ComfortDelGro Australia is a major Australian public transport company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-listed company

ComfortDelGro ComfortDelGro Corporation Limited, commonly known as ComfortDelGro, is a multi-national transport group based in Singapore. It is listed on the Singapore Exchange and operates more than 54,000 vehicles across 13 countries. It was formed on 29 ...

. Founded in October 2005 as ComfortDelGro Cabcharge, a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between ComfortDelGro (51%) and Australian-listed

Cabcharge The Cabcharge account payment system was established in 1976 to provide taxi passengers a way to pay for taxi fares by non-cash means. The payment system is owned and operated by A2B Australia (formerly Cabcharge Australia), part of ComfortDe ...

(49%), it became fully owned by ComfortDelGro in 2017. It operates public transport, taxi and patient transport services nationwide across Australia, except in the states of

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

and

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

History

A joint venture, known as ComfortDelGro Cabcharge (CDC), was established between

(51%) and

Cabcharge Australia A2B Australia (formerly ''Cabcharge Australia'') is an Australian based taxi operator. Overview Founded in 1976 by Reg Kermode, Cabcharge was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1999. Its subsidiaries operate booking and dispatch ...

(49%) in October 2005 to purchase loss-making Westbus Group, which included

Westbus Westbus was an Australian bus and coach operator that operated bus services in Western Sydney from 1955 until October 2013. Founded by the Bosnjak family, it later became a subsidiary of National Express and later ComfortDelGro Cabcharge (now ...

(both Australia & UK),

Hillsbus Hillsbus was an Australian bus company that operated services in the Hills District of Sydney. Founded in 2004 when National Express merged its Glenorie Bus Company and Westbus (Hills District operations only) subsidiaries, it was later part ...

and Blue Ribbon from

National Express Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. Th ...

and the Bosnjak family. Blue Ribbon was rebranded

Hunter Valley Buses Hunter Valley Buses is an Australian bus operator who operates bus, coach and charter services in the Central Coast and Hunter regions of New South Wales. Previously known as Blue Ribbon, it was one of the first companies to be bought by Comf ...

at the same time. After the purchase, Westbus UK continued independently from the Westbus in Australia, despite bearing the latter's name, old logo and livery to this day. It became part of

CityFleet Networks CityFleet Networks, also known as CityFleet, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore-based ComfortDelGro that operates coach services under the brand Westbus UK, as well as taxi services in a number of UK cities under the brands ComCab, CityFle ...

, initially also a joint venture between ComfortDelGro and Cabcharge, and now a wholly owned subsidiary of ComfortDelGro in the United Kingdom. Cabcharge sold both of its stakes in CDC and CityFleet to ComfortDelGro in February and June 2017 respectively. In August 2006, the routes of

Baxter's Bus Lines Baxter's Coaches is an Australian bus charter company in Sydney. Until August 2006, it operated route bus services in Western Sydney. History Baxter's Coaches was founded by Roy Baxter and his son Garry after the Merrylands based services of ...

were purchased by and absorbed into Westbus Region 3 operations.CDC Group
Australian Bus Fleetlists"Changes Galore in Sydney"
''Buses Worldwide'' November 2007 page 8 In August 2007, Morisset Bus Service, Sugar Valley Coachlines and Toronto Bus Service were purchased and absorbed into Hunter Valley Buses.Toronto Bus Service
Australian Bus Fleet Lists In June 2008 a bus charter division was established under the Charterplus name. In July 2008, ComfortDelGro Cabcharge planned to venture into the bus building industry, and entered a memorandum of understanding to acquire bus body builder

Custom Coaches Custom Denning (previously Custom Bus and Custom Coaches) is an Australian bus body builder based in St Marys, New South Wales. History Cycle Components Manufacturing Company In 1935, Stanley Hillsdon founded Cycle Components Manufacturing ...

. CDC had also planned to open a bus building plant in Rutherford in New South Wales'

Hunter Valley The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, Newcastle Region, or simply Hunter, spans the region in northern New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its ...

