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Work begins on Brisbane bus-building factory

Work begins on Brisbane bus-building factory

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction has begun on a state-of-the-art bus building facility that will deliver hundreds on buses on to Brisbane’s streets.

 

 

 

 

The factory is being built by Australia’s biggest bus builder, Volgren Australia, in partnership with the Brisbane City Council.

 

 

 

 

‘This facility will be the most modern bus manufacturing plant in Australia,’ said Volgren Australia’s Managing Director, Peter Dale. ‘It will produce hundreds of state-of-the art buses for the people of Brisbane.’

 

 

Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said the $19 million bus-building facility at Eagle Farm would help deliver on his pledge of 500 new buses this Council term.

 

 

The 2.65ha site at TradeCoast Central, Eagle Farm, would build 150 buses a year for Brisbane City Council and other bus operators. ‘At its peak of operation this facility will be able to produce at least three new buses per week,’ Cr Newman said. ‘The first bus will roll off the production line around February.’

 

 

Council bus patronage has grown 40 per cent in four years. Brisbane buses carry about 71 million passengers a year, about 10 million more than the southeast Queensland rail network.

 

 

Cr Newman said the new facility would enable council to halt bus building at its factory in inner-west Toowong later this year. Work on the first bus would begin in December as per a 10-year agreement between Council and Volgren signed late last year. Council’s commitment to the facility is $6.7 million in land.

 

 

‘This new facility is close to the port and easily accessible from the Gateway Motorway, which makes it a much better position for bus building than suburban Toowong,’ he said. 

 

 

Mr Dale said the Brisbane factory was Volgren’s fourth, complementing bus-building facilities in Melbourne, Perth and Newcastle (under construction).

 

 

‘Today is an important and exciting day for us at Volgren,’ Mr Dale said. ‘We have been building buses in partnership with the Council for eight years, and this new facility marks the next stage of a truly successful partnership.’

 

 

Volgren buses are built using a unique aluminium system, which makes the buses stronger, lighter and more energy efficient than traditional steel buses.

 

 

 

 

Volgren Australia is Australia’s largest and most respected bus body-building company, making more than 450 buses each year. It is a family owned company.