Transdev Melbourne was a bus operator in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

, Australia, that operated the Melbourne Bus Franchise with a fleet of 534 buses on 49 bus routes from August 2013 until January 2022. It operated approximately 30% of Melbourne's bus network. It was a subsidiary of

Transdev Australasia Transdev Australasia is an operator of bus, ferry, light rail and rail services in Australia and New Zealand. It is a subsidiary of French-based, international Transdev. It was formed in 2013 by grouping the operations of Veolia Transport Aust ...

History

Until the 1990s, most of Transdev Melbourne's routes were operated by the

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 ...

. In December 1993, the

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

and Fitzroy North bus depots and associated services were transferred to National Bus Company, formed by Westbus proprietors,

Jim Bosnjak Jim Bosnjak is a Croatian-Australian businessman who rose to prominence as the chairman of Westbus, Australia's largest privately owned bus operator. Since selling his Westbus stake in 2005, Bosnjak has maintained a high profile as chairman of the ...

and his sister-in-law Carol. The remaining Public Transport Corporation services remained in public ownership until privatised in April 1998, with

Dysons Dysons is a bus and coach operator in Victoria, Australia. History Dysons was founded in June 1952 when Laurie Dyson purchased the business of Ned Gastin with route 46A Regent station to Janefield Hospital. Over the years a number of route ...

and

Reservoir Bus Company Reservoir Bus Company was a privately owned bus and coach operator in Melbourne, Australia. As a Melbourne bus company, it operated 10 bus routes under contract to the Government of Victoria. The company was bought by Dysons Group in November 20 ...

forming Melbourne Bus Link to take over the services operating out of Footscray and Sandringham depots. In June 2012,

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

called for expressions of interest for the Melbourne Metropolitan Bus Franchise, involving 30% of the city's bus network, operated by Melbourne Bus Link and National Bus Company, including three

SmartBus SmartBus is a network of bus services in the city of Melbourne, Australia. Overseen by Public Transport Victoria, the network comprises nine key cross-town and orbital bus routes around Melbourne. Key aspects of the service include more freque ...

routes. From ten expressions received, a shortlist of five bidders was selected in August 2012, with

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Keolis Downer Keolis Downer is a joint venture between Keolis, the largest private sector French transport group, and Downer Rail, an Australian railway engineering company, that operates bus and tram services in Australia. History In June 2009, the Victo ...

, National Bus Company (

Ventura Bus Lines Ventura Bus Lines is a large bus and coach operator in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, operating a fleet of 893 buses on 141 bus routes, including 2 SmartBus routes and 2 V/Line services. It commenced operations in December 1924. History Ea ...

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 ...

, and

Transdev Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, is a French-based international private-sector company which operates public transport. It has operations in 17 countries and territories as of November 2020. History The group was formed by the merger of ...

invited to tender. In April 2013, Transdev was awarded the franchise, with operations commencing on 4 August 2013. The franchise was to run for seven years with an option to extend for a further three years. In December 2018, it was announced by the government that the three years extension option will not be taken up, but instead a six-month extension was granted, extending the contract to January 2021. However, in an apparent bid to save jobs and preserve stability in the bus industry due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

, the contract was extended to 31 January 2022. In September 2017, safety inspections by

Transport Safety Victoria The Director, Transport Safety, who operates as Transport Safety Victoria, is the independent Government agency responsible for bus and marine safety in the State of Victoria, Australia. The position was created as a statutory office by the '' ...

at two Transdev bus depots found 33 defective buses. Twelve of the buses were in such poor condition that they were removed from service for urgent repairs. After being re-tendered, the contract was awarded to

Kinetic Melbourne Kinetic Melbourne is a bus operator in Melbourne, Australia, operating a fleet of 531 buses on 43 bus routes, as well as seven SmartBus routes. It commenced operations on 31 January 2022, taking over all routes previously operated by Transdev Me ...

, which took over on 31 January 2022.

Routes

Transdev Melbourne originally took over the operation of 52 routes spanning Melbourne's metropolitan area, separated into three groups: 40 Eastern routes, nine Western routes and three SmartBus Orbital routes. It also operated 122 school bus services across metropolitan Melbourne.

Fleet

Transdev Melbourne inherited a fleet of approximately 500 buses from Melbourne Bus Link, Ventura Bus Lines and SmartBus operators. When operations ceased in January 2022, the fleet consisted of 534 buses. The Public Transport Victoria white and orange diamonds livery was being applied, except to SmartBus liveried buses that remained this livery.

Depots

Transdev Melbourne operated from five depots, with two satellite depots. The Eastern network (former National Bus Company) operated out of depots in

and Fitzroy North, while the Western network (former Melbourne Bus Link) operated depots in Footscray and Sandringham. The SmartBus Orbital fleet operated out of

Keysborough Keysborough is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 27 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Greater Dandenong local government area. Keysborough recorded a population of 30,018 at the . ...

depot (formerly owned by Grenda's Bus Service), as well as two interim satellite depots at

Reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contr ...

, and

Tullamarine Bus Lines Tullamarine is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, Central Business District, located within the Cities of City of Brimbank, Brimbank, City of Hume, Hume and City ...

in Airport West, with a requirement to establish a more permanent storage solution by 2017. New depots opened at Heatherton, Sunshine West and

Thomastown Thomastown (), historically known as Grennan, is a town in County Kilkenny in the province of Leinster in the south-east of Ireland. It is a market town along a stretch of the River Nore which is known for its salmon and trout, with a number of ...

in September 2016, October 2016 and March 2017 to replace the Sandringham, Footscray and satellite depots respectively.Construction begins on new state-of-the-art bus depot
Transdev Melbourne 28 July 2016 The Doncaster and Fitzroy North depots were also rebuilt as part of an upgrade program. A temporary depot was set up in

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at ...

while these works occurred.

References

External links

Company website
{{Transdev, state=collapsed Bus companies of Victoria (Australia) Bus transport in Melbourne Defunct bus companies of Australia Transdev Transport companies established in 2013 Transport companies disestablished in 2022 2013 establishments in Australia 2022 disestablishments in Australia