, and the plant would be used as one of its bases for its bus building operations. In late August that year, CDC announced it would not proceed with the planned acquisition of Custom Coaches or the construction of the Rutherford bus building plant. Cabcharge stated that due to the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

, the two CDC shareholders decided they should not proceed with the bus building business in Australia, and they would focus on their core operations. To demonstrate their "confidence in Custom Coaches", CDC placed a significant number of new orders with Custom Coaches. In November 2008, it was announced that

Kefford Corporation CDC Victoria is a transport company which operates in Victoria and is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia. It was renamed from Kefford Corporation, which was acquired by ComfortDelGro Cabcharge (predecessor of ComfortDelGro Australia) in F ...

in Victoria would be acquired.Kefford Group finds a buyer
''

Australasian Bus & Coach Are Media is an Australian media company. It was formed after the 2020 purchase of the assets of Bauer Media Australia, which had in turn acquired the assets of Pacific Magazines, AP Magazines and Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) during the ...

'' 20 November 2008 The acquisition was finalised on 23 February 2009. The group was renamed CDC Victoria, but the names of the bus companies within the group were retained until replaced by the CDC brand in 2014. In September 2012, Deane's Transit Group comprising Deane's Buslines (renamed as

Qcity Transit CDC Canberra, formerly Qcity Transit, is an Australian bus operator based in Queanbeyan, New South Wales. It operates services from Queanbeyan to Canberra, Bungendore and Yass. It is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia. History In Octob ...

) and

Transborder Express Transborder Express was an Australian bus and coach company based in Yass that operated from 1954 until 2023. It was a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia from 2012, who merged the company into CDC Canberra in 2023. History Transborder Ex ...

in southern

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

were purchased. In August 2014, CDC purchased Blue Mountains Bus Company, which was subsequently renamed Blue Mountains Transit in December 2014.Cabcharge buys bus company for $26.5 million
''

Blue Mountains Gazette This is a list of newspapers in New South Wales in Australia. List of newspapers in New South Wales (A) List of newspapers in New South Wales (B) List of newspapers in New South Wales (C) List of newspapers in New South Wales (D) Li ...

'' 13 August 2014 In December 2016, ComfortDelgro announced it had agreed to purchase Cabcharge's 49% stake. The sale was completed on 16 February 2017 after

Foreign Investment Review Board The Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) is a non statutory body established in 1976 to advise thTreasurerand the Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal governme ...

approval was granted. The former joint venture was then renamed ComfortDelGro Corporation Australia, still keeping the abbreviation CDC. In April 2018, ComfortDelgro acquired

Tullamarine Bus Lines Tullamarine Bus Lines was a bus operator in Melbourne, Australia. It operated eight bus routes under contract to Public Transport Victoria. In addition, it also had a taxi management business called Cabways. Tullamarine Bus Lines was sold to Co ...

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 ...

and integrated it into CDC Melbourne in August 2018. At the same time, it acquired National Patient Transport, one of the largest private providers of non-emergency patient transport services in Australia. In August 2018, ComfortDelgro acquired Coastal Liner on the Central Coast, and in September 2018,

Forest Coach Lines Forest Coach Lines is an Australian bus and coach operator. Founded in 1930 in the Northern Suburbs of Sydney, since 2016 it has expanded with purchases in the Mid North Coast and North West Slopes regions in New South Wales. It became a subsid ...

with operations in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, the

Mid North Coast The Mid North Coast is a country region in the north-east of the state of New South Wales, Australia. The region, situated 416km north of Sydney, covers the mid northern coast of the state, beginning from Port Stephens at Hawks Nest to as far ...

and

North West Slopes The North West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia, refers generally to the area west of the Northern Tablelands, to the north of the Central West region and to the east of the Far West region. Despite its name, the region is in north- ...

