SouthLink is an Australian bus service operator in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

. It operates services as part of the

Adelaide Metro Adelaide Metro is the public transport system of the Adelaide area, around the capital city of South Australia. It is an intermodal passenger transport, intermodal system offering an integrated network of Buses in Adelaide, bus, Glenelg tram, ...

network under contract to the

Department for Infrastructure & Transport The Department for Infrastructure and Transport (DIT) is a department of the Government of South Australia. It is responsible for maintaining, expanding and operating the statewide road network. In addition to road transport, the department i ...

. It is a subsidiary of

Keolis Downer Keolis Downer is a public transport operator that operates bus, train, tram and ferry services in Australia. It is a joint venture between Keolis, the largest private sector French transport group, and Downer Rail, an Australian railway enginee ...

History

In April 2000,

Australian Transit Enterprises Australian Transit Enterprises was an Australian operator of bus services in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. History Australian Transit Enterprises (ATE) was founded in 1995 when Hornibrook Bus Lines proprietor Geoff Mountjo ...

(ATE) won a contract to operate its

Outer South services, with 82 buses.History
SouthLink The service was named SouthLink. ATE also formed a joint venture with

TransAdelaide TransAdelaide was a publicly owned cooperation in Adelaide, South Australia, and operated the city's Railways in Adelaide, suburban rail, Trams in Adelaide, tram and Buses in Adelaide, bus services. It took responsibilities from the State Trans ...

to operate

Adelaide Hills The Adelaide Hills region is located in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges east of the city of Adelaide in the state of South Australia. The largest town in the area, Mount Barker, South Australia, Mount Barker, is one of Australia's fastest-growi ...

area services under the

Transitplus Transitplus, formerly Hills Transit, was an Australian bus service operator in Adelaide. It operated services as part of the Adelaide Metro network under contract to the Department of Planning, Transport & Infrastructure. It was a 50/50 joint v ...

name. In April 2005, SouthLink began operating the Outer North Adelaide Metro contract that had previously been run by

Serco Serco Group plc is a British multinational corporation, multinational military, defence, Healthcare, health, Space industry, space, private prison, justice, Human migration, migration, customer service, customer services, and transport company ...

. In 2010, following the dissolution of its Transitplus partner TransAdelaide, ATE took over full operation of the Adelaide Hills area services and also operated them as SouthLink. In July 2011, SouthLink began an eight-year contract for the Outer North, Outer South and Hills areas, with an optional four-year extension exercisable based upon performance criteria. In March 2015, SouthLink was included in the purchase of ATE by

. In July 2020, SouthLink's Outer North and Outer South

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

contracts were taken over by

Torrens Transit Torrens Transit is an Australian bus service operator in Adelaide. It operates services as part of the Adelaide Metro network under contract to the Department for Infrastructure & Transport. It is a subsidiary of Transit Systems. History In Ap ...

and

Busways Busways is an Australian bus company operating services in Sydney, and in the Central Coast, Mid North Coast regions of New South Wales and Adelaide. It is the largest privately owned bus operator in Australia. History The origins of Busw ...

respectively, while retaining its Hills contract.

Fleet

As of February 2025, the fleet consists of 85 buses.SouthLink
Australian Bus Fleet Lists

Depot

SouthLink operates two depots, one at

Aldgate Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. The gate gave its name to ''Aldgate High Street'', the first stretch of the A11 road, that takes that name as it passes through the ancient, extramural Portsoken ...

and another at Mount Barker.

References

External links

Company website
{{Keolis Bus companies of South Australia Keolis Transport companies established in 2000 Transport in Adelaide 2000 establishments in Australia