The Featured Bus for November/December 2018 is Bus 710 – a BYD K9RA battery electric bus

Bus 710 was a BYD K9RA “Toro”  plug-in battery electric bus, with Gemilang Coachworks body, which was delivered to ACTION in July 2017.

📷 ‘The Inspector’

This bus was one of three evaluated by Transport Canberra as part of an “alternative energy” bus trial.

Carbridge was awarded a contract to supply two fully electric buses following the failure of Geelong-based AVASS to supply buses for the trial. Bus 710 began service on 30 August 2017 and operated until early November 2018. The second evaluation vehicle (Bus 711) was delivered in March 2018.

The Toro bus is the same model as used by Carbridge (now Swissport) for Airport carpark shuttles in Brisbane and Sydney, but Bus 710 is the first BYD to be used as a route bus in Australia.

The alternative energy bus trial also included Bus 712, a Volvo B5RLEH parallel hybrid bus.

After completing service with ACTION, this bus headed north to join the Brisbane Airport carpark shuttle fleet.

Further details:

  • Bus 710 on ACT Bus Fleetwiki
  • Featured Bus: Bus 712 – Volvo B5RLEH (Mar/Apr 2018)

This page was last updated on 18 February 2024