CDC Melbourne
![]() | |
![]() | |
Parent | CDC Victoria |
---|---|
Founded | January 1976 |
Service area | Melbourne |
Service type | Bus operator |
Routes | 55 |
Hubs | Chadstone Shopping Centre Highpoint Shopping Centre Manor Lakes Shopping Centre Pacific Werribee Shopping Centre Monash University Watergardens Town Centre |
Stations | Aircraft Altona Armadale Auburn Box Hill Broadmeadows Camberwell Carnegie Caulfield East Malvern Elsternwick Essendon Flagstaff Footscray Gardenvale Ginifer Glen Iris Glen Waverley Holmesglen Hoppers Crossing Huntingdale Keilor Plains Laverton McKinnon Middle Brighton Middle Footscray Mount Waverley Murrumbeena North Brighton North Williamstown Oakleigh Ormond Ripponlea Riversdale Roxburgh Park St Albans Sunbury Sunshine Surrey Hills Toorak Tooronga Watergardens Werribee West Footscray Westona Williams Landing Yarraville |
Depots | Oakleigh Sunshine Wyndham Tullamarine |
Fleet | 317 (May 2018) |
Website | www.cdcvictoria.com.au |
CDC Melbourne is a bus operator in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is a Melbourne bus company that operates 55 bus routes under contract to Public Transport Victoria. It is a subsidiary of CDC Victoria, itself a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia, in turn a subsidiary of Singapore-based ComfortDelGro.
CDC Melbourne is the third-largest commuter bus operator in Melbourne, with 16% of the market share in the city.[1]
History
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/Westrans_number_58_%284871AO%29_Volvo_on_route_410_at_Sunshine_railway_station%2C_December_2013.jpg/220px-Westrans_number_58_%284871AO%29_Volvo_on_route_410_at_Sunshine_railway_station%2C_December_2013.jpg)
The origins of CDC Melbourne can be traced to January 1976 when Kefford Corporation purchased Point Cook - Werribee Passenger Service, Werribee. In July 1987 Bono Bus Lines, Footscray was purchased with route 406 Footscray – Keilor East and the operation rebranded as Westrans.[2]
In January 1988, Kefford Corporation purchased the Sitch Group with subsidiaries:[3][4]
- Altona Bus Lines, Altona
- Footscray - Yarraville Bus Service, Yarraville
- North Sunshine Bus Service, Sunshine
- St Albans Bus Service, Sunshine
- Sitch Bus Service, Sunshine
Also in January 1988, Kefford Corporation purchased routes 605 Melbourne City Centre - Elsternwick and 630 Elwood - Monash University from Sinclair's Bus Service with the operation rebranded as Eastrans.[4]
In May 1991, St Kilda Bus Service was purchased with route 606 Port Melbourne - St Kilda and rebranded Werribee Bus Lines.[5] Later the Point Cook, Sitch and Weribee operations were also brought under the Westrans brand.
In February 2009, ComfortDelGro Cabcharge acquired Kefford Corporation for A$149.2 million,[6] including the Eastrans, Westrans, Davis (Ballarat) and Benders Busways (Geelong) brands. At the time of its acquisition by CDC in 2009, Kefford was the fourth-largest bus operator in Victoria with a 16% market share, and with a fleet of 328 buses and six depots.
In July 2011, Eastrans commenced route 601 as a high frequency shuttle between Huntingdale station and Monash University. In July 2013, CDC acquired the route operations of Driver Group for $22 million, comprising five routes (routes 612 and 623 - 626) and 42 buses, and integrated into the Eastrans brand[7][8][9]
In October 2014, Eastrans and Westrans were combined and rebranded as CDC Melbourne.
In December 2017, the Wyndham depot was opened in the suburb of Truganina, replacing the Altona and Werribee depots which were subsequently closed.[10][11]The head office of CDC Victoria and the Operations and Customer Centre (OCC) were also moved from Altona and Sunshine respectively into the new depot.
