NSW Electric Bus Plan

[SpanningViaduct]

What's it doing there in the corner of the depot yard and not under a pantograph!? I wonder how much longer it'll be until the 9xxx series Elements arrive/enter service, given that there has not been any movement (from what I've seen) on constructing the next pantograph gantries.

They’ve got about a half dozen standard DC plug-in chargers further down the parking road in conjunction with the 13 pantographs arms. Existing Infrastructure should allow them to add another dozen or so BEB’s.

[Linto63]

New Macquarie Park depot will be in addition to Ryde and Willoughby depots, not instead of.

Contract awarded for first purpose built NSW electric bus depot (Roads & Infrastructure)

[enthusiast2]

So does that hint towards it being Busways North West who will be overseeing the new depot?

[Linto63]

Given that a story appeared on Busways'' website in 2024, can be taken as read.

[enthusiast2]

From Transit Systems NSW 20/10/2025:

Australia’s largest integrated multi-modal transport operator, Transit Systems, has welcomed the NSW State Government’s announcement of 151 new battery electric buses, marking another decisive step towards a cleaner, quieter and more sustainable public transport future for Sydney.
The latest investment lifts the number of new buses purchased since the March 2023 election to 921.

The buses will be built by manufacturers, including Custom Denning and Volgren Australia. The 151 order surpasses the State Government’s 50 percent local manufacturing target and supports skilled jobs.

Delivery will be staged across Transit System depots in Leichhardt and Kingsgrove, which are undergoing major upgrades to accommodate the future fleet.

By 2028, approximately 1700 electric buses are expected to be operating on Sydney’s roads, delivering tangible benefits for passengers and the environment.

According to Rino Matarazzo, Managing Director Transit Systems NSW, this investment reflects a strong partnership between government, industry and the community.

“The scale of this order demonstrates the State Government’s commitment to a sustainable transport future, while also supporting local jobs and Australian manufacturing,” Mr Matarazzo said.

“For customers, it means more of the smooth, quiet and comfortable journeys they have already begun to experience on our existing electric fleet.

“For the community, it means cleaner air and significant progress in reducing emissions from public transport. Transit Systems is proud to be at the forefront of this transformation.”

[trackless tram]

At Brookvale, a second Yutong has appeared (9595), along with a pantograph charging Foton.

[trackless tram]

Is it safe to say they're not with Nexport anymore?

Apparently, BYD cut ties with Nexport in early 2023. Nexport hasn't been particularly active after taking over Bustech and seems to have only delivered the electric coaches to NSBC. I'm not sure they currently have any products suitable for procurement under Panel 4.

Meanwhile, BYD is available on the panel as a low entry chassis (BC12B1), which uses the CCS2 charing port.

Recently, Yutong has suggested that they may bring the U12DD double decker electric bus to Australia soon.

[tonyp]

Meanwhile, BYD is available on the panel as a low entry chassis (BC12B1), which uses the CCS2 charing port.

What other electric buses are on the Panel?

[trackless tram]

I don't think there's a full list of the buses on the Panel. I think most manufacturers can qualify; a worthy competitor to the Volvo BZL is a MAN electric chassis, which is fully low floor. Unfortunately, that chassis does not appear to have been purchased by any operators yet.

[tonyp]

I don't think there's a full list of the buses on the Panel. I think most manufacturers can qualify; a worthy competitor to the Volvo BZL is a MAN electric chassis, which is fully low floor. Unfortunately, that chassis does not appear to have been purchased by any operators yet.

The MAN chassis was on display at the Bus Expo in 2022. However, the way things are in NSW (and SA should I say), the various genuises in the agencies and operators will ensure that a high floor is built over the back half of the chassis. The overseas chassis manufacturers must be agog when they see the senseless things we do to their chassis here. That's the attraction of the Custom Denning integral - their clients are not given the choice to dumb the bus down.

The funniest thing is that the Yutong E12 is a low-floor bus everywhere in the world except Australia (though I have seen some with low-entry only in Wales, but you know what they say about the Welsh!).

[stadt80]

The funniest thing is that the Yutong E12 is a low-floor bus everywhere in the world except Australia (though I have seen some with low-entry only in Wales, but you know what they say about the Welsh

The E12 & E13 models in NZ also have raised floors from the rear doors to the rear of the Bus

[tonyp]

The E12 & E13 models in NZ also have raised floors from the rear doors to the rear of the Bus

Probably a case of what Australia does, NZ does - Yutong's Oceania market.

[Swift]

I don’t understand this clinging to raised floor in the rear we have when other countries want to move on to a better layout while we are scared of it.
It’s like they don’t want us exposed to it so we demand it.

