Kinetic Sunshine Coast - Bus Operations

General thread for Kinetic operated services on the Sunshine Coast.

Ground has recently broken on Kinetic’s third depot, which will be located in Noosa.

A tourist hotspot is gearing up for a new bus depot, which would improve bus running times and reduce CO2 emissions in the congested area.

The first sod has been turned on the construction of a purpose-built facility on Production Street in Noosaville. It’s scheduled to commence operations by the end of the year, according to local bus operator and investor Kinetic.

The new depot promises to improve on-time running performance, particularly in the heavily congested Noosa area where high traffic volumes around Hastings Street and surrounding arterial roads often cause delays.

When operational, it will house 28 buses and more than 80 staff. It promises to deliver substantial operational improvements to the Sunshine Coast bus network by reducing “dead running” (non-service travel) by over 400,000km annually.

In a boon for sustainability, it would reduce CO2 emissions by 502 tonnes annually and save more than 176,000 litres of diesel fuel each year.

Kinetic manages a fleet of more than 100 buses across 30 routes across its Sunshine Coast operations. The Noosaville announcement marks its latest investment in the area, following upgrades to the Caloundra facility in 2022 to support the introduction of 11 zero-emission buses.

Kinetic executive general manager Martin Hall said this latest investment demonstrated the company’s commitment to improving public transport reliability and efficiency for Sunshine Coast commuters.

“The Noosa depot represents a significant milestone in our ongoing partnership with Translink to enhance the region’s transport infrastructure,” Mr Hall said.

Many of Kinetic’s Sunshine Coast team members live near the proposed Noosa depot, which will reduce emissions from staff commuting while improving work-life balance for employees.

The depot’s central location will allow Kinetic to respond more quickly to network issues in the Noosa area, providing better service reliability for passengers throughout the northern Sunshine Coast.

Seemingly more buses to follow with the introduction of the new depot? The member for Noosa previously promoted it as an all-electric depot to support the introduction of more BEV buses on the Sunshine Coast however I note that none of the marketing of late has specifically mentioned that anymore.

I’d suspect the Electrics will be kept to the Caloundra and Noosa depots. The Marcoola depot is too small to fit Electric operations.

Caloundra will be a mix of diesels and electrics, Marcoola being a diesel-only depot and Noosa also being a diesel / electric mix, but the majority of new electric deliveries allocated to the Sunshine Coast eventually going to Noosa.

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I heard kinetic Sunshine Coast won’t be getting any new buses for a while and will be getting more of the old Gold Coast Volvo buses from the early 2000’s.

I really hope they get some new deliveries soon, even if they are more Yutongs

That’s how they get around the laws by moving inventory around depots to avoid buying new buses. As the tram comes online next year they are likely to transfer more buses from the GC to the Sunny coast.

Considering most operators in SE Qld withdraw buses from service by 21 years old, the oldest buses I would assume have to be of the mid 00s if they’re moving up from Coomera/Ernest/Tweed spending the last few years at Caloundra and/or Marcoola.

Looking at the Fleet Lists (Bus Australia), the oldest are the pre-VST Bustech Volvos of 2002 build scattered across Ernest and Coomera and I’m assuming they don’t have long before they are withdrawn due to the 25 year requirement.

The next oldest (after the 2002 pre-VST Volvo Bustechs at Ernest) are the batch of 2004/2005 Volvo B12 Bustech VSTs currently based at Coomera, I’d assume some of that batch will be moved up to Caloundra and/or Marcoola if that is the case.

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Well no - there won’t be any fewer bus service km once GCLR 3 opens, they will be reinvested.

I went to Caloundra yesterday and the bus transfer to was an electric and the return was an old GC front door only. Although I think it had an reconditioned diesel engine in it. The smart ticketing equipment were also offline on the way back. Maybe it still had to be configured .

Lucky, I never seem to get one of the Yutongs when I have to do the occasional Landsborough → Maroochydore trip. They are such a nice quiet ride compared compared to the ~20 year old diesels.

The smart ticketing not working is an almost daily occurrence, I have no idea if it’s just bad integration with the antique buses or industrial action but I’d estimate every 3rd trip on Kinetic SC the readers are showing as not in service or switched off completely.

Sunshine Coast Council’s lackluster budget (which saw a decrease in the transport levy to ‘save money for ratepayers’) has mostly erased any hope on my end of any significant bus network improvements this financial year, but did hint at some work being done with Translink to introduce a new ‘turn up and go’ (their words, not mine) route between Sunshine Cove, Maroochydore and Alexandra Headlands which is great news for those living in that estate who currently have very limited PT access.

They also suggested planning is underway into more late night services in Maroochydore and Nambour however it sounds like still very early discussions so I won’t celebrate that just yet.

The question is are council just trying to be frugal by cutting public transport spend? Or are they trying to get the state government to cough up all the money instead? I know we have SCMT and The Wave coming in the next 7 years but some bus upgrades in the meantime would be nice. The public transport investment this FY isn’t even enough to warrant a mention on the aptly titled Road and Transport Projects webpage on the budget site. It’s all roads and pathways :frowning:

Lol @ “turn up and go” into one of the recent developed estates. That would be an hourly coverage route at the minimum, half-hourly if lucky.

I’d agree Nambour could do with some late night Friday and Saturday originating/terminating from Mooloolaba at the mimimum. Selected (though not all) late Friday/Saturday night 600s divert into The Wharf to pick up party goers.

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