Transit Australia Group (TAG) was one of Australia's leading mass transit specialists headquartered on the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. The company operated

Sunbus Sunbus was an Australian bus operator in the Australian state of Queensland. It operated in 5 regional areas across the state under contract to the Government of Queensland under the TransLink banner. As of 2022 Sunbus has changed its name as ...

( Sunbus Cairns, Sunbus

Magnetic Island Magnetic Island ( Wulguru: Yunbenun) is an island offshore from the city of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. This mountainous island in Cleveland Bay has effectively become a suburb of Townsville, with 2,335 permanent residents. The island ...

, Sunbus Rockhampton,

Sunbus Sunshine Coast Sunbus Sunshine Coast was an Australian operator of bus services on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. It operates 25 services under contract to the Government of Queensland under the TransLink banner.It is one of Sunbus' operations. As of 2022 Su ...

, Sunbus Townsville),

Surfside Buslines Surfside Buslines was an Australian bus operator on the Gold Coast in Queensland. It operated 56 services under contract to the Government of Queensland under the TransLink banner. It also operates nine services in the adjoining Tweed Valley of ...

and

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 ...

with a unique end-to-end mass transit offering including bus design and manufacturing, urban network design, planning and operation, and workforce development and training. TAG was dissolved after being acquired by AATS Group (now Kinetic) in April 2019 and Sunbus and Surfside Buslines are now owned and operated by

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 ...

, who also owns Skybus. Bustech was not included in the sale to AATS Group.

History

After selling their long established

south-western Sydney South Western Sydney is a region of the metropolitan area in southwest Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the predominantly working class area of Greater Western Sydney. The region lies in the Cumberland Plain. Local government ...

bus operation to

Westbus Westbus was an Australian bus and coach operator that operated bus services in Western Sydney from 1955 until October 2013. Founded by the Bosnjak family, it later became a subsidiary of National Express and later ComfortDelGro Cabcharge (now ...

in June 1989, Joe and Tony Calabro purchased

from

Greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurge ...

owner Russell Penfold in October 1989 with 56 buses. The Surfside operation grew with the Tweed Bus Service (1993), Gold Coast Citybus (February 1995), Gold Coast Tourist Shuttle (September 1998) and Coomera Bus Lines (May 2001) operations purchased. The Calabros also formed

, a bus manufacturing business. In April 2008, the

operations were purchased from Transit Australia and all of the Calabro's Queensland operations consolidated under the Transit Australia Group. In November 2008 Magnetic Island Bus Services was purchased and in April 2009 the Sunbus

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 C ...

operation sold to the

Bus Queensland Bus Queensland was formed in April 2009 when the Pulitano Group purchased both the Garden City Sunbus and Kynoch Coaches operations. Kynoch Coaches was a family-owned business, previously owned by Jason Ward, operated urban, school and long-dis ...

group. In April 2010, the Townsville operation was expanded with the acquisition of Hermit Park Bus Service. In 2011, Bustech successfully launched Australia’s first double decker (CDi model) bus for urban transport since 1973. In 2015, the manufacturing arm also attracted international attention with the unveiling of Australia’s first electric bus designed, engineered and manufactured domestically. In 2016, TAG formed a strategic alliance with Precision Components in Adelaide to develop an advanced manufacturing facility to produce next-generation, environmentally friendly diesel and electric buses. In November 2017, the Gold Coast Tourist Shuttle (GCTS) business was sold to Skybus and rebranded as Skybus Gold Coast. In February 2018 Mobike, in partnership with Transit Australia Group and Good Cycles, distributed 200 dockless shared bikes around Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach with the number expected to grow to 2,000 by the time of the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

in April. In April 2019, TAG was purchased by AATS Group (now

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 a ...

), 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 pensi ...

. Bustech was not included in the sale.

References

{{Reflist Bus companies of Queensland Companies based on the Gold Coast, Queensland Transport companies established in 2008 2008 establishments in Australia Kinetic Group companies