride upgrade have been released https://bigbuild.vic.gov.au/news/roads/ ... exhibition. Looks a bit cumbersome for any freeway bus that travels beyond Doncaster Rd (318/906) having to enter park & ride to use the busway and having to exit through park & ride to continue east along the freeway.

New bus contracts have been announced https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/new-zero ... -commuters

[Heihachi_73]

If the 906 is forced to waste time diverting via Pork & Ride (does a white elephant count as the other white meat?) that will stuff up connections with the 901 on Blackburn Rd and 902/907 at Doncaster Rd, especially at night when all the SmartBuses are every half an hour and interchanges are already single-figure pot luck depending on traffic, government-funded parked cars (bus lanes cease at all of 7PM) in the CBD and roadworks e.g. it could be a 5 minute wait or a 29 minute wait after the bus sails past while you get off on the other side of the road. Keep the 906 express bus well away from that desolate s&#thole of a place, along with its dropped-on-head-at-birth sister at Bulleen, so that it can get to The Pines quicker, the 905 and 908 already meander through the backwater nothingness of Bulleen and Templestowe for people who want to make the most of a two-hour myki fare.

[JRBUS123]

A few observations from the Kinetic fleet;
Buses 682, 684, 686, 953, 8000, 8001, 8002, 8003, 8007, 8008, 8012, 8013, 8014 and 8015 have all recently been converted to PTV livery.

All the MAN Customs at Kinetic (682-686) are now in PTV livery with a refurbishment, and pretty much all but 8016 of the Volvo B7RLE ex Smartbuses are in PTV livery now

Buses 994, 995, 996, 997 and 998 have been transferred from Sunshine back to the eastern operations.

A lot of depot transfers have occurred, buses 994-998 are just one example of that. These, I've been told, are based at Doncaster

We also have had a lot of depot changes and decommissions
- 100-115 early Gemilangs have moved from Doncaster -> Heatherton (116 of the early Gemilangs remains at Doncaster)
- All of 134-154 are now North Fitzroy buses. 142-151 were already Fitzroy based, but we also had recent transfers for 134-141 and 152-154 which were Doncaster buses. These now form part of Fitzroy's 903 fleet
- 168-179 now call Doncaster home, ex Fitzroy
- All the 3XX L94UB units have been decommissioned.
- 403-411 - moved from Heatherton to Sunshine. Heatherton no longer houses anymore L94's
- 590-606, 611, 617-624, 629, 644, 651 and a bunch of other Designlines have also been decommissioned. As a replacement, Doncaster are getting a bunch of the 2019 Gemilangs and Optimuses, but I'll get to that.
- 761-762, 901-913 - The Custom Merc 0H1830LE and L94UB buses have transferred from Doncaster to North Fitzroy
- 1101-1139 all now call Doncaster home - 1118-1120 have been Doncaster buses for at least a year, the rest have just joined them.
- 1156-1160 - transferred from North Fitzroy to Doncaster
- 1161-1200 - the K320UB buses are gradually calling Doncaster home. Most of them so far transferred are from 1161-1186 (the 2019 bunch). Their replacements on Orbital are the bunch of new hybrids that have joined the fleet this year
- 1201-1202 - the two 2021 Scania K320UB buses ordered originally for the 202 have moved homes again from Sunshine to Doncaster. Suspect the rest will join Doncaster soon enough.
- 3001-3012 now all call Heatherton home. Some of these were based at Sunshine
- 3013 - 3034 (the remaining electrics) are at Sunshine, including 3015 the bus in the "You are Loved" livery.

[JRBUS123]

New bus contracts have been announced https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/new-zero ... -commuters

In short, the winners are Dysons, Kinetic and CDC. Looks like CDC will gain the Ryan's, Kastoria and some Dysons routes west of the Hume freeway (Craigieburn, Broadmeadows areas), which I believe is part of a joint venture with Kastoria's owner Dom Sita They've also retained all their routes they currently operate.

Kinetic, meanwhile, will gain many of the ex Reservoir Dysons routes south of the M80 ring road (minus 513, 514 and 561). It also gains the ex-Moonee Valley routes Dysons took over in March this year.

While this isn't a big win for Dysons as they've lost a few routes, they do at least retain their pre-2008 operation, including East-West routes. They've also gained the Panorama routes on top, so they'll be a bigger name within the bus scene in the Eltham, Research and Warrandyte areas.

Now we shall wait and see what happens with the routes operated by Martyr's and Mckenzie's, which are still up for tender.

[Heihachi_73]

We also have had a lot of depot changes and decommissions
- 100-115 early Gemilangs have moved from Doncaster -> Heatherton (116 of the early Gemilangs remains at Doncaster)

Have fun!
"Doors are closing, BOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOP"

For those who don't normally catch Gemilangs, the earliest ones can be distinguished by having yellow stop buttons instead of grey, and the aforementioned annoying voiceover and incessant beeping whenever the rear door closes (later ones have a male voice and no beep). The very first batch also had a blue Ventura-style interior (similar to Evo II/Bubble) despite being ordered by Transdev.

[CrowdedHouse]

Didn't catch the particular bus number, but a CDC Melbourne bus in the old SmartBus livery was running the 606 Elsternwick to Fisherman's Bend run yesterday. Spotted just around 12:30pm turning from Glen Huntly Road onto the Nepean Highway.

