Queensland Company buying into London Buses.

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Drain Jockey
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Queensland Company buying into London Buses.

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CityRail
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Re: Queensland Company buying into London Buses.

Post by CityRail »

With the Aussie Dollar potentially has peaked at this level, this could potentially a good long term investment once the Aussie Dollar goes down, this venture will give TSA a lot in Forex revenue.

Anyways, I am glad and proud finally we have an Australian firm trying to expand overseas. Hopefully others will follow suit or TSA to acquire more firms elsewhere (like Asia)
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Re: Queensland Company buying into London Buses.

Post by E.L.Wood »

As an interesting side light the purchaser of the rest of First's London empire was Comfort DelGro(Metroline)who are parnets in CDC who TSA took part of their Sydney contract off!
yolo seems to be a bit of a trend!
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Re: Queensland Company buying into London Buses.

Post by Bedford-29 »

It won`t be the first Australia company to run buses in London Macquarie bank acquired Stagecoaches London operations some years back.
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Re: Queensland Company buying into London Buses.

Post by boronia »

And Westbus's foray into coaches.
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Re: Queensland Company buying into London Buses.

Post by Nugget »

It's interesting reading the English articles on the reason why First Group is getting out. The margins have been steadily dropping for running TfL routes as there are more stringent requirements on updating fleets and use of hybrid technology.
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Re: Queensland Company buying into London Buses.

Post by crazyturbo76 »

True... the usage of hybrid technology'll skyrocket once Boris Johnson's promise to London about new Routemasters (which are of course hybrid-powered) is fufilled in a few years. That, and I believe TfL regulations state that buses must be replaced on London services every seven years-some of the franchise holders around London's bus network are relunctant to take on the value risk posed by the new Routemaster (New Bus for London) contracts, and TfL doesn't have enough money to own the new bus fleet. The seven-year rule must be what is forcing companies like First Group out of the London contracts.
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Re: Queensland Company buying into London Buses.

Post by ajw373 »

crazyturbo76 wrote:True... the usage of hybrid technology'll skyrocket once Boris Johnson's promise to London about new Routemasters (which are of course hybrid-powered) is fufilled in a few years. That, and I believe TfL regulations state that buses must be replaced on London services every seven years-some of the franchise holders around London's bus network are relunctant to take on the value risk posed by the new Routemaster (New Bus for London) contracts, and TfL doesn't have enough money to own the new bus fleet. The seven-year rule must be what is forcing companies like First Group out of the London contracts.
Most, actually everything above is not true.

Firstly hybrid buses are already quite common in London, with the Borismaster being just one of 3 or so models in use. The following routes are either all or partial hybrid operated. 3, 12, 15, 16, 19, 23, 24, 27, 38, 73, 76, 88, 94, 139, 141, 188, 211, 333, 380, 328, 360, 371, 436, H91 and E8 with over 360 buses already in use. Recently the 4th round of green bus funding which is done by the UK department of transport will see another 90 Hybrids, which are separate from the Borismaster entering service in London.

Secondly there is NO requirement for buses to be replaced every 7 years. London has just come through a period of about 14 years of frequent replacement to get rid of step entrance buses where it may have seemed this was the case, but it isn't. Many new contracts are being let for further periods with existing buses. I believe the max age and the one that London is aiming for is 14 years which is two complete cycles of 5 year contract, 2 year extension, 5 year new contract, 2 year extension.

Thirdly operators of the Borismaster take no risk as routes using these buses are not using the same tender system. Instead they are using what is more common here where the government, TfL in this case buy and own the buses with them being run, manned and maintained by the operator. So not sure where you get the idea TfL doesn't have the money to own the fleet, because the complete opposite is true.

As for First their press release says it all, they want to move their capital to areas where they see growth. London buses doesn't offer this. Simple as that really.
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Re: Queensland Company buying into London Buses.

Post by Mr OC Benz »

On top of that, there are a couple of other routes that have the odd Hybrid on them, 355 runs one or two single deck hybrids. Also most of the 74 is covered with B5LHs.

Correct that it is about 14 years. In particular with the Borismaster they want to maximise their use and get value for money (I think it is one reason why TfL ordered 600 of them as oppose to the small operators buying small batches of them).

I've been here for the last month or so and have been capturing the last movements of First before Metroline and Tower Transit take over respectively.

Hybrid models in London in use at the moment include:
Volvo B5LH (bodied by Wrightbus)
Alexander Dennis Enviro 400H
Wrightbus "New Bus for London"
Wrightbus Electrocity
Alexander Dennis Enviro 200H
And the Wrightbus Hydrogen buses which Tower Transit will take on for route RV1.

The star out of them all in my opinion is the Volvo B5LH (the NBfL is quite good too). The others generally rattle, make loud noises accelerating and just sound insipid from an enthusiasts point of view. The design of the NBfL is quite well thought out though and the B5LH is quite good with it's parralel system.
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Re: Queensland Company buying into London Buses.

Post by jibb »

Tower Transit(a division of Transit Systems Australia) takes over the running of 20 London Bus Routes on Sunday.
400 buses(single and double decker) will operate from 3 depots,with 1500 employees.There services will carry over 111 million passengers per year.
It will be the only operator of hydrogen buses in London.
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Re: Queensland Company buying into London Buses.

Post by Mr OC Benz »

Glad I got all my photos of First branded buses the other week then! The Wright Hydrogen buses operate on RV1.
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Re: Queensland Company buying into London Buses.

Post by jibb »

Tower Transit have just won tenders for another 3 London Bus routes nos 212/444/488.The contracts dont start until 7/3/2015 and 28/02/2015.A total of 30 single and double deck buses.
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Re: Queensland Company buying into London Buses.

Post by jibb »

Transit Systems Australia which is the parent company of Swan Transt,Torrens Transit and Tower Transit has purchased Whippet Coaches which operates in Cambridgshire and operates around 40 routes including shared operation of their Guided Busway.
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