Yet another antique Volvo from Marcoola depot broke down mid route over the weekend causing some traffic delays in the process (not my pic). This follows another breakdown of a similarly aged unit just a few weeks ago, ironically also on a Noosa run.
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Had to jump over to our Sunshine Coast office today and had a great time on a new(ish) electric Yutong complete with working PID and stop announcements (Route 600).
Night and day difference between this and the bus that got me from Landsborough to Maroochydore which was probably 15-20 years old. Can Kinetic buy about 50-100 more? 
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May as well start keeping a running log of defective buses in the hope that someone at Kinetic reads this thread.
On a 615 this morning, it’s 4 or 5 degrees outside before sunrise and unfortunately this unit has a broken HVAC system so the interior of the bus isn’t much warmer. I can actually see my breath!
Like most old buses in Kinetic’s fleet the smart ticketing hardware is also broken so the ride is free but the real time tracking is non existent.
One gets the impression these buses are pretty much being driven into the ground before they’re replaced with only slightly newer buses handed down from the Gold Coast fleet.
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I believe the real time data from the bus comes from the ticket machine.
Yeah, a bus can be more than 20 years old or brand new: what matters is the computer on the driver’s dashboard. That’s the brain of the entire operation.
It does, however there is some kind of issue with the readers on the older fleet, they end up constantly power cycling and the driver ends up switching the whole thing off. I’d estimate in the past 2 weeks I’ve only had to pay for maybe 30-40% of my journeys, all the other times the readers have been in a boot loop or tagged out.
Real time tracking isn’t even the biggest issue, I’m actually more concerned that it affects patronage data collection.
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That’s weird how they have those old yellow clunkers running around. It’s not good for tourism nor does it help transition people over to PT from their cars. Plus having the Smart Ticketing equipment off line on those buses is also frustrating. The whole thing is like going back to the late 70s early 80s.
After some time privately advocating to translink for Beerwah to get actual bus connections to the Sunshine Coast, it would appear that demand is to a point where the public are starting to want it too, especially residents in Caloundra South (50,000 eventual population, many of which commute to Brisbane) who face a 1h20m bus ride to the current Sunshine Coast Line vs a 12-15 minute drive in a private vehicle.
The local councillor for this area has seemingly also raised it with translink and the transport minister however no news yet. It seems like a no brainer to me especially with train station carparks getting busier and busier.
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Could this work as an extension of the 608? I don’t live in the area so I might be missing something
That’s what I pitched to Translink, or an extension of the 615/605 which terminate 5 minutes away (or 2 mins away as some trips extend to Australia Zoo).
Beerwah station already has an integrated bus stop for the 649 railbus so the infrastructure is there, however the interest from TMR isn’t which is a shame. Once the Direct Sunshine Coast Line is open it won’t be an issue but until then something is really needed.
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Yeah it’s a no brainer. If it deserves a train connection in ~6 years it deserves a bus connection today, even allowing for the fact that much of the population growth is still to happen.
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Referring back to my proposed Beerwah via Aura (Nirimba) to Birtinya bus route thread.
However my proposal more compliments the existing 605 and 615 as a Bus/Rail connection (aka the old pre-Translink “Trainlink” co-ordinated timetables) rather than extending the 608.
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