Kinetic Melbourne is a bus operator in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia, operating a fleet of 602 buses on 45 bus routes, as well as seven

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. It commenced operations on 31 January 2022, taking over all routes previously operated by

Transdev Melbourne Transdev Melbourne was a bus operator in Melbourne, Australia, that operated the Melbourne Bus Franchise with a fleet of 534 buses on 49 bus routes from August 2013 until January 2022, when the franchise was awarded to Kinetic Melbourne. It ope ...

. It is a subsidiary of the

Kinetic Group Kinetic Group (stylised as K''I''NET''I''C; formerly known as AATS Group) is an Australian-based multinational bus company that wholly owns a number of bus operations in Australia and New Zealand, including the SkyBus business, which operates ...

History

In October 2021, the Victorian Department of Transport awarded Kinetic Melbourne a contract to operate the Melbourne Bus Franchise until June 2031.New bus franchise to jump start zero-emission pledge

Department of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

It commenced operations on 31 January 2022. On 2 October 2023, Kinetic acquired two routes, 510 and 512, with 10 buses from

MorelandBus Moreland Bus Lines, branded as MorelandBus, is a school and charter bus operator in Melbourne, Australia. Until October 2023, it also operated two routes under contract to Public Transport Victoria until they were sold to Kinetic Melbourne. Mo ...

. In September 2024, it was announced that Kinetic had been awarded one of Melbourne's new Zero Electric Bus (ZEB) franchises in the city's north. The franchise includes routes 510 and 512, which Kinetic already had, and twelve routes operated by

Dysons Dyson Group of Companies, operating as Dysons, is a bus and coach operator in Victoria, Australia. The oldest of its subsidiary companies is L.C. Dysons Bus Services, which was founded in June 1952 and is based in Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora ...

. Kinetic will take over the routes from Dysons on 1 July 2024.

Services

Kinetic Melbourne took over the operation of 52 routes spanning Melbourne's metropolitan area,About
Kinetic Melbourne which include three

orbital routes and the Doncaster Area Rapid Transit (DART) routes.

Fleet

Kinetic Melbourne commenced operations with 531 buses transferred from

. As part of the contract, 36 zero-emissions buses will be introduced to the fleet by mid-2025 and 341 of the 531 buses will be replaced with low to zero-emissions buses. Ten buses were acquired from Morelandbus as part of the sale of routes 510 and 512 to Kinetic. As at June 2024, the fleet consists of 602 buses. Most buses are painted in the

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

livery, except for SmartBus liveried buses that have retained this livery for use on SmartBus routes.

References

External links

Bus companies of Victoria (state) Bus transport in Melbourne Companies based in Melbourne Kinetic Group companies Transport companies established in 2022 2022 establishments in Australia {{bus-company-stub