. In November 2018, the

Buslink CDC Northern Territory is a bus operator providing services in Alice Springs, Bathchelor, Darwin, Palmerston, Jabiru and Humpty Doo. It is the largest operator in the Northern Territory and the sole operator of the Darwinbus network. CDC No ...

business was acquired with 401 buses operating in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, New South Wales and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

. In the same month, Charterplus was renamed CDC Travel. In April 2019, ComfortDelGro acquired Blanch's Bus Company and Brunswick Valley Coaches with a fleet of 48 buses and coaches in the

Northern Rivers Northern Rivers is the most northeasterly Regions of New South Wales, region of the Australian state of New South Wales, located between north of the state capital, Sydney, and encompasses the catchments and fertile valleys of the Clarence Ri ...

region of New South Wales. In the same month, ComfortDelGro announced it would formally establish a ComfortDelGro Corporation Australia office. Nicholas Yap, who was the incumbent CEO of CDC Victoria, was appointed as the inaugural CEO of ComfortDelGro Australia, effective 1 July 2019.United Revamped
CDC Victoria June 2019 In mid-2019, two of Buslink's operations, Buslink Sunraysia and Buslink Broken Hill, moved to the control of

CDC Victoria CDC Victoria is a transport company which operates in Victoria and is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia. It was renamed from Kefford Corporation, which was acquired by ComfortDelGro Cabcharge (predecessor of ComfortDelGro Australia) in F ...

. In March 2020, these operations were rebranded to CDC Mildura and CDC Broken Hill respectively. In October 2020, the Buslink Queensland operations were rebranded to CDC Queensland, with Buslink Sunshine Coast and Buslink Gladstone rebranded to CDC Sunshine Coast and CDC Gladstone respectively. In July 2021, ComfortDelGro announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Young's Bus Service which operates services in

Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the , the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is "Rocky", and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite. The Scottish- ...

, Queensland. In August 2021, ComfortDelGro announced its intention to list ComfortDelGro Australia on the

Australian Securities Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd (ASX) is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary Exchange (organized market), securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or c ...

. In October 2021, CDC acquired a school bus contract and five buses from KA & VK Stubbs in

Narrabri Narrabri ( ) is a locality and seat of Narrabri Shire Local government in Australia, local government area in the North West Slopes, New South Wales, Australia on the Namoi River, northwest of Sydney. It sits on the junction of the Kamilaroi Hi ...

, New South Wales. The school bus operation was merged into CDC's existing Forest Coach Lines business in Narrabri and Wee Waa. In July 2022, the remainder of the Buslink operations was renamed CDC Northern Territory. In November 2022, it was announced that CDC retained and was awarded the contracts for Sydney bus regions 4 (Hillsbus) and 14 (Forest Coach Lines) in Sydney, as well as winning the contract for region 12 (consolidated into region 14). The Hillsbus and Forest Coach Lines (in Sydney) brands were replaced by the CDC NSW brand when the new contracts for region 4 and the consolidated region 14 began in April and May 2023 respectively. In August 2023, CDC moved its national head office to the

Melbourne CBD The Melbourne central business district (colloquially known as "the City" or "the CBD", and gazetted simply as Melbourne) is the city centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. As of the 2021 census, the CBD had a population of 54,941, and is ...

after three years in Malvern and a year in

Camberwell Camberwell ( ) is an List of areas of London, area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles' Church, Camberwell, St Giles ...

prior to that. In December 2023, CDC entered into a

scheme of arrangement Scheme or schemer may refer to: Arts and entertainment * '' The Scheme'', a BBC Scotland documentary TV series * The Scheme (band), an English pop band * ''The Scheme'', an action role-playing video game for the PC-8801, made by Quest Corporatio ...

to purchase its former joint venture partner A2B Australia (which had rebranded from Cabcharge in 2018), subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.

Operations

ComfortDelgro Corporation Australia operates: *

CDC NSW CDC NSW is a bus operator in New South Wales, Australia. It is an umbrella brand of ComfortDelGro Australia established in 2017 to cover the latter's New South Wales operations, some of which had been owned by ComfortDelGro since 2005. It was sub ...

**Buses in Sydney and Northern NSW (no separate branding) **Blue Mountains Transit **CDC Charter **

** CDC Canberra **

Red Bus CDC NSW Red Bus CDC NSW, formerly Red Bus Services, is an Australian bus company operating route bus services on the New South Wales Central Coast. History In 1923 Messrs. Barham & Wells started a bus service between The Entrance and Wyong in oppo ...

CDC Ballarat CDC Ballarat, formerly known as Davis Bus Lines, is an Australian bus company operating in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It is a subsidiary of CDC Victoria, in turn a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia, in turn a subsidiary of Singapore-bas ...

