Hopkinsons is an Australian bus company in

Western Sydney Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US * Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that i ...

. Until October 2013 it operated route services until these passed to

Transit Systems Transit Systems Group is an Australian-based public transport company, which also operates overseas through its subsidiary Tower Transit Group. Transit Systems Group is a subsidiary of the Kelsian Group, formerly SeaLink Travel Group. History ...

. It continues to trade as a charter operator.

History

Hopkinsons' origins can be traced to 1923 when the Try family, trading as Merrylands Bus Company, commenced operating services in the Fairfield, Guildford and

Merrylands Merrylands is a suburb in Western Sydney, Australia. Merrylands is located 25 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is in the local government area of the Cumberland City Council. History Merrylands was named after the fo ...

area with four buses. By 1957 the fleet had expanded to 16 buses. In 1978 Merrylands Bus Company was sold to Graham Hopkinson and renamed Hopkinsons and relocated to Smithfield.Hopkinsons Metrobus & Coaches
Australian Bus Fleet Lists In late 2003 the coach business of Challenge Coachlines was purchased and amalgamated with Hopkinsons' existing coach charter business. Following the death of Graham Hopkinson in 2011, his four daughters took over running the business. From 2005 Hopkinsons' services formed part of Sydney Bus Region 3. In October 2013

commenced operating Region 3 including the services formerly operated by Hopkinsons. Hopkinsons continues to trade as a charter operator. On 1 March 2015, the business was purchased by Kiama Coaches proprietor Gerald King and

Premier Transport Group Premier Transport Group is an Australian operator of bus and coach services in New South Wales and Queensland. Its origins can be traced back to December 1987 when John King purchased Nowra Coaches. It has since expanded through a number of acqu ...

owner John King. Having downsized, the depot in Smithfield closed in June 2020 with the remaining vehicles relocated to that of sister company Premier Charters in

Helensburgh Helensburgh (; gd, Baile Eilidh) is an affluent coastal town on the north side of the Firth of Clyde in Scotland, situated at the mouth of the Gareloch. Historically in Dunbartonshire, it became part of Argyll and Bute following local gove ...

.Fleet News ''

Australian Bus Sydney Bus Museum (formerly the Sydney Bus and Truck Museum) is a not-for-profit transportation museum and education centre for public benefit located in the suburb of Leichhardt, in Sydney, Australia. The museum is open to the public on the fi ...

'' issue 101 September 2020 page 40

Fleet

As at June 2015, the fleet consisted of five buses and 20 coaches. When Hopkinsons purchased the business in 1978 it consisted of Bedfords. In the 1980s these were replaced by ex

ACTION Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

AEC Swift The AEC Swift was a rear-engined step entrance single-decker bus chassis manufactured by AEC between 1964 and 1980. The chassis design was closely related to the Leyland Panther. It was available in and lengths, with an AEC AH505 or AH691 ...

and

Volvo B58 The Volvo B58 was a mid-engined bus chassis manufactured by Volvo in Sweden from 1966 until early 1982. It was succeeded by the B10M. Operators In the United Kingdom, it was sold to many major operators including Wallace Arnold and Park's of H ...

s. In the 1990s it had some ex

Public Transport Corporation The Public Transport Corporation (PTC) was a Victoria State Government owned statutory authority formed under the Transport Act 1983 which operated passenger and freight trains, trams and bus services. The PTC was also responsible for directly ...

Volvo B59 The Volvo B59 was a rear-engined bus chassis manufactured by Volvo in Sweden between 1970 and 1979. The first Volvo B59 was delivered to the Københavns Sporveje (The City Transport Authority in Copenhagen, Denmark) in 1970, and was fitted with ...

s rebodied by P&D Coachworks to a design by Hopkinsons followed by some similarly bodied

Volvo B10B The Volvo B10B was a rear-engined step deck single-decker bus chassis manufactured by Volvo between 1992 and 2001. The first prototype were built in 1990, but the B10B wasn't launched until the 1992 Geneva Motor Show. It superseded the Leyland ...

s. More recent purchases have been

Custom Coaches Custom Bus (previously Custom Coaches) is an Australian bus body builder in St Marys, New South Wales. History Cycle Components Manufacturing Company In 1935 Stanley Hillsdon founded Cycle Components Manufacturing Company (CCMC) in Guildford, ...

bodied

Volvo B12BLE The Volvo B12BLE is a low-entry city and suburban bus chassis launched in 2001 with a rear-mounted transverse engine. It superseded the Volvo B10BLE and is used as a base for single-decker buses in Europe and Australia. The B12BLE features t ...

s. Hopkinsons has long operated charter coaches. Initially operating Dennings and later Austral Tourmasters, it has since moved to

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skåne ...

and Volvos. In the 1980s the two tone green livery was replaced by the current white, green and blue colour scheme. Coaches used to also carry this livery until a silver livery was adopted at about the same time as the purchase of Challenge Coachlines.

References

External links

{{commons category-inline, Hopkinsons (coach company)
Merrylands Bus Company fleet in 1957Bus Australia gallery
Bus companies of New South Wales Bus transport in Sydney Transport companies established in 1923 1923 establishments in Australia