Lord Mayor Campbell Newman today unveiled Council’s brand new $19 million bus build facility at Eagle Farm, with work starting on the first of hundreds of new buses to start rolling out by February.
The Lord Mayor said the 2.65ha TradeCoast Central facility – which Council owns in a joint venture with Volgren – had the capacity to deliver 150 new buses a year for Brisbane City Council and other bus operators.
“That is almost double the number of buses we were able to build at our old workshop at Toowong,” Cr Newman said.
“At its peak this facility will be able to produce three new buses per week, which will put us in an even better position to deliver on our promise of 500 new buses by 2012.
“It is also in a much better location close to the port and Gateway Motorway and away from residents.”
Cr Newman said Council’s contribution to the partnership was $6.7 million in land. Volgren constructed, and will now manage, the facility, which uses low-emission technology to minimise its impact on the community.
“It has been just seven months since I turned the sod on this project. Volgren have done a super job to get this facility up and running in that time,” Cr Newman said.
Volgren’s Managing Director Peter Dale said the joint venture between Council and Volgren was a continuation of a long standing association.
“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,” said Mr Dale.
Mr Dale said Volgren was gradually transferring staff and equipment from the former Toowong facility.
‘”The first phase of the project was to build the facility. That is complete. We are now in the second phase, which involves winding down operations at Toowong and ramping up production at Eagle Farm.
“The third and final phase will be in February 2010, when this facility becomes fully operational and we produce our first completed bus.”
Two-thousand-and-nine has been a landmark year for the Lord Mayor and his public transport strategy, in which he has taken Brisbane’s bus fleet to over 1000, added two new CityCats and delivered Brisbane’s first bus depot in 15 years.
He has also seen bus patronage hit a record 72 million, an increase of 24 million since he was elected in 2004.
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