Metro Tasmania


Metro Tasmania, commonly called Metro, a Tasmanian Government business enterprise, is the largest bus operator in the state of Tasmania, Australia, with operations in three of the four largest urban centres of Hobart,, and. Urban services in Devonport are provided by a private operator, Merseylink Coaches, although Metro does operate a route via Devonport which links the Mersey Community Hospital in Latrobe with the North-West Regional Hospital in Burnie. Services are provided by Metro under a range of urban and non-urban contracts with the Transport Commission, a division within the Department of State Growth.

History

The history of Metro Tasmania dates back to 1893, when the Hobart Electric Tramway Company 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. 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 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. 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.
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. 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, Richmond and Cygnet.
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% from 2017/18. bodied MAN 10.180HOCL in December 2012
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Operations

Hobart

In Hobart, Metro's network extends from Gordon in the southern Channel region, north to Brighton and east to Seven Mile Beach and Opossum Bay with major interchanges in the Hobart, Glenorchy and Rosny Park CBD's and smaller transfer points at Kingston, Howrah Shoreline, Metro Springfield and Bridgewater. Two high-frequency corridors, branded as Turn Up and Go operate between Glenorchy and Hobart via Main Road, New Town Road and Elizabeth Street, and between Howrah Shoreline and Hobart via Clarence Street and Rosny Park. On these corridors a service is scheduled to depart every 10 minutes or better in each direction between 7am and 7pm on weekdays.
Hobart's routes are numbered according to their geographical area:
Cross-town routes that either bypass Hobart City or travel through the CBD without terminating are Routes 500, 501, 601, 605, 694 and 696.
Some evening and weekend services on the Glenorchy - Hobart Turn Up and Go corridor are operated to/from New Norfolk as Route 722 by O'Driscolls Coaches as part of a Tasmanian Government project aimed at increasing the integration between urban and non-urban services. Since January 2019, non-urban and urban fringe services operated by private companies from destinations such as the Huon Valley, Sorell, Richmond and New Norfolk have been permitted to pick up and set down passengers travelling wholly within the Hobart urban area.

Launceston

In Launceston, the Metro network is bounded by the suburbs of Youngtown, St Leonards, Waverley, Rocherlea, North Riverside, Blackstone Heights and Hadspen. The major interchange is located in St John Street in the Launceston CBD. Two high-frequency Turn Up and Go corridors are operated. The first is between the University, Mowbray and the City via Invermay Road, and the second is between the City and Kings Meadows via the Launceston General Hospital, Wellington St and Hobart Rd.
A new public transport network for Launceston and surrounding regions was introduced on 19 January, 2020. This review formed part of the Department of State Growth's program of integrating urban and non-urban bus services, and included both Metro and private operators including Manions Coaches, Tassielink Transit, East Tamar Bus Lines and Saintys North-East Bus Service. Private operators are now permitted to pick up and set down passengers travelling wholly within the Launceston urban area. As part of a process of reducing duplication of routes and services, Metro withdrew most of its services to North Riverside via West Tamar Rd and was replaced by Manions Coaches which now includes North Riverside as part of its Legana route.
Launceston's routes were re-numbered as part of the review in order to fit into a statewide route numbering system developed by State Growth in conjunction with Metro. The route numbers generally form a pattern according to their geographical area
Metro also operates the Tiger Bus service under contract to the Launceston City Council. In the morning and afternoon peaks a commuter shuttle links the CBD with the Inveresk Park & Ride car park, while during the inter-peak period the bus alternates between three tourist-oriented routes known as the City Explorer, River Explorer and Gorge Explorer.

Burnie

In Burnie, Metro operates within the urban area from Chasm Creek in the east to Somerset in the west, and within suburban Burnie as far south as Shorewell Park, Downlands, Havenview and Emu Heights. Non-urban services are provided westward to Wynyard, and eastwards to Penguin and Ulverstone.
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.

Fleet

As at April 2020, Metro had a statewide fleet of 220 buses, consisting of:
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.
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. A mixture of Scania Northcoasts, CB60s and Bustech XDi units make up the Launceston fleet. Burnie became 100% low-floor at the end of January 2020, using a fleet of Scania Northcoasts, 11.9m and Bustech XDi units.
The Hobart fleet consists of all 20 articulated buses, the four 14.5m buses, two 11.9m buses, 53 Scania 12.5m, 42 Bustech XDi and 34 Oranas. The Rigid buses are set to be progressively retired by the middle of 2021, by which time the entire statewide fleet will be 100% low-floor accessible.
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.
In the 1980s, three Volvo B58s and 19 Volvo B10M articulated buses were purchased, as well as four rigid B10Ms, 28 Mercedes-Benz OH1316s. and the first Scania N112s.

Preserved buses

Several vehicles once operated by the MTT and Metro have now been preserved by the Tasmanian Transport Museum and the Tasmanian Bus & Coach Society. These include:
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 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 mainly by a corporate white, with all buses sporting a yellow front to aid with visibility.

Depots

Metro maintains three large-sized depots, one each in Hobart, 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, 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.

Satellite Yards

Because of the widespread nature of their services, Metro also have various satellite yards located in non-urban and outer suburban areas. These yards allow buses to begin their daily services in specific places, and can allow for greater early morning frequency for some routes and reduce the need to run buses out of service. The yards have minimal facilities and exist so as buses can be stored overnight, ready to begin an inward service the next day.

Hobart