The future of buses was ‘electric’ at the October MTF Meeting with inspiring presentations from Victorian Transport Action Group and TransDev.

The meeting also bid farewell to Cr Jackie Fristacky, long time Yarra delegate and transport advocate. Jackie is not standing for election again in Yarra after 18 years on council.

Victorian Transport Action Group’s Peter Parker inspired the room with ten opportunities to dramatically improve bus services. His detailed worked included many improvements that could be achieved simply by tweaking existing routes. You will love the understanding of route planning in this presentation.

TransDev’s Loretta Lynch offered a glimpse into the future with her report on their recent street level trial of a locally made e-bus in Melbourne. Incredibly quiet and exhaust free, the e-bus has delighted drivers and transported passengers on the 246 route for many months. But there’s a lot to learn about making e-buses work on streets: recharging options and opportunities (including solar), coping with unexpected delays (especially in hot weather with air con draining the charge), size of vehicles, production costs and more. “It’s all about the practicalities of matching buses to routes,” said Loretta.

Challenges aside, e-buses are clearly the future, with NSW set to buy 1000 e-buses as part of a complete transformation of the fleet over 2 decades.

Peter’s presentation
Loretta’s presentation TBA
E-bus fact sheet