Metro Tasmania

A Scania L94UB 14.5m bus pictured in Hobart's Elizabeth St Bus Mall

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.[3] Metro Tasmania normally 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 current shareholder minister is the Hon. Michael Ferguson MP, who is Deputy Premier, Treasurer and the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. 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 June 2022, Metro Tasmania employed 511 people statewide. 6.96 million passenger boardings were recorded in the 2021-22 financial year, a slight increase from the previous year. Overall, patronage still showed a decrease of 18.8% when compared to 2018-19, which was the last full financial year not impacted by COVID.[4]

Response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Unlike public transport operations in most other Australian cities, Metro continued to operate its full weekday timetable throughout the 2020-21 pandemic, including periods where lockdowns and travel restrictions were in place. This was possible due to the low number of infections recorded in Tasmania and the effectiveness of measures put in place to minimise the chance of wide-scale outbreaks. To reduce the risk to staff and passengers and provide an opportunity to obtain contactless payment methods, Metro did not collect fares for a period during the winter of 2020 and had passengers board and alight buses from the rear doors to minimise contact with the driver.[5] Increased cleaning and daily sanitising of the fleet was also introduced. Operations had returned to normal by the start of 2021, although the cleaning and sanitising protocols have remained in place. Following the relaxing of domestic travel restrictions in December 2021, COVID began to spread widely throughout the community. This caused extensive disruptions for Metro with drivers either stuck by the virus, isolated as close contacts or needing leave in order to care for sick relatives. Consequently, in the first half of 2022 Metro was forced to cancel substantial volumes of services in both Hobart and Launceston.

Bus 408, a Scania L94UB 11.9m, is pictured at the North West Regional Hospital in Burnie.

A Scania N113 with Ansair VOV1 body, pictured in Launceston prior to retirement.

Metro currently uses a smartcard ticketing system known as Greencard, alongside paper receipt-style tickets which are only purchasable with cash on the bus and Hobart-Bellerive Ferry.[14][15][16][17]

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 were the last remaining company in Australia 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.

In 2018, an announcement was made in regards to a new ticketing system slated to replace or upgrade the Greencard system.[18] It will enable the use of debit/credit cards and smart devices to pay fares, and is expected to begin trials during late 2024 or early 2025.

As at May 2023, Metro had a statewide fleet of 229 buses,[1] consisting of:

• 79 Scania 12.5m low-floor buses. Buses with Northcoast bodies are numbered #204 to 244. Buses with Custom Coaches CB60 bodies are numbered #300 to 336, CB80 bodies are numbered #337 to 344.
• 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 A24 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.
• 116 Bustech 12.5m XDi low-floor buses, numbered #800 to 914.

100 Bustech XDi 12.5m low-floor buses with Cummins engines were introduced to the Metro fleet between 2018 and 2021, 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 buses was ordered in December 2020, with deliveries commencing in November 2021. These buses are numbered in the #900 series. All Metro services statewide are operated by low floor, wheelchair-accessible buses. 212 of the total fleet of 229 are air-conditioned. Launceston was the first city to have 100% of services accessible, followed by Burnie and Hobart.

The Burnie fleet (13 units) consists solely of Bustech XDi buses, plus two Scania 11.9m. The Launceston fleet (49 units) consists of 30 Scania 12.5m buses (a mix of Northcoast and Custom Coaches CB60 units), and 19 Bustech XDi buses. The Hobart fleet (164 units) consists of all 20 articulated buses, 49 Scania 12.5m (Northcoast, CB60 & CB80), 86 Bustech XDi and 11 Scania 11.9m buses. All 229 buses in the fleet are fitted with CCTV systems.

• The Hobart Electric Tramway Company commenced in 1893 with 20 double-deck trams constructed by Siemens. The company and its successor Hobart Municipal Tramways went on to construct their own rolling stock, and the fleet reached its peak size in 1946 with 76 units in service.[19] Launceston's Municipal Tramways commenced in 1911 with a fleet of 14 single-deck trams, with the eventual fleet comprising 29 units.[20]
• The first trolleybus was introduced to Hobart in 1935, and over 50 units were in the fleet at its peak in the 1950s. Launceston's trolleybuses began operation in 1951, with the peak fleet of 30 being reached in 1953. The MTT transferred five units from Launceston to Hobart in 1964.[21]
• A range of vehicles have served the MTT and Metro, including (but not limited to) AEC Regals, Leyland 1/2 cabs, OB & SB Bedfords, AEC Reliances, Volvo B58s, Volvo B10Ms, Leyland Nationals and Hino BT51s. The most recently retired fleet has been the Scania 14.5m buses and the Scania Orana rigids constructed by the former Ansair factory at Kingston.

A Metro Scania articulated bus poses with former Hobart tram no.46 at the Tasmanian Transport Museum.

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, which was updated in the early 1980s with a red band below the window line and a stylised MTT logo replacing the traditional monogram. The delivery of the first buses constructed at the new Ansair factory at Kingston during 1987 coincided with a re-branding of the Trust. Although still known as the Metropolitan Transport Trust, the business began to use the name Metro in its daily operations. The new buses were rolled out in a two-tone green livery with Metro titles replacing the stylised MTT logo - at the time the buses operating in the green livery indicated that the vehicle had a passenger-operated rear door. The existing fleet retained the gold and cream through to their retirements, with the exception of the articulated buses which were gradually repainted during the 1990s.

In the early 1990s, new Metro eXpress (MX) services were introduced, and a number of Scania N112 buses and Volvo articulateds were given a livery of green and yellow on white and special MX titles. Newly-delivered Scania N113 Oranas commencing with fleet number 606 carried a modified version of this livery. The Metro livery today features a corporate white body with the Metro logo, and all buses are painted with a yellow front to aid with visibility.[25]

Buses have periodically being painted into special liveries. One of the most notable liveries was for the Busy Bee, a high-frequency service that operated for a period from the mid-1990s on the Sandy Bay & University loop in Hobart and to Invermay and Mowbray in Launceston. A number of MAN 10.180 midibuses were painted bright yellow and adorned with a cartoon bee alongside destinations that the buses travelled to. The success of the Sandy Bay service resulted in buses larger than the 30-seat midibuses being required at peak times, and a single Scania Orana was also painted in the livery.

A Scania N113 VOV1 sporting the green livery with the later-added yellow front.

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