Metro Tasmania

Ansair bodied Scania N113CRB in December 2012

The history of Metro Tasmania dates back to 1893, when the Hobart Electric Tramway Company (HETCo) was founded by a London consortium. The HETCo was one of the earliest such operators in the world, and was the first electric tramway in the Southern Hemisphere. The company also operated two Dennis motorbuses prior to being taken over in 1913 by the Hobart City Council, who renamed it to Hobart Municipal Tramways (HMT). In 1935, HMT began to use trolleybuses on some networks to replace trams, and petrol buses were introduced on some networks in the 1940s to alleviate congestion.

In 1955, a statutory authority called the Metropolitan Transport Trust (MTT) was formed, and this entity amalgamated the operations of the Hobart Municipal Tramways and Launceston Municipal Transport, which had been operated by the Launceston City Council as Launceston Municipal Tramways between 1911 and 1953 (when 'Tramways' was replaced by 'Transport' following the end of tram services in December 1952). The Hobart Municipal Tramways were taken over by the Trust on 1 March 1955, followed by Launceston on 1 July. At its commencement, the MTT operated trams, trolley, petrol and diesel buses, and was authorised to provide public transport services within a radius of seven miles of the Hobart and Launceston General Post Offices (GPO's).

On 30 August 1959, the MTT acquired the operations of Norton Coaches, which provided bus services in the Burnie area. This resulted in the MTT operating transport services in the South, North and North-West regions of Tasmania. A year later in 1960 saw the closure of the last of Hobart's tram routes, while in 1968 electric traction was removed altogether from Tasmania's streets when the trolleybuses were retired from both Hobart and Launceston.

The MTT began using Metro as its operating name during the late 1980s when the Trust was a division of the Department of Transport. The Metropolitan Transport Trust was dissolved when Metro Tasmania Pty Ltd became a state-owned company in February 1998.[1] Metro Tasmania has two shareholders, by law both are ministers in the state government. The Treasurer is one shareholder, while the other holds the Transport portfolio or its equivalent. The government appoints directors to the Board of Metro Tasmania, who in turn appoint the Chief Executive Officer.

In May 1999, Metro purchased Hobart Coaches which operated services to New Norfolk, Richmond, Blackmans Bay and the Channel areas of Hobart. Hobart Coaches was retained as the brand name of the regional division of Metro, initially operating with separate drivers and buses at separate yards, however both the workforce and the fleet were gradually absorbed into the main operation. Services to Kingston and Blackmans Bay became part of Metro's Hobart urban network, with Channel services operated under a separate non-urban contract. In the period since 1999, some of the former Hobart Coaches routes have been relinquished by Metro either for operational reasons, because contracts were sold to other operators, or due to public transport reviews undertaken by the state government. These include New Norfolk (sold to O'Driscoll Coaches), Richmond (sold to Tassielink Transit) and Cygnet (Metro route via Snug withdrawn following government review - Tassielink services via Huonville continue to operate).

As at July 2018, Metro Tasmania employed 481 people statewide. 8.50 million first boardings were recorded in the 2018/19 financial year, an increase of 2.2% (seasonally adjusted) from 2017/18.

Ansair bodied MAN 10.180HOCL in December 2012

Custom Coaches bodied Scania K230UB in all over advertising

Metro currently uses a smartcard ticketing system known as Greencard, alongside paper receipt-style tickets which are only purchasable with cash on the bus.

Historically, Metro used paper tickets from its foundation until 1987, when a new magnetic-striped system by Crouzet was introduced in Hobart and Launceston, known initially as Metrofare. This system allowed for easier transfers across the network and an exact fare expiration time of 90 minutes. Upon the ending of this system, all ticketing equipment was sold to Adelaide Metro, who are the last remaining company using the system. Due to its smaller network and patronage, Burnie retained paper tickets and did not use Metrofare.

It was not until 2008 when a new system by INIT GmbH began trials, using an electronic card to validate and purchase tickets. The Greencard system was introduced statewide during 2010, and allows for passengers to deposit a desired amount onto their cards, with the balance debited upon each trip. The Greencard system also requires validation on each boarding, and has a fare expiration of 90 minutes from the initial boarding. Unlike many other jurisdictions with electronic ticketing, passengers do not tag off at the end of their journey. Each bus has a single Greencard reader and ticket sales point, which is operated by the driver.

Fare types include Adult, Concession/Student and Child, and each are divided into Metro's system of zones based on the distance from the Hobart, Launceston and Burnie CBD's. Fares for non-urban areas such as the Channel, South Arm-Opossum Bay, Wynyard and Ulverstone are set by the Transport Commission.

