CDC Geelong, formerly known as Benders Busways, is a bus company operating in

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Au ...

, operating routes as well as charters. It is a subsidiary of

CDC Victoria CDC Victoria is a transport company which operates in Victoria and is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia. It was renamed from Kefford Corporation, which was acquired by ComfortDelGro Cabcharge (predecessor of ComfortDelGro Australia) in Feb ...

, in turn a subsidiary of

ComfortDelGro Australia ComfortDelGro Australia is a major Australian public transport company. Founded in October 2005 as ComfortDelGro Cabcharge, a joint venture between Singapore-based ComfortDelGro (51%) and Australian Cabcharge (49%), today it is a fully owned sub ...

, in turn a subsidiary of

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

-based

ComfortDelGro ComfortDelGro Corporation is a multi-national land transport company listed on the Singapore Exchange, operating about 35,000 vehicles in seven countries. It was formed on 29 March 2003 through a merger of Singapore-based land transport compa ...

History

Benders Busways was formed by Ernest and Aimee Bender in 1926, and was established for 75 years. Their son Norman Bender eventually took over the business. The first route ran from Geelong to

Chilwell Chilwell is a village and residential suburb of Nottingham, in the borough of Broxtowe of Nottinghamshire, west of Nottingham city. Until 1974 it was part of Beeston and Stapleford Urban District, having been in Stapleford Rural District until ...

, and in 1931 a second route commenced from the

Geelong Post Office The current Geelong Post Office opened in 1994 and is located on the corner of Gheringhap and Little Myers Streets. The original post office was located on the corner of Ryrie and Gheringhap Streets. The Geelong Telegraph Station was located ne ...

to the corner of Minerva Road and Aberdeen Street in

Geelong West Geelong West is a commercial and residential suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia. When Geelong was founded, the area was known as Kildare but its name was changed to Geelong West in 1875. The main street is Pakington Street. At the 2016 c ...

. The closure of the Geelong tram system in 1956 saw Benders win the contract to serve the former tram routes with buses. Eighteen new buses were purchased to run the increased number of services. In 1987, Benders purchased IJ Cook & Son. In June 2000 the Bender family sold Benders Busways to the

Kefford Corporation CDC Victoria is a transport company which operates in Victoria and is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia. It was renamed from Kefford Corporation, which was acquired by ComfortDelGro Cabcharge (predecessor of ComfortDelGro Australia) in Feb ...

. In February 2009 the Kefford Corporation was sold to

ComfortDelGro Cabcharge ComfortDelGro Australia is a major Australian public transport company. Founded in October 2005 as ComfortDelGro Cabcharge, a joint venture between Singapore-based ComfortDelGro (51%) and Australian Cabcharge (49%), today it is a fully owned su ...

(CDC), with the sale including Benders Busways for A$149 million. At the time Kefford was the fourth-largest bus operator in Victoria, with a fleet of 328 buses and six depots, and with a market share of 16%. On 14 July 2014, CDC announced that Benders Busways would be re-branded as CDC Geelong. On 1 July 2022, CDC Geelong's Regional Bus Services Contract to operate bus services was renewed for 10 years. It would also be subject to new performance measures and service standards, consistent with the bus services in Melbourne.

Livery

When the

Geelong Transit System The Geelong Transit System (GTS) was the operating brand of public transport in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It was a joint venture between the Kefford Corporation's Benders Busways, (since 2008 CDC Geelong) and McHarry's Buslines. From 2009, ...

(GTS) was first introduced in 1983, buses operated by Benders on route services were painted in the blue stripe and white GTS livery. However the contract with the state government requiring Benders to use the GTS livery on its urban route buses expired in 2000, and under the subsequent contract the company's buses all reverted to Benders' former white and green livery. In August 2014, CDC Victoria announced that it had started to use the recently-introduced

Public Transport Victoria Public Transport Victoria (PTV) is the brand name for public transport in the Australian state of Victoria, Australia, Victoria. It was the trading name of the Go Public Transport Development Authority (PTDA), a now-defunct statutory authorit ...

orange and white livery on its buses, replacing the former Benders livery, and CDC Geelong buses providing public transport services were progressively repainted. An orange, blue and white livery was adopted for charter buses.

Fleet

As at June 2022, the CDC Geelong fleet consisted of 85 buses and coaches.

References

External links

Company website
{{ComfortDelGro, state=collapsed Bus companies of Victoria (Australia) ComfortDelGro companies Transport in Geelong

History

Livery

Fleet

See also

References

External links