Sunbus Sunshine Coast was an Australian operator of bus services on the

Sunshine Coast, Queensland The Sunshine Coast is a peri-urban region in South East Queensland, Australia. It is the district defined in 1967 as "the area contained in the Shires of Landsborough, Maroochy and Noosa, but excluding Bribie Island". Located north of the ce ...

. It operates 25 services under contract to the

Government of Queensland The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary system, parliamentary constitutional monarchy was form ...

under the

TransLink Translink (or TransLink) may refer to: * TransLink (British Columbia), the public transport operator in Vancouver, Canada * Translink (Northern Ireland) Translink is the brand name of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo), a ...

banner.It is one of Sunbus' operations. As of 2022 Sunbus has changed its name as part of a business re-brand by the parent company,

Kinetic Kinetic (Ancient Greek: κίνησις “kinesis”, movement or to move) may refer to: * Kinetic theory of gases, Kinetic theory, describing a gas as particles in random motion * Kinetic energy, the energy of an object that it possesses due to i ...

. Sunbus has now been dissolved into the Kinetic brand with its fleet of buses reflecting this change.

History

In 1995, Harry Blundred, the proprietor of

Thames Transit Thames Transit was a bus and coach company which operated in the Oxford area. As well as running a number of local services, it also ran a regular service to London (via the M40 motorway) under the ''Oxford Tube'' brand. It was sold in July 1 ...

in the United Kingdom, was awarded the operating rights to route services in the Sunshine Coast region, taking over the services around

Caloundra Caloundra ( ) is a coastal town and the southernmost town in the Sunshine Coast Region in South East Queensland, Australia. Geography Caloundra is north of the Brisbane central business district. Caloundra is accessible from Landsborough ...

and

Maroochydore Maroochydore ( ) is a coastal town in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. The town was subdivided from the Cotton Tree reserve by Surveyor Thomas O'Connor in 1903. The land was acquired from William Pettigrew who had a timber de ...

that had been provided by Sunshine Coast Coaches. In 1996, Tewantin Bus Service was purchased with the services between Maroochydore and

Noosa The Shire of Noosa is a local government area about north of Brisbane in the Sunshine Coast district of South East Queensland, Australia. The shire covers an area of . It existed as a local government entity from 1910 until 2008, when it was ...

. As part of the deal, Sunbus was also responsible for the operation of school bus services in the region, however these were sold in 1997 to fellow British bus operator

Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

. In April 2008, Blundred sold Sunbus Sunshine Coast along with the other Sunbus operations to

Transit Australia Group Transit Australia Group (TAG) was one of Australia's leading mass transit specialists headquartered on the Gold Coast in Queensland. The company operated Sunbus ( Sunbus Cairns, Sunbus Magnetic Island, Sunbus Rockhampton, Sunbus Sunshine Coa ...

. In April 2019, Transit Australia Group was purchased by AATS Group, parent company of Skybus and majority owned by

OPTrust OPTrust, officially the OPSEU Pension Trust, is a legal trust formed by the contractual agreement between the two plan sponsors, Ontario Public Service Employees Union ( OPSEU) and the Government of Ontario. It manages one of Canada's largest pen ...

. In August 2019, AATS Group was rebranded the

Kinetic Group Kinetic Group (formerly known as AATS Group) is an Australian-based multinational bus company that wholly owns a number of bus operations in Australia and New Zealand, including the SkyBus business, which operates bus services to a number of ...

. In late 2022, Sunbus was officially branded as

KINETIC Kinetic (Ancient Greek: κίνησις “kinesis”, movement or to move) may refer to: * Kinetic theory of gases, Kinetic theory, describing a gas as particles in random motion * Kinetic energy, the energy of an object that it possesses due to i ...

with all new advertising now showing the Kinetic Brand. All new buses will display the Kinetic logo with the current fleet of Sunbus slowly being updated to reflect the new brand name. The current website for Sunbus will stay active until early 2023 before it will be deactivated, directing customers to the new Kinetic website.

Routes

Sunbus operated 27 services under contract to the

under the

banner.

Fleet

Sunbus introduced a fleet of

Mercedes-Benz Vario The Mercedes-Benz Vario (model designation BM667/668/670) is a full-size commercial heavy van manufactured by Mercedes-Benz between 1996 and 2013. History The Vario was launched in 1996 as a facelifted version of the Mercedes-Benz T2. The bod ...

midibuses and

Toyota Coaster The is a single-decker minibus produced by Toyota Motor Corporation. It was introduced in 1969, with the second generation introduced in 1982, followed by the third generation in 1993 and the fourth generation in late 2016. In Japan, the Coa ...

minibuses. These have since been replaced by

Bustech BusTech Group is an Australian bus-building manufacturer with production facilities in Burleigh Heads, Queensland, Edinburgh Adelaide, South Australia and Burnie, Tasmania. BusTech Group produces fully built up integral route buses, school bus ...

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 the ...

s and Bustech MDi and XDis. As of May 2018, the fleet consisted of 91 buses.Sunbus
Australian Bus Fleet Lists Sunbus introduced a light blue livery. This has been replaced by the

livery of white body, green ends, a green and blue wavy stripe down each side and the TransLink logo toward the back. However, buses 5701-5728 (excluding 5707), sport the original livery.

Depot

Sunbus operated depots in

and

Marcoola Marcoola is a coastal town and locality in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Marcoola had a population of 3,173 people. Geography Marcoola includes part of the pristine Mount Coolum National Park, border ...

References

External links

Translink timetables
{{Navbox TransLink (SEQ) bus network Bus companies of Queensland Kinetic Group companies Public transport in Sunshine Coast, Queensland Translink (Queensland) Transport companies established in 1995 1995 establishments in Australia