Waking up in Geelong

In recent years the bus operators of Melbourne have been replacing their older diesel buses with shiny new hybrid and electric ones. Here is a quick look at the progress so far.

The big orders of hybrid buses

CDC Melbourne was the first Melbourne operator to acquire a large fleet of hybrid buses, with a total of 50 vehicles with Volgren Optimus bodies on a Volvo B5LH chassis entering service between 2019 and 2022.

Next up was Kinetic Melbourne, has been acquiring a fleet of new hybrid buses, with a total of 127 Volgren Optimus buses on Scania K320HB chassis delivered since 2022, and more still to come.

Electric bus trials

As part of the Victorian Government’s Zero Emissions Bus Trial, six operators were given funding to acquire electric buses.

The largest order was by Kinetic, who after taking over from Transdev Melbourne in 2022, was required to purchase 36 new electric buses as part of their contract. Currently operated from the Sunshine West and Heatherton depots, their fleet of Volgren Optimus bodied buses on BYD D9RA chassis delivered between 2022 and 2024 now total 37.

Next was Ventura, who upgraded their existing Ivanhoe depot into the first all-electric bus depot in Victoria, with 27 Volgren Optimus bodied buses with BYD D9RA chassis delivered between 2021 and 2023.

Transit Systems Victoria acquired nine Volgren Optimus electric buses on BYD D9RA chassis for services out of their West Footscray depot delivered in 2023.

CDC Melbourne acquired a small fleet of eight Volgren Optimus buses on Volvo BZL chassis for use out of their depot at Oakleigh, delivered between 2022 and 2024.

Seymour Passenger Services acquired three Volgren Optimus buses on Volvo BZL chassis for use on town services, delivered in 2023.

Latrobe Valley Bus Lines acquired a single Volgren Optimus bus on a Volvo BZL chassis, delivered in 2022.

And in something a little different from the sea of Volgren buses, Sunbury Bus Service acquired three NSW built Custom Denning Element buses delivered in 2022.

And smaller hybrid bus orders

Latrobe Valley Bus Lines operates eight Volgren Optimus buses on a Volvo B5LH hybrid chassis between Traralgon and Moe, delivered between 2018 and 2019.

McHarry’s Geelong operate six Express bodied Scania K320UB hybrid buses, delivered between 2019 and 2021.

Ventura operates almost a thousand buses across Melbourne, but ordered a paltry two Volgren Optimus buses on Scania K320UB hybrid chassis which were delivered in 2020.

Donric Group acquired two Volgren Optimus buses on Scania K320UB hybrid chassis for their ‘Gisborne Transit’ operation in 2023.

And Northern Transit Holdings acquired two Volgren Optimus buses on Volvo B5LH hybrid chassis for their ‘Mitchell Transit’ operation in 2023.

And a ring in

Transit Systems Victoria also operates a different kind of vehicle as part of the Zero Emission Bus Trial – two ARCC Viking hydrogen buses delivered in 2023, and normally found on route 401 and 403.

But electrification isn’t everything

The government made a big song and dance about Ivanhoe becoming an all electric bus depot, but they neglected to mention one thing – only one of their seven bus routes operates 7 days a week, leaving the majority of their expensive electric fleet sitting in the depot doing nothing every single Sunday.

Imagine the further emissions reductions if those buses were out and running, allowing people to leave their cars at home.

Footnote: spotting features

The easiest spotting feature of the new electric buses compared to a standard Volgren Optimus bodied bus is the extended roof line to house the battery packs.

And the special livery on the side.

While the hybrid version of a Volgren Optimus bus just has a big forehead for a much smaller battery.

Or a huge mess of smaller lumps on the roof.

Footnote: and confusing my kids

A few months ago I was out with my kids and when buses passed by I was explaining how to spot the electric and hybrid buses in the Kinetic fleet, when we saw a bus with a ‘H’ prefix and my son said “so that’s a hybrid bus then” – and I was like “well no… actually…”

“actually it’s just a diesel bus, the ‘H’ prefix is actually the remnant of a short-lived Transdev experiment in showing depot allocations on their buses, ‘H’ standing for ‘Heatherton’ depot, with the only other example being ‘N’ for ‘North Fitzroy’.

(I spared the kids a deep dive into the abandoned ’38’ prefix that Transdev also used for a while in an attempt to disambiguate their Melbourne buses from their buses elsewhere in Australia with the same fleet number.)

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