Kinetic Townsville

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Kinetic Townsville
Sunbus Townsville Bus.jpg
Bustech bodied Mercedes-Benz O405NH in July 2007
FormerlySunbus Townsville
Parent Kinetic
Founded1995
Headquarters Garbutt
Service area Townsville
Service typeBus operator
Routes15
HubsCastletown Shoppingworld
James Cook University
Stockland Townsville
Townsville CBD
Townsville Hospital
Willows Shopping Centre
Depots1
Fleet81 (January 2025)
Website[https://www.wearekinetic.com/au/townsville www.wearekinetic.com

Kinetic Townsville, formerly Sunbus Townsville, is the principal bus operator in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Operating services under contract to Translink, it is a subsidiary of Kinetic.

Contents

History

Former Sunbus logo Sunbus logo.svg
Former Sunbus logo

In April 1996, Harry Blundred, the proprietor of Thames Transit in the United Kingdom, began operating the route services in Cairns. [1]

As part of the deal, Sunbus was also responsible for the operation of school bus services in the region, but these were sold in 1997 to another British bus operator, Stagecoach. [2]

In April 2008, Blundred sold Marlin Coast Sunbus along with the other Sunbus operations to Transit Australia Group. In April 2010, the operation expanded with the acquisition of Hermit Park Bus Service. [3]

In April 2019, Transit Australia Group was purchased by AATS Group, the parent company of Skybus and majority-owned by OPTrust. [4] In August 2019, AATS Group was rebranded Kinetic. [5]

In 2022, the Sunbus brand was retired in favour of Kinetic.

Services

Kinetic operates services from Pallarenda in the north, Kelso and Stuart in the south and Kirwan and Thuringowa Central in the west. The area with the largest service coverage is the suburbs of Annandale and Douglas. [6]

Fleet

As at January 2025, the fleet consisted of 81 buses. [7]

References

  1. "Private Operators" Fleetline July 1995 page 130
    - "Transit Australia", Australian Bus Panorama 11/7 April 1996 page 48
  2. "Private Operators", Australian Bus Panorama 13/1 August 1997 page 22
    - Buslink, Australian Bus Fleet Lists
  3. Hermit Park Bus Service, Australian Bus Fleet Lists
    - "Transit Australia Group buys Hermit Park Bus Company" (PDF). Transit Australia Group. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2011.
  4. Fabian Cotter (2 April 2019). "Skybus Operator to Acquire Transit Australia Group – Bustech not Included". Australasian Bus & Coach. Archived from the original on 22 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  5. "Skybus parent relaunched as 'Kinetic'". Australasian Bus & Coach. 8 August 2019. Archived from the original on 20 August 2019. Retrieved 20 August 2019.
  6. Townsville bus routes Translink
  7. Kinetic - Townsville Australian Bus Fleet Lists

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