As at January 2021, Metro had a statewide fleet of 223 buses, consisting of:

• 10 Scania N-series Orana rigid buses. All are located in Hobart.
• 85 Scania 12.5m low-floor buses. Buses with Northcoast bodies are numbered #205 to 244. Buses with Custom Coaches CB60 bodies are numbered #300 to 336, CB80 bodies are numbered #337 to 344.
• 3 Scania 14.5m low-floor buses. Two buses have Volgren bodies (#202 & 203), while bus #245 has a Northcoast body and was purchased following the loss of 12.5m bus #229 to a vehicle fire in August 2006.
• 15 Scania low-floor articulated buses with Custom Coaches bodies. Buses #723-726 have CB60 bodies, while #727-730 and #736-742 have CB80 bodies.
• 5 MAN low-floor articulated buses with King Long bodies (purchased second-hand from Skybus in Melbourne). These carry fleet numbers #731-735.
• 11 Scania 11.9m low-floor buses (acquired from Melbourne Airport Ltd), numbered #400-410.
• 93 Bustech 12.5m XDi low-floor buses, with fleet numbers starting from #800.

100 Bustech XDi 12.5m low-floor buses with Cummins engines are being progressively introduced to the Metro fleet, with the prototype constructed at the Bustech factory in Brisbane and the remaining 99 being built locally in partnership with Tasmanian company Elphinstone Pty Ltd at their factory in Wynyard. These are numbered #800-899. An additional tranche of 26 buses was ordered in December 2020, with deliveries to commence in the second half of 2021.

The Launceston fleet became 100% low-floor with the introduction of new timetables on 19 January 2020, the first Metro operating area to do so. Burnie became 100% low-floor at the end of January 2020, and Hobart is planned to become 100% low-floor by the middle of 2021.

The Burnie fleet (15 units) consists of four Scania Northcoast buses, eight Scania 11.9m buses (ex-Melbourne Airport) and three Bustech XDi buses. The Launceston fleet (50 units) consists of 30 Scania 12.5m buses (a mix of Northcoast and Custom Coaches CB60 units), and 20 Bustech XDi buses. The Hobart fleet consists of all 20 articulated buses, the three 14.5m buses, three 11.9m buses, 51 Scania 12.5m (Northcoast, CB60 & CB80), 70 Bustech XDi and 10 Scania Oranas. The remaining Oranas are set to be progressively retired by the middle of 2021, by which time the entire statewide fleet will be 100% low-floor accessible. At this point over 86% of the fleet will be air-conditioned.

Metro has used a variety of buses in its history, with the MTT commencing in 1955 with AEC Regal half-cab buses. From 1955, over 300 petrol engined Bedford SB3s were purchased followed in the 1970s by 75 Hino BT51s, 64 Leyland Nationals and 68 Volvo B58s.[2][3]

In the 1980s, three Volvo B58s and 19 Volvo B10M articulated buses were purchased, as well as four rigid B10Ms,[4] 28 Mercedes-Benz OH1316s.[2] and the first Scania N112s.[5]

The initial bus livery adopted in 1955 was the same larch green and cream carried by trams and trolleybuses. In the late 1970s a new livery of rolled gold and cream appeared. A re-branding also occurred, shifting away from Metropolitan Transport Trust/MTT to Metro Tasmania, and a two-tone apple green livery was introduced at the time to reflect this. This livery can be seen today on some older buses, and its initial purpose was to signify buses with passenger-operated rear doors.

In the early 1990s, new Metro eXpress (MX) services were introduced, and a number of buses were given a livery of green and yellow on white. Both two-tone green and MX livery exist today on older stock, but this has been replaced by a corporate white, with all buses sporting a yellow front to aid with visibility.[9]

Metro maintains three large-sized depots, one each in Hobart (Derwent Park), Launceston and Burnie. These depots house Metro's buses and managerial operations, with Hobart being the central office. Each depot contains refuelling and workshop services.

The original headquarters for the MTT were in central Hobart, with the Depot in Campbell St. Much of the historical facade still exists today on the corner of Campbell and Macquarie Streets, opposite City Hall. Part of the depot was closed between 1985 and 1987 to allow for the construction of the Sheraton Hotel (now the Hotel Grand Chancellor), and coincided with the opening of the MTT's Springfield Interchange which replaced this lost capacity and also included workshops.

Following the Tasman Bridge disaster in January 1975, the MTT was dramatically impacted as it did not have any depot facilities on the eastern side of the Derwent River. A temporary depot was established at Bellerive Oval while work proceeded to construct a new facility at Mornington. This included workshops and driver amenities to enable the MTT's Eastern Shore services to operate independently from the City Depot while the Tasman Bridge was being rebuilt. The Mornington Depot remained an important part of the MTT's operations following the re-opening of the Tasman Bridge in 1977, however its usage gradually decreased as operations began to be centralised at Springfield during the 1980s and 1990s. A small compound was retained for some years for use as a satellite yard before being vacated entirely.

• Trolleybuses in Hobart
• Trolleybuses in Launceston, Tasmania

• Company website