[tonyp]

I don’t understand this clinging to raised floor in the rear we have when other countries want to move on to a better layout while we are scared of it.
It’s like they don’t want us exposed to it so we demand it.

In diesels in Australia, it was what the mechanics wanted prioritised over passenger amenity. In electrics in Australia it's a combination of "we've always done it that way" and range anxiety, the latter resulting in batteries crammed into every nook and cranny they can find or create on the bus. This of course means extra weight, thus less passengers. Like diesel buses, electric buses in Europe have been flat-floored for 30 years. After all, there is no engine under the floor to create a need to raise the floor. So when I saw the first battery buses in Australia I was agog to see them with high floors and stairs. Only in Australia ....

[Swift]

Not to mention Scania N series with raised rear section anyway even though there’s no advantage for mechanics with that chassis. A case of pure “it’s always been done that way”.

[trackless tram]

Likewise, the upcoming Yutong U18 is a fully low floor bus everywhere else. But the video posted previously shows that there's a step just behind the rear door, despite clearly using an electric portal axle.

[tonyp]

Likewise, the upcoming Yutong U18 is a fully low floor bus everywhere else. But the video posted previously shows that there's a step just behind the rear door, despite clearly using an electric portal axle.

That's because the U18 is a left-hand drive bus and they stuffed around the interior design up the back in order to get the stepless aisle to a rear door, resulting in a high seating platform on the left side.



It's easier to cover this over with a high floor than redesign just for a small market. If Singapore becomes interested in the model, that may change things because they don't tolerate design nonsense.

The Element is going to be more amenable to having a stepless aisle right through to the back, being designed for right-hand drive.



Of course, as usual, if the local customers don't care, we'll get whatever is cheapest.

[Campbelltown busboy]

Likewise, the upcoming Yutong U18 is a fully low floor bus everywhere else. But the video posted previously shows that there's a step just behind the rear door, despite clearly using an electric portal axle.

That's because the U18 is a left-hand drive bus and they stuffed around the interior design up the back in order to get the stepless aisle to a rear door, resulting in a high seating platform on the left side.



It's easier to cover this over with a high floor than redesign just for a small market. If Singapore becomes interested in the model, that may change things because they don't tolerate design nonsense.

The Element is going to be more amenable to having a stepless aisle right through to the back, being designed for right-hand drive.



Of course, as usual, if the local customers don't care, we'll get whatever is cheapest.

If the public that see a bus as just another mode of public transport think low entry means low floor then that's something that would need more education on the issue

[SpanningViaduct]

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/ ... 1763104981

Sydney bus manufacturer ARCC faces collapse over NSW Government red tape

A Sydney bus manufacturer fears they’re on track to collapse, as the NSW government orders more than 100 buses made in China over the locally-made, zero-emissions vehicles.

Matthew Benns - 2 min read

A Sydney bus manufacturer that won the Australian Made Award could be out of business within months because red tape is stopping it getting orders from Transport NSW.

The NSW Government has ordered just three of the revolutionary zero emissions buses designed and built in Smithfield, with another 126 new buses coming from Chinese company Foton.

ARCC chief executive Peter Murley said he was frustrated because buses built in Western Sydney had been successfully trialled on the South Coast and in Victoria.
“We’ve developed a world-class product and made breakthroughs in systems and processes which enable us to make the buses here at a competitive price,” he said.

“But we cannot get a substantial order because the procurement policies insist we have to have a financial history going back 10 years or $10m in the bank.”

The Sydney start-up would have both if it could land an order for just 30 of the hundreds of buses being ordered from China.

Mr Murley said an order would allow the company to ramp up its employees from 25 to 150 and boost the local supply chain.

Without an order, the company could collapse by early next year.

Two weeks ago, the buses won the Australian Made Award at the Australian Manufacturing Awards. Despite this, ARCC has orders for just three buses from the NSW Government.

“It’s like a surgeon saying ‘I have good news and bad news: the operation has been a success, but the patient is going to die’,” Mr Murley said.

ARCC finds itself struggling to bridge the “valley of death” between innovation and commercialisation because of bureaucratic rules.

“When a local company spends more than a decade designing, developing and deploying industry-disrupting technology for government route buses that is proven to be more efficient than imported overseas competitors, what else needs to be true for it to get orders from state governments promoting policies of local manufacturing first?”

Manufacturing consultant Michael Lucas said there was a disconnect between government ministers wanting to buy Australian-made and bureaucrats refusing to adapt their box ticking measures to support local business.

“They will not buy from a company if it does not have a track record but how can they get a track record if they do not get any orders,” he said.