[VFwasteandtransport]

- 100-115 early Gemilangs have moved from Doncaster -> Heatherton (116 of the early Gemilangs remains at Doncaster)
- All of 134-154 are now North Fitzroy buses. 142-151 were already Fitzroy based, but we also had recent transfers for 134-141 and 152-154 which were Doncaster buses. These now form part of Fitzroy's 903 fleet
- 168-179 now call Doncaster home, ex Fitzroy
- All the 3XX L94UB units have been decommissioned.
- 403-411 - moved from Heatherton to Sunshine. Heatherton no longer houses anymore L94's
- 590-606, 611, 617-624, 629, 644, 651 and a bunch of other Designlines have also been decommissioned. As a replacement, Doncaster are getting a bunch of the 2019 Gemilangs and Optimuses, but I'll get to that.
- 761-762, 901-913 - The Custom Merc 0H1830LE and L94UB buses have transferred from Doncaster to North Fitzroy
- 1101-1139 all now call Doncaster home - 1118-1120 have been Doncaster buses for at least a year, the rest have just joined them.
- 1156-1160 - transferred from North Fitzroy to Doncaster
- 1161-1200 - the K320UB buses are gradually calling Doncaster home. Most of them so far transferred are from 1161-1186 (the 2019 bunch). Their replacements on Orbital are the bunch of new hybrids that have joined the fleet this year
- 1201-1202 - the two 2021 Scania K320UB buses ordered originally for the 202 have moved homes again from Sunshine to Doncaster. Suspect the rest will join Doncaster soon enough.
- 3001-3012 now all call Heatherton home. Some of these were based at Sunshine
- 3013 - 3034 (the remaining electrics) are at Sunshine, including 3015 the bus in the "You are Loved" livery.


Can someone provide the full Kinetic fleet including these please. I would like to know if there are any other changes to the fleet.

[VFwasteandtransport]

Kinetic North Fitzroy's 8016 is now in PTV livery.

[JRBUS123]

Kinetic North Fitzroy's 8016 is now in PTV livery.

All volvos in Kinetic's fleet are now in PTV livery.

On top of that:
- Merc 0H1830LE Custom Coaches buses 761 and 762, as well as Custom Coaches 959 have now received PTV colours and a refurbishment, with more of these getting done.
- The sole early Gemilang, 116, appears to have also joined the Heatherton depot family.
- Smartbus equipment on the Custom Coaches CB6 EVO II Scania K230UB's are rapidly getting their Smartbus equipment removed, with 966 being an example I saw yesterday. I'm told there's only a few left of these with the smartbus equipment now
- Only a small amount of MAN Designlines remain in the Kinetic fleet, with most of them decommissioned by now. #643 is the last Smartbus liveried MAN Designline left in the fleet as I'm writing this.

[Heihachi_73]

Volgren hybrids never cease to amaze with their "build quality". 4069 is four months old (built 6/2024) and the pole clamp's already fallen off with the window shaking about an inch as soon as the bus moves. This is the same vertical pole I mentioned in the initial post about them (in front of rear door), except it's usually the clamp at floor level that's loose and rattling.

[CrowdedHouse]

Here's the SmartBus livery on the 606 Elsternwick to Fisherman's Bend run. Photo taken today - Mon 28th Oct 2024.

[Heihachi_73]

A Mazda CX-3 got into a minor argument with Ventura 1244 on the 742 today.

[scott]

We nearly got into an accident with a Mazda CX5 on the 279 on Whitehorse Rd Box Hill(near the SRL site),with a Mazda CX5, must be a Mazda thing.
But back on topic as discussed above, a lot of reshuffling has occurred at Kinetic, more and more new Hybrids on the orbitals.

[Heihachi_73]

When are the PIDs going to be installed in the hybrids? There are least forty now with just a blank space where the PID is supposed to go, and no accouncements, all while the rest of the Kinetic fleet with SmartBus PIDs are being wasted on regular routes and never turning the things on. Why is endlessly spamming "validate your myki" more important than showing the next stop?

In other news, I rode Optimus 1130 on "new" route 669, got a pizza, and then had just short of half an hour to wait for the next bus back to Ringwood in pre-7PM afternoon peak (walked home in 20 minutes instead). Same s&#tty old timetable as before, what a complete waste of time and money.

[MotorOmnibus8562]

Dysons Bus #1030 has been spotted in the PTV livery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNa-TkzmEtk at timestamp 5:40

[Richard1207]

Dysons Bus #1030 has been spotted in the PTV livery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNa-TkzmEtk at timestamp 5:40

Dysons buses 936, 1034 & 1035 have also been done.

[MotorOmnibus8562]

I expect we'll see lots more be repainted over the summer school Holidays as some buses won't be required out on the school holidays.

[MotorOmnibus8562]

Dysons Bus 137 has been spotted in Wodonga on loan to a private school.
Bus 138 has now returned to Melbourne.
Based on my latest Observations, 153 and 154 are still in Wodonga
Bus 454 is apparently no longer in Wodonga, and Is at Bundoora now.

[VFwasteandtransport]

I spotted a couple of Kinetic's remaining bubble buses the other week. How many are there left? and what buses will replace them?

[VFwasteandtransport]

I also saw a few Scania K320UB, Volgren Optimus buses on route 903. Are any of them still at Keysborough?

[MotorOmnibus8562]

I spotted a couple of Kinetic's remaining bubble buses the other week. How many are there left? and what buses will replace them?

The Bubbles are being replaced by the 2019-2020 Scania Optimuses and Gemilangs from the Orbital routes, which are being replaced by the 100+ Scania Hybrids

[CrowdedHouse]

Photo by Declan Martin. 603 Brighton Beach - Burnley operational as of today.