** CDC Broken Hill **

CDC Geelong CDC Geelong, formerly known as Benders Busways, is a bus company operating in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, with routes as well as charters. It is a subsidiary of CDC Victoria, in turn a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia, in turn a subsidia ...

CDC Melbourne CDC Melbourne is a bus operator in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It operates 55 bus routes under contract to Public Transport Victoria. It is one of the brands of CDC Victoria, which is in turn a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia. As a ...

**CDC Mildura * CDC Northern Territory * CDC Queensland **CDC Gladstone **CDC Sunshine Coast **Buses in Rockhampton (no separate branding) *National Patient Transport *Swan Taxis CDC's Regional Australia Division (RAD) was established in early 2021 and has responsibilities over the Northern Territory, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and regional NSW (Blanch's, CDC Canberra and Forest outside Sydney) operations.

CDC NSW

CDC NSW is the first of ComfortDelGro Australia's bus operations in Australia. In 2005,

and

Blue Ribbon Blue ribbons are typically a symbol of high quality. The association comes from The Blue Riband, a prize awarded for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by passenger liners and, prior to that from Order of the Holy Spirit#Cordon Bleu, Cord ...

were the first three bus companies to be purchased by ComfortDelGro Cabcharge. Since then, ComfortDelGro Australia continued to acquire bus operations across New South Wales. The CDC NSW brand was established in 2017 to be the umbrella brand of ComfortDelGro's operations in the state. Beginning from 2023, the various operations in the state were rebranded as CDC NSW, starting with Hillsbus and

(Sydney only) in April and May that year.

CDC Victoria

In February 2009, when ComfortDelGro Cabcharge entered the Victorian bus market with the acquisition of

for A$149 million, with its fleet of 328 buses and six depots. Kefford was immediately renamed

. The fleets retained their individual identities and liveries, with small CDC Victoria markings, until they were rebranded to their respective CDC brands in 2014.

CDC Northern Territory

CDC Northern Territory is a bus operator which operates in

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

, Darwin, Palmerston,

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 also been reported in Mississippi, Oklahoma ...

and

Humpty Doo Humpty Doo is a 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 4,313 people. Its local government area is Litchfield Municipality ...

. It was rebranded from Buslink in July 2022, after ComfortDelGro acquired Buslink in 2018. It operates all of Darwin and Palmerston's bus services.

CDC Queensland

CDC Queensland a bus operator in Queensland, operating in

Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party. In a career lasting over 60 years, he ...

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 CDC Gladstone and CDC Sunshine Coast respectively. It was renamed from Buslink Queensland on 1 October 2020. ComfortDelGro acquired Rockhampton-based Young's Bus Service in 2021, which was rebranded into CDC Queensland in December 2024.

National Patient Transport

National Patient Transport is one of the largest private providers of non-emergency patient transport services in Australia. ComfortDelGro acquired National Patient Transport in April 2018.

Western Australia

Swan Taxis

ComfortDelGro fully owns Swan Taxis, a taxi company operates taxis in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

. Swan Taxis was formed by Matt Reid in 1928. In October 2010, it was acquired by ComfortDelGro after an offer was made in July earlier that year. In October 2017, Swan Taxis acquired Metro WA Taxi Management Pty Ltd (Metro Taxi), the largest taxi management company in Perth. The acquisition marked Swan Taxis' entry into fleet management and ownership. Being ComfortDelGro Cabcharge joint venture became wholly owned by ComfortDelGro since acquisition, the Swan Taxis operation was never part of the joint venture, and therefore remains () a direct subsidiary of Singapore's ComfortDelGro rather than a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Corporation Australia.

Purple Coaches

Purple Coaches is a private charter bus operator based in

Bayswater Bayswater is an area in the City of Westminster in West London. It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, and ...

. It was acquired by ComfortDelGro in August 2018. As of December 2018, Purple Coaches (legal name ComforDelGro Swan Pty Ltd) is a subsidiary of Swans Taxis, and hence it is also not a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Corporation Australia.

References

External links

*
ComfortDelGro AustraliaBus Australia CDC Victoria gallery
{{Outer Metropolitan Sydney public transport Australian companies established in 2005 Australian subsidiaries of foreign companies Bus companies of Australia ComfortDelGro companies Transport companies established in 2005