Mr Murley said he was losing out on orders over the NSW government buying buses from a Chinese manufacturer. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“Every other country seems to understand that if you want to have a manufacturing industry, you have to buy from it, but somehow we don’t.”

Transport Minister John Graham said the NSW Government was supportive of the local company but the buses needed to be trialled before a bulk order could be placed.

“The NSW Government has bought three electric buses from ARCC as part of an industry development opportunity.
“These buses will shortly go into service across a number of Western Sydney depots to be rigorously tested just as other new models do before the Government considers larger investments of public funds,” he said.

Before the election Premier Chris Minns promised electrical buses would be built in NSW, but The Daily Telegraph revealed the buses were imported from China in boxes and assembled in Nowra.

Mr Graham said: “We have a 50 per cent local content target for bus manufacturing on future orders from 2027 and we are backing bus manufacturers that employ workers from Western Sydney to Nowra.”

Prospect state Labor MP Hugh McDermott said ARCC was “a proud Western Sydney company playing a key role in the return of local bus manufacturing to NSW”.

“As a first step, I am pleased the government has purchased much needed locally built buses from ARCC that will now be serving our Western Sydney community,” he said.

[trackless tram]

While it's important to support local pioneers, I'm not sure ARCC have exactly shown themselves to be anywhere near the level of Custom Denning. It seems the chassis of the bus is their own, but both the interior and exterior are clearly a Gemilang, with the exact same high floor level at the rear despite using rather small tyres.

The Victorian bus tracker shows that neither of the two ARCC Hydrogen at Transit Systems West Footscray have been active since late October, and only one CDC Geelong hydrogen bus has been active in November.

[tonyp]

While it's important to support local pioneers, I'm not sure ARCC have exactly shown themselves to be anywhere near the level of Custom Denning. It seems the chassis of the bus is their own, but both the interior and exterior are clearly a Gemilang, with the exact same high floor level at the rear despite using rather small tyres.

The Victorian bus tracker shows that neither of the two ARCC Hydrogen at Transit Systems West Footscray have been active since late October, and only one CDC Geelong hydrogen bus has been active in November.

ARCC's designer came from the company that has subsequently evolved into Nexport and is responsible for the design of the BYD/Gemilang buses we see in airport and commuter service. So, while ARCC designed its own low-entry aluminium chassis, it's no surprise that the body looks Gemilangy.

[SpanningViaduct]

They offer (or use to) a low kerb weight (16t GVM) and a standard kerb weight (18t GVM) solution. The TfNSW unit is of the former, the Victorian examples are of the latter which have standard sized wheel sets and ‘heavier’ Scania axles, suspensions and steering gear.

ARCC's designer came from the company that has subsequently evolved into Nexport and is responsible for the design of the BYD/Gemilang buses we see in airport and commuter service. So, while ARCC designed its own low-entry aluminium chassis, it's no surprise that the body looks Gemilangy.

The body looks “Gemilangy” because it IS a Gemilang CKD kit. Arrives in crates from Malaysia and you bolt/weld it onto any chassis you want.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d_z2jxE77UQ

I assume it’s more cost effective for an upstart bus company with finite financial resources, to source a well supported, light knock down kit than develop their own body. Especially when there is little prospect of any substantial orders, more so in the first few years of operations. But they, like Nexport, eventually ended up putting their own unique end styling to look less “Gemilangy”. Perhaps sourcing a Volgren or Express body is a future possibility. Or they go all out and develop their own.

[tonyp]

The body looks “Gemilangy” because it IS a Gemilang CKD kit. Arrives in crates from Malaysia and you bolt/weld it onto any chassis you want.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d_z2jxE77UQ

A bus is basically a garden shed on wheels!

You can see the big difference in floor heights of the chassis in that video. The designer was adamant that there was nothing wrong with that despite being shown photos of how nobody would climb the stairs and instead overcrowded the low floor section of the dysfunctional Blue Emu airport buses. The response was that the stairs were ADR compliant. ADR only covers minimum requirements. Good design is still up the builder. This extends to the general industry attitude to accessibility - it's DDA compliant, we don't need to any more than basic compliance. Look at how much more thought and consideration goes into tram design in the video I posted recently on the Inner West light rail thread. That same consideration also goes into bus design in Europe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9BDMeIudJs

I'd observe in relation to the narrative of that video that, of all the Australian bus suppliers, Custom Denning is the only one that also has a decent "brain room".

[tonyp]

We agonise so much about building electric buses in Australia that we cop out and import them from China. Meanwhile in Uganda:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X9dVehj9b4

https://automag.ug/2025/07/12/ugandas-e ... en-future/

[Linto63]

Get over it, the reasons EVs are being imported has been well documented.