30 Years of 14.5m Buses in the Adelaide Hills
2020 marks 30 years of 14.5 metre buses in service in South Australia!
14.5 metre buses are a unique breed of transit vehicle; they are much longer than a standard rigid city bus (usually between 11.3m and 12.5m long), but also shorter than an articulated bus (17m-18m). They first appeared in some Scandinavian countries in the 1980s, and have since been steadily popular across Europe ever since.
Australia has had a limited interest with these 'long buses', with batches sporadically being built from around 1987 to the late 2010's. As far as we understand, they are still available from current bus manufacturers.
They offer similar seating capacity to an articulated bus, but with two thirds the running costs. The trade off is that a 14.5 metre bus is less maneuverable than both a rigid or articulated bus as it will have a very long wheelbase and also plenty of tail swing around corners due to a large rear overhang. This means that they are only suitable for busy routes with few tight corners.
Bus no. 3306 was sent to be on display at the 1990 Sydney bus show, and then to various operators in NSW for demonstration. It was a 1990 build Volvo B10M MkII with 70 seat Pressed Metal Corporation (PMC) 'SE2' bodywork, built locally in Adelaide.
It entered service in early 1991 with Mount Barker Passenger Service and was usually used on longer distance runs between Adelaide and Mt Barker, and also Nairne/Lobethal/Strathalbyn school runs. It was retired after engine failure in mid-2014, and subsequently scrapped.
Through the years, public bus operations in the Adelaide Hills changed hands, with Hills Transit taking over in 1995, then becoming Transit Plus in 2000 and Eventually SouthLink by 2011.
In 2001 buses 3310 and 3311 entered service; they would set the standard for the next generation of 14.5 metre buses. They are both low floor Scania L94UBs with Volgren CR224L bodywork. 3310 was also tested on the O-Bahn in the mid-00s, but it didn't turn out to be a success due to severe rear tyre scrubbing, with it returning to the Hills, and no future orders for 14.5s on the O-Bahn.
Between 2003 and 2007, 15 more L94/Volgren 14.5m buses entered service on the Hills routes, where they remain the reliable backbone of most trunk services between the City and Mount barker.
While there are no 14.5s currently in preservation with BPASA, quite a few of our members have discussed the topic, and we hope to one day have one in our fleet.
