Predictions for the 2020s

[Shoudy Chen]

- 2021 will be the final year for Mercedes Benz O405NH buses in Transperth (as they continue retiring its older O405NH buses). This year, will see older Mercedes Benz OC CNG buses starting to phase out. (as gas tanks expire and therefore it won't be renewed). It's likely that these buses could be towed to scrap. It will also see OC500LE CNG buses completing its refurbishment.
- 2022 will see more older Volvo B7RLEs being moved to REgionals to replace the older O405NH buses. As well, this will commence the refurbishment of the Volvo B7RLE buses. That year, Volvo Diesel Rigids will start to join Southern River depot as MB OC500LEs start to leave the fleet into retirement.
- 2023 will see the withdrawal of A-Series trains in Transperth as B-Series gradually start to operate on the Armadale/Thornlie-Cockburn/MIdland/Airport Link/Fremantle lines. As well, the C-Series trains will commence operation on the Joondalup/Mandurah Line.
- 2024 will be the Paris Olympics. It is likely that Channel 7 will retain the rights to the Olympic Games. Channel 7 had a good history of the Olympics (1992-2008, 2016-present).
- 2027 will be the final year for the remaining CNG buses in Transperth. Sadly, this will mark the end of a good era for CNG buses in Transperth.
- Domino's Pizza will open its first drive thru restaurant in Australia.

[MotorOmnibus8562]

This year (2021) at the earliest Dysons Trial a pair of Gemilangs for Wodonga Depot (similar to how buses 915 and 916 were also bought to Wodonga to demonstrate whether all new town buses should use the Scania Chassis or continue using the Volvo chassis.) but may continue to stick with Volgrens

PTV livery becomes mandatory for all new buses operating regional victorian contracts. (2022?)

New Thursday/Friday timetable for Albury routes is applied to all other weekdays

Sunday services For both Albury and Wodonga

[Campbelltown busboy]

All non DDA compliant front door step entry buses left in Sydney will be withdrawn from route service by 2025

Most DDA conppliant low entry single door buses operating routes in the Transport For NSW contracted areas will be withdrawn by the end of 2029 if the NSW governments electric bus replacement program doesn't retire them before their time

Conservatives will take back full control of the LNP from the progressives the working class will take back 50% control of the ALP from the left and the greens will become a major party with the party dumping all their socialist ideas and going back to a party that has green ideas and making policies for a better greener environment

[ScaniaGrenda]

So here's a semi remake of my further predictions I was intending to post last night before my forum session expired.

People
Queen Elizabeth II passes away before 2030

John Cleese passes away before 2027

Christopher Lloyd passes away before 2026

Rowan Atkinson retires from acting sometime between 2023 and 2028

Shops & Retail
Sanity closes all of their physical retail shops and becomes 100% an online only retailer

Big W closes more stores in smaller towns and now can only be found at Major shopping centres

KFC Launches another drive through only restaurant in either Sydney. Melbourne or Brisbane

McDonald's does their own drive through only restaurant, It opens either in the UK or USA first

Transport
STA Sydney begins withdrawal of their Euro 3 Volvo B12BLEs CB60 buses around 2023 or 2024 and isn't finished withdrawing all of them until 2028. Some private operators buy them and all of them go to different places around Australia, a few small private buyers even buy them to try converting them into motorhomes, the rest that aren't sold are used for parts or are sent for scrapping.

All Remaining Scania L94UBs Volgrens that are still at Brisbane Transport are withdrawn between this year and next year

Singapore trials a Volgren Optimus bodied bus between 2020 and 2030, it's likely it'll be a hybrid bus and the chassis will be a Volvo B5RLEH or the local equivalent of it.

All remaining Volgren bodied buses in Singapore made before 2003 are retired and sent for scrapping. This is because their Transport Authority deems buses "unsafe" once they've reached their end of life period

NSW Trainlink J-Set trains go under a refurbishment program. The Refurbishment includes improved lighting and digital signage, new windows (Removing all etched and scratched windows) and the toilets are upgraded.

The Asian market trials a Volvo B9TL Volgren Optimus


Technology

Sony launches a disc-less PS5. The model becomes a popular hit with those with high-speed Internet connections and those who wish to have a full digital library.
GTA VI launches in 2023 first coming to Xbox Series X and PS5. It'll launch on PC in 2025
Google Stadia launches in Australia after 2025
3D Printing capability is improved, it now only takes less than an hour to print something the size of a TV remote for instance.
Nintendo Launches an Nintendo 64 Classic. Playstation also follows suit and launches a PS2 classic.

Been almost over two years since the last post in this thread was made, let's see how far I got in terms of predictions

People
"Queen Elizabeth II passes away before 2030" Guess at the time I was somewhat way too far on this one, had my inkling the Queen would pass before 2030 but didn't expect to be 2022, I had the thought that the Queen would survive until at least 2025. Queen Elizabeth II passed away 8th September 2022.

