CDC Northern Territory is a bus operator providing services in

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

, Bathchelor,

Darwin Darwin may refer to: Common meanings * Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection * Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...

Palmerston Palmerston may refer to: People * Christie Palmerston (c. 1851–1897), Australian explorer * Several prominent people have borne the title of Viscount Palmerston ** Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston (c. 1673–1757), Irish nobleman and ...

Jabiru The jabiru ( or ; ''Jabiru mycteria'') is a large stork found in the Americas from Mexico to Argentina, except west of the Andes. It sometimes wanders into the United States, usually in Texas, but has been reported as far north as Mississippi. ...

and

Humpty Doo Humpty Doo is a small town in Australia's Northern Territory, situated just south of the Arnhem Highway, approximately 40 km from Darwin. At the , Humpty Doo had a population of 4,380 people. Its local government area is Litchfield Muni ...

. It is the largest operator in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...

and the sole operator of the Darwinbus network. CDC Northern Territory is a subsidiary of

ComfortDelGro Australia ComfortDelGro Australia is a major Australian public transport company. Founded in October 2005 as ComfortDelGro Cabcharge, a joint venture between Singapore-based ComfortDelGro (51%) and Australian A2B Australia, Cabcharge (49%), today it is a ...

(CDC) since November 2018, and was rebranded from Buslink in July 2022. The Buslink brand was also used in bus operations in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria until 2020 when these operations were also rebranded to CDC.

History

Buslink was formed in May 1988 when

operator Ace Bus Service purchased the business of Matilda Tours from Ansett Trailways and merged both operations under the Buslink brand with a fleet of 25 buses. In 1990 Buslink began operating services from

Casuarina ''Casuarina'' is a genus of 17 tree species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and eastern Africa. It was once treated as the sole genus in the fam ...

to Darwin and

previously provided by Darwin Bus Service. In July 1992 Buslink took over the

services previously provided by Alice Bus Company. In 1994 the

Katherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christ ...

school services of Travel North were purchased with six buses. In July 2007 Shuker Bus Service was purchased. In 1999, with the purchase of Gladstone Bus & Coach, Buslink began operating bus services in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

under the Buslink Queensland brand. In 2013, it held a 50% shareholding in Buslink Vivo. In February 2017 Buslink took over Murton's City Bus of

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. I ...

. In November 2018 Buslink was purchased by

. On 1 March 2020, Buslink Sunraysia and Buslink Broken Hill were rebranded CDC Mildura and

CDC Broken Hill CDC Broken Hill, formerly Buslink Broken Hill and Murton's City Bus, is a bus operator in the Australian city of Broken Hill. It is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia. History In 1902, a steam tramway opened in Broken Hill. After this clos ...

respectively. On 1 October 2020, Buslink Queensland was rebranded

CDC Queensland CDC Queensland, formerly Buslink Queensland, is an Australian bus operator in the Gladstone, Rockhampton and Sunshine Coast regions of Queensland. It is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia. History In 1999, Northern Territory bus operator ...

, with Sunshine Coast operations rebranded CDC Sunshine Coast and Gladstone operations rebranded CDC Gladstone. In June 2022, the

Northern Territory Government The Government of the Northern Territory of Australia, also referred to as the Northern Territory Government, is the Australian territorial democratic administrative authority of the Northern Territory. The Government of Northern Territory wa ...

awarded Buslink a new six-year bus contract to operate all of Darwin's bus services following a competitive tender. Buslink commenced the contract on 1 July 2022 under a new CDC Northern Territory branding and took over services previously operated by Territory Transit. From August to September 2022, CDC Northern Territory briefly operated a shuttle service for the

German Armed Forces The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

exercise "Rapid Pacific 2022" in Darwin.

Operations

CDC Northern Territory operates: *Darwin and Palmerston's services under the Darwinbus brand *Alice Springs' services under the ASBus banner. *Buses in Jabiru

Buslink

Under its previous Buslink branding, it also used to operate: * Buslink Vivo - ceased in July 2019 *Buslink Sunraysia - now part of CDC Victoria and rebranded CDC Mildura in March 2020 *Buslink Broken Hill - now part of CDC Victoria and rebranded

in March 2020 *Buslink Queensland - rebranded

in October 2020

Buslink Vivo

Buslink also operated employee bus services in Darwin as a joint venture with

Transdev Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, is a French-based international private-sector company which operates public transport. It has operations in 17 countries and territories as of November 2020. History The group was formed by the merger of ...

called Buslink Vivo. The bus service ceased in July 2019. In January 2022, it took over the operation of school services in Alice Springs and Bathchelor from Australian Transit Group.

Queensland

Buslink operated in

Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-con ...

and

Sunshine Coast Sunshine Coast may refer to: * Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia **Sunshine Coast Region, a local government area of Queensland named after the region **Sunshine Coast Stadium * Sunshine Coast (British Columbia), geographic subregion of the Br ...

as Buslink Queensland. It was rebranded as

in October 2020.

New South Wales

Buslink operated in

as Buslink Broken Hill, taking over Murton's City Bus in February 2017. It was rebranded as

in March 2020.

NSW/Victoria border

Buslink operated in

Mildura Mildura is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 in 2021. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point and Merbein are included, the area h ...

and Wentworth as Buslink Sunraysia. It operated as a partnership with Transit South West, an operator in Victoria.Buslink Sunraysia
Buslink The operation was previously known as Sunraysia Bus Lines. It was rebranded as CDC Mildura in March 2020.

Fleet

As at December 2022, the fleet consisted of 208 buses. Fleet livery is white with blue signwriting.

References

External links

* {{ComfortDelGro, state=collapsed Bus companies of Australia ComfortDelGro companies Transport companies established in 1988 1988 establishments in Australia