In May 2018, Tullamarine Bus Lines, including its Tullamarine depot, was acquired by ComfortDelGro Australia.[12][13] The bus operations were rebranded CDC Tullamarine and integrated into CDC Melbourne on 17 August 2018.[11]
CDC Melbourne initially signed a ten-year performance-based contract with the Victorian government in April 2018, due to commence on 1 July 2018.[14] However, in June 2018, the government offered a seven-year contract to all Melbourne bus operators, with no end-of-term access to staff, depots, fleet and intellectual property.[15] This meant that under this contract, operators are not obliged to transfer any of their assets to the government. CDC Melbourne (including Tullamarine Bus Lines) successfully negotiated with the government and secured the seven-year contracts for its Melbourne metropolitan bus services, which commenced on 1 August 2018.[1][16][17]
Depots
CDC Melbourne operates from four depots, whose names may differ from the suburbs they are located in:[18]
- Oakleigh - located in Oakleigh South
- Sunshine
- Tullamarine - located in Airport West
- Wyndham - located in Truganina, also houses the head office of CDC Victoria
CDC Melbourne also used to operate from Altona and Werribee depots until they moved into the newly-opened Wyndham depot, which opened in December 2017.[10][11]
Fleet
At the time of its acquisition of Kefford in 2009, CDC Victoria acquired a fleet of 328 buses. When the Driver Group was purchased in 2013, CDC Victoria also acquired 42 buses, bringing the Victorian fleet to 420 buses.[8] As at March 2016, the CDC Melbourne fleet consisted of 277 buses and coaches.[19] At April 2018, prior to the acquisition of Tullamarine Bus Lines, the fleet consisted of 281 buses and coaches. When Tullamarine Bus Lines was acquired in 2018, CDC Melbourne also acquired 36 buses, bringing the fleet to 317 buses and coaches.
Westrans fleet livery was white with red stripes for buses at Altona (now closed) and Sunshine depots, and white with blue stripes at the Werribee depot (now closed). Eastrans fleet livery was white with white and green stripes. The Public Transport Victoria white and orange diamonds livery has been adopted as standard for route service buses and an orange, blue and white livery was adopted for charter buses. However some buses still retain the old Westrans livery with CDC Melbourne signage.
References
- ^ a b "Annual Report 2018". ComfortDelGro. Archived from the original on 10 May 2019. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
- ^ "Victorian Buses in the Eighties". Australian Bus Panorama (6/8): 14. May 1991.
- ^ Melbourne Metropolitan Bus Operators and Fleet Listings. Melbourne: Bus & Coach Society of Victoria. 1991. pp. 31–34.
- ^ a b "Victorian Buses in the Eighties". Australian Bus Panorama (7/1): 3. August 1991.
- ^ "Kefford Group Fleets". Australian Bus Panorama (7/1): 35. August 1991.
- ^ "Kefford Group finds a buyer". Australian Bus & Coach. 20 November 2008.
- ^ "ComfortDelGro Expands Melbourne Operations Through A $22.0 Million Acquisition" (PDF). ComfortDelGro. 20 May 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 November 2013.
- ^ a b Skelton, Andrew (20 May 2013). "Acquisition of further Bus Route Service Business in Melbourne" (PDF).
- ^ "Updates and News". CDC Victoria. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014.
- ^ a b "CDC Victoria - Unite! Newsletter - March 2018" (PDF). CDC Victoria. March 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
- ^ a b c "CDC Victoria - Unite! Newsletter - September 2018" (PDF). CDC Victoria. September 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
- ^ "CDC Vic pays deposit for north-west Melbourne bus operator". Australasian Bus & Coach. 13 April 2018. Archived from the original on 9 May 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
- ^ "CDC Victoria further strengthens bus footprint in Victoria" (PDF). CDC Victoria. 13 April 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 June 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- ^ "New Melbourne Bus Contracts Put Passengers First". Premier of Victoria. 2 April 2018. Archived from the original on 11 May 2018. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
- ^ "Bus Contracts Backflip; Vic Govt Offers New Seven-Year Option Without Assets Acquisition". Australasian Bus & Coach. 18 June 2018. Archived from the original on 19 April 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
- ^ "Metropolitan Bus Services Contract - CDC". Buying for Victoria. Archived from the original on 9 October 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
- ^ "Metropolitan Bus Services Contract - Tullamarine Bus Lines". Buying for Victoria. Archived from the original on 9 October 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
- ^ "Head Office and Depots". CDC Victoria. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
- ^ "CDC Group". Australian Bus Fleet Lists.
External links
Media related to CDC Melbourne at Wikimedia Commons