John Cleese & Christopher Lloyd are still alive as of the timing of this post however I did put my prediction down for before 2027 so we've still got a couple of years on this one.

Rowan Atkinson I think is still acting If I'm right on that one, not so much Mr Bean anymore as we've come to know & love him for. He did star in the Netflix series Man Vs Bee not too long ago.

Sanity did close more of their physical stores so I was right on that one, quick google search tells me their last stores will be closed by April 2023, what I'm not sure of is whether they'll turn into the likes of Dick Smith still having an online only presence or completely close up.

KFC did open a second Drive Through only restaurant in 2020 in Adelaide South Australia & am not aware of anymore to date opening.

Haven't heard anything about Mcdonalds following KFC doing something similar in terms of a drive through only restaurant so I think I can say this prediction is likely dead in the water.

Transport

The last of Sydney Buses operations were wrapped up in April of last year if memory serves me correctly. None of the Euro III B12BLE CB60's have been withdrawn by any of the private operators who took over their operations. The prediction I made back in 2020 was more in line with STA rather than that of private operators so I can't really say anything about private operators withdrawing them as the prediction was for STA so this prediction is busted.

Not sure when Brisbane City Council withdrew the last of the L94UB's, probably in 2020 or 21 when I made the post so this one did happen although was easy to predict given BBC was already in the process of withdrawing them at the time so it was easy to predict that one.

Singapore trailing an Optimus bus between 2020 & 2030 I think is unfortunately unlikely to happen, for one their moving rapidly to electric buses, two they seem to be going with more integral products now over non-integral (so Chassis is separate to body being made) & 3 I think possibly the Optimus range is not far off being retired since It is on average about every 10 years or so Volgren will announce a successor to their previous bodywork series, the Optimus series will more than likely be retired before Singapore ever sees an Optimus bus.

Singapore withdraw the last B10TL Volgren prior to 2021 if Memory serves me correct so there are no longer any Volgren buses in service in Singapore.

Asian Market trials a B9TL Optimus, I was wrong on this one so another busted prediction and not too sure where or why I came up with this one since google tells me the last of the B9TL's were retired by Volvo in 2018.

I didn't put down a timeframe on this one so still could happen yet although there has been no public announcement to the Hunter J-Sets undertaking another refurbishment.

[Merc1107]

Not sure when Brisbane City Council withdrew the last of the L94UB's, probably in 2020 or 21 when I made the post so this one did happen although was easy to predict given BBC was already in the process of withdrawing them at the time so it was easy to predict that one.

It was the latter half of 2020 that the final ones were withdrawn, I was going to say Q3 but Brisbane Transport Buses says November. For whatever reason a small handful (626, 627, 630, 633, 646, 650, 676) hung on substantially longer than the others. Interesting considering they were among the first L94 deliveries.

[ScaniaGrenda]

So here's a semi remake of my further predictions I was intending to post last night before my forum session expired.

Technology

Sony launches a disc-less PS5. The model becomes a popular hit with those with high-speed Internet connections and those who wish to have a full digital library.
GTA VI launches in 2023 first coming to Xbox Series X and PS5. It'll launch on PC in 2025
Google Stadia launches in Australia after 2025
3D Printing capability is improved, it now only takes less than an hour to print something the size of a TV remote for instance.
Nintendo Launches an Nintendo 64 Classic. Playstation also follows suit and launches a PS2 classic.

Didn't get around to this section since I'd quoted a fair few much already of my predictions and the post was getting very long, oh boy do we have some things here that did & didn't happen.

Sony did indeed launch a digital only console PS5, a first for them & I haven't heard of it flopping, the opposite actually and I presume It's because we're at that point in time where we are seeing a decline for physical media whether that'll be cost, to prevent clutter etc. I'm personally the opposite and given consoles are a "walled in garden" type of thing I have a disc edition PS5 as I don't like to be locked into buying from one store front (Playstation store) which can work out to be more expensive in the long run as there's seemingly no reason to lower media prices on there over time.

GTA VI won't be launching in 2023, we still haven't heard anything from Rockstar themselves confirming the existence of this title however some leaks occurred last year showing early development build of the game, I think some people were saying the builds themselves come from before 2022 so the game would be more polished at this point & we're just waiting for Rockstar to make an announcement at this point. On the topic of this an announcement seems more than likely this year or next year at the latest for their next title & no doubt that is GTA VI.

Google Stadia was very short lived & unfortunately suffered from teething issues post lauch with consumers reporting major issues like latency problems, graphical problems, games crashing & running terrible on Stadia. Google announced they would be pulling the plug on Stadia in late 2022 If I'm recalling correctly and unfortunately was never offered in the Australasian market. I've used a couple of other remote game streaming platforms that do have data centers and they've worked out fine providing my connection is stable, latency is low and I'm not far off from the DC.

