As for what made the PTA and BT choose Volgren in the first place is beyond my knowledge, but if Volgren buses do the job (which they do to a reasonable extent!) I doubt that the people in control of the chequebooks will have much motivation to test other manufacturer's products. The thing I liked a...

The uniformity of presentation of the Perth fleet speaks of a high standard and pride in the operation that's lacking in Sydney. Not only the livery, but the consistently high minimum design standard. You'd never see an abomination like the Bustech with steps at the centre door in Perth. They're fa...

If that is the case it would seem unusual that Custom Denning marketed a diesel vehicle as a hybrid - after all they are the ones who bodied it.

That's because Transport For NSW allow the contract holding operators to set their own bus specs rather then having a uniform spec set by the agency I believe that has changed with the new tranche of contracts being offered - most operators are now forced to use the so-called 'electric bus' seat mo...

Not too sure whether this belongs here or in another thread, but I found something quite interesting on the web: Custom Denning claims to have delivered a Scania Hybrid Custom Endeavour to McGinty's of Victoria (apparently trading as Trotters?): https://www.customdenning.com.au/post/custom-denning-i...

No - from experience, there are actually more services during the school holidays on many routes, as drivers dedicated to school runs are freed up to do route service. During the school holidays there are often extra 288 services running (from memory it was two extra services each direction during p...

Suggests to me they are on trial and not committed to them yet. The Elements at Busways have been in service since 2021 and apart from a short stint on the sidelines in 2022 they have been in regular service since, even on the weekends. Busways did trial a BYD-Gemilang sometime last year or so but ...

CDCNSW Toronto's m/o 6867 sighted on the Pacific motorway yesterday near Berowra heading north. Most likely it paid Sydney a visit, although for what reason I am unable to tell. Doesn't look like much has changed so I doubt it went to St Marys for some TLC, unlike some of CDCNSW's other Volvo B7RLEs...

Were the Euro III B12BLEs always this loud? It makes me wonder why they are still allowed to operate at night... and whether hush-kits are available.

And after a year in power, it appears like they weren't able to find enough money to return the 400 like the promised every second of the election campaign :roll: . Restoring the 400 would mean it runs mostly parallel to the current 350 - I'd imagine either an extension of the 350 and/or renumberin...

I'm not personally a big fan of EVs (I much prefer diesels - especially the ones from the late 90s!) but the statistics do show that electric vehicles are less likely to catch fire than conventionally fuelled vehicles. According to this university report, petrol and diesel vehicles are 20 times more...

A few things for today: Saw a couple of Transdev John Holland's Volvo B12BLEA Volgren CR228L artics on rail replacement earlier this morning - nothing really special but just thought I'd mention it considering the discussion on artics doing rail replacement. There was a news story about Transit Syst...

You can distinguish whether a B8RLE is a Euro 5 or Euro 6 by looking at the VIN. Would that be from the 5th-7th letters of the VIN? I noticed that the B8RLEs from 2914 up to 3055 had VINs beginning with YV3T7V7 while 2913 and the B8RLEs from 3056 onwards had VINs beginning with YV3T7U5 - but the ea...

This year, most 5A and 5B services were run out of CDC Charter St Marys Depot, with Cumberland Coachlines also filling on on some 5B shifts - most other years its been Hillsbus Northmead doing the heavy lifting on said routes. The 8 remains Dural operated.

I took a trip on 3114 yesterday - the Voith gearbox wasn't noticeable until the bus started braking down a hill, but other than that they sound pretty similar to the ZF equipped vehicles. All the older B8RLEs up to 3055 are Euro 5 (all with ZF) and hence the different fuel cap placement. 3056 onward...

Looking at the network map above, both the 141 and 193 are classified under 'Local' instead of 'Bus services to other areas', which might suggest that the two routes are also being passed to KDNB. However while the 280 has an unavailable timetable post 31 March, the timetables for both the 141 and 1...

Just a quick question on the topic of State Transit vehicles and their transmissions, which is something I've found a bit difficult to source information on. Most of the Volvo B12BLE Custom CB60 Evo II vehicles are fitted with a ZF EcoMat gearbox, but apparently some of the vehicles from 1870-1889 a...

There is 1, and it is 2108 ST, a tri-axle Scania K310UB Volgren CR228L. Perhaps you just got extremely lucky - from experience trying to find 2108, it's only often out on one or two shifts a day. To be fair, I've struggled to get around the numbering system STA used for its vehicles - I originally t...

I'd assume that Station Link was funded by TfNSW, however, that begs the question of why TfNSW (and the taxpayers of NSW) paid for Station Link but not for the Bankstown contract, considering both the ECRL shutdown and the T3 partial shutdown were for conversion to Metro standard. If the lack of ele...

I doubt that any manufacturer here would be able to go through all the ordering red tape here to even start manufacturing within 6 months months, let alone complete 60 within that time frame. Volgren managed to deliver 120 buses to CDC Hillsbus back in 2018 for Station Link within a timeframe of 5 ...

I've always wanted to know why the so-called 'shopper hopper' routes exist and when they were introduced - unlike with Metrobus, NightRide or T-Way routes there seems to be very limited information on their purpose. I remember there used to be an S8 service that seems to have been renumbered 709, bu...

With the early retirement of the first ex STA B12BLE's, looks like some more misfortune with m/o 1415 breaking down in Hunter Street around 4:00 PM yesterday on the 11 to Newcastle Via University. I've always wondered why the Euro III B12BLEs are so ridiculously loud, and I recall the first time I ...

The UK got something right - from what I know many British double deckers are rated for 230 horsepower. I have heard it said that Sydney requires more powerful vehicles due to the hilly road conditions, but few operating environments in Sydney are more hilly than the North West. Yet Hillsbus has ple...

I've found the Euro V batch of B12BLEs to have more power, from what I gather the first batch of Custom CB60 bodied B12BLEs had a built-in function that limited the power output of the engine or something. As for the gas buses, how much horsepower do the CNG powered L113CRBs, O405NHs and O500LEs hav...

I was browsing through the STA Fleet Lists and I noticed that bus 2080 was registered on regional MO plates as 1591 MO between March and September 2017, despite being based at Burwood at the time - why wasn't it registered on the m/o plates that other STA vehicles were re-registered on? Something a ...