3D Printing capability is improved - Not 100% sure on this one but I know the technology is ever evolving over time, no doubt there'll be consumer 3D printers that will be able to cut down the printing time however will have the high price tag to boot.

Nintendo Launches an Nintendo 64 Classic. Playstation also follows suit and launches a PS2 classic. - I think the craze & hype over Mini-Consoles is dead in the water. While the Nintendo classic consoles were a success, Sony's Playstation 1 mini was not and was ripped apart by consumers for poor emulation & performance as well as releasing a standalone PAL variant for every market including NA where NTSC is used (although can be changed by easily modding the console). I don't think Nintendo is interested anymore in releasing classic mini consoles & seems to be more focused on the Switch & the subscription service where you pay monthly to have access to a small library of classic game titles. Sony is possibly also not interested in repeating history after the terrible launch of their first & only mini console so the PS2 classic is unlikely to happen for the foreseeable future.

[ScaniaGrenda]

Minor predictions (Predictions that have a very low chance of occurring but could still possibly happen)

Hunter Valley Buses trials a Custom Endevour on a Volvo B8RLE chassis but makes no purchases & sticks with Volgren as preferred bus body.

On demand bus transport becomes available in the Maitland area & is operated by Hunter Valley Buses using a mix of either Hino ponchos & or Toyota Hiaces.

Major predictions (Predictions that have a very high chance of occurring)

EX stationlink Volvo Optimuses that were sent down to Hunter Valley Buses get swapped from m/o plates to xxxx MO plates at some point

Rover Coaches / Motors purchases a few Iveco Metro buses with the Custom Endeavour body

2023 - 2025 Volgren announces a successor to their Endura & Optimus body range

Time to Bump this thread, see what predictions past me figured would happen but have or haven't come true

Keep it short in sweet instead of going on a long tangent of why it has / hasn't happened

Hunter Valley Buses (Now CDC NSW) having a demonstrator Volvo B8RLE with Custom Endeavour bodywork. Never happened and unlikely too

On Demand Transport in Maitland operated by CDC NSW - Another one that hasn't happened, I think at the time I made the post was when the hype about all these On Demand services were the rage and figured seeing it in a regional footprint would happen, I was probably being way too optimistic on that one.

The former Stationlink Volvo B7RLE's transferred to regional operations still remain on date metro plates, not regional, not aware of even one being changed over yet.

Rover Coaches having an Iveco Metro Custom Endeavour, remembering I made this post when the company was still in the hands of Lewis family and not Buslines, easy to predict it may have gone this way if Rover was still in family hands. With Buslines taking over, Rover instead got two O500LE's and two Volvo B8RLE's fitted with Express Coachworks bodywork although I think the Volvos are more of a Buslines thing and were only sent to Rover with Mercedes Buses pulling out of the Australian market.

2023 - 2025 Volgren announces a successor to the Optimus/ Endura body series, still one more year left on this one, so far nothing and both variants are still being built / supported by Volgren so not over yet but we'll see in 2025.

[ScaniaGrenda]

Hopefully not too late to add some more predictions

Transport again (Can't get enough of these)

2026 - 2030 It's announced the two Newcastle ferries (Hunter & Shortland) will be retired (by 2030 they will be around the 40 years of age mark). Tenders are then opened by TNSW to sought replacements with an international company winning the tender to build the new ferries which causes contovesery instead of going to an local / Australian company to be built. They will still be single deck. Only two are built at first however a 3rd one is kept in mind in the off-chance a wharf at Newcastle Interchange is built which then expands to the city of Newcastle having two ferries operating at once instead of presently just one at a time.

More Zero Emission Buses are added to the Newcastle Transport fleet although instead of being from Bustech this time, the new additions to the fleet are of Chinese origin and likely are Yutong E12's.

First Zero Emission Double Decker revenue bus enters service in the Australian market from Chinese manufacturer BYD, It is still not an integral build with instead being fitted with Gemilang / Nexport bodywork.

2030 there are no longer any Volvo B10(M or LE), Mercedes-Benz O405 / NH's in the CDC NSW fleet, with the remaining units having been sold off to charter operators or scrapped.

2025 / 2026 - Newcastle Light Rail gets another business case of whether it is feasible to extend the Light-Rail network to Broadmeadow, the case comes back with it being yes however that's as it far as it gets with no actual news or updates of an extension becoming reality. The Newcastle Light-rail will still remain a 2.7KM network well into 2030.

Suppose this fits the Transport category but with the growing uptake of Zero Emission vehicles, some service stations are repurposed, the fuel bowsers are removed and replaced with Charging stations, motorists are able to go inside what was one the service station building and are able to make their own coffee, purchase snacks from self service vending machines and recharge their mobile devices and make use of other amenities. With the advanced growth of technology there is a display screen inside that displays each charging station number and tells drivers when their vehicle is finished charging instead of having to pull up an application on their smart-phone.