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CDC Melbourne

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CDC Melbourne
Volgren bodied Scania K230UB at Wyndham Vale station in June 2015
ParentCDC Victoria
Headquarters28 Prosperity Street, Truganina
Service areaMelbourne
Service typeBus operator
Routes84
DepotsAirport West
Albion
Oakleigh South
Truganina
Westmeadows
Fleet387 (August 2024)
Websitewww.cdcvictoria.com.au

CDC Melbourne is a bus operator in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It operates 55 bus routes under contract to Public Transport Victoria. It is one of the brands of CDC Victoria, which is in turn a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia.

As of July 2025, CDC Melbourne is one of the top three largest commuter bus operators in Melbourne, with 20% of the market share in the city.[1]

History

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2009–2014

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For the history of the Westrans and Eastrans brands until 2009, see CDC Victoria.

In February 2009, ComfortDelGro Cabcharge acquired Kefford Corporation including the Eastrans and Westrans operations in eastern and western Melbourne respectively.[2] At the time of its acquisition by CDC in 2009, Kefford was the fourth-largest bus operator in Victoria with a 16% market share, and with a fleet of 328 buses and six depots. The Eastrans and Westrans brands were retained following the acquisition.

In July 2011, Eastrans commenced route 601 as a high frequency shuttle between Huntingdale station and Monash University. In July 2013, CDC acquired the route operations of Driver Group with five routes (routes 612 and 623 - 626) and 42 buses, and integrated into the Eastrans brand.[3][4][5][6][7]

2014–2024

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In October 2014, Eastrans and Westrans were combined and rebranded as CDC Melbourne.

In December 2017, the Wyndham depot was opened in the suburb of Truganina, replacing the Altona and Werribee depots which were subsequently closed.[8][9] The head office of CDC Victoria and the Operations and Customer Centre (OCC) were also moved from Altona and Sunshine respectively into the new depot.

In May 2018, Tullamarine Bus Lines was acquired by ComfortDelGro Australia with 34 buses.[10][11][12] It was rebranded CDC Tullamarine and integrated into CDC Melbourne on 17 August 2018.[9]

CDC Melbourne initially signed a ten-year performance-based contract with the Victorian government in April 2018, due to commence on 1 July 2018.[13] However, in June 2018, the government offered a seven-year contract to all Melbourne bus operators, with no end-of-term access to staff, depots, fleet and intellectual property.[14] This meant that under this contract, operators are not obliged to transfer any of their assets to the government. CDC Melbourne (including Tullamarine Bus Lines) successfully negotiated with the government and secured a seven-year contracts for its Melbourne metropolitan bus services, which commenced on 1 August 2018.[1][15][16]

2024–present

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In September 2024, it was announced that CDC Melbourne were successfully awarded ten-year contracts, due to commence on 1 July 2025.[17][18][19] CDC Melbourne retained all of its existing routes, and would also gain routes from other operators such as Ryan Brothers Bus Service (all routes), Dysons (some routes) and Dom Sita's Kastoria Bus Lines and Broadmeadows Bus Service (all routes). As part of an agreement with Kastoria and Broadmeadows, the latter operators would also transfer their fleet, depot and staff to CDC, in addition to their routes.[20][21] However, CDC was impacted by driver industrial action on 1 July 2025, CDC operations did not commence on some of these routes until the following day, 2 July 2025.[22] Many of CDC's retained routes also did not run that day, or otherwise to a Sunday timetable (1 July was a Tuesday).

Franchises

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Since July 2025, CDC Melbourne's services can be categorised based on its three subsidiaries and bus franchise contracts:

Subsidiary Franchise name Region Number of bus routes
(as of 1 July 2025)
CDC Victoria West Pty Ltd Purple and Orange[18] Western Melbourne, mainly former Westrans, Ryans and Kastoria Bus routes 49[a]
CDC Victoria North-west Pty Ltd Dark Blue[17] North west Melbourne, mainly former Tullamarine Bus, Broadmeadows Bus and Dysons routes 25
CDC Victoria East Pty Ltd Teal[19] South east Melbourne, mainly former Eastrans routes 10[b]
  1. ^ Including the jointly-operated route 400 with Transit Systems Victoria
  2. ^ Including the jointly-operated SmartBus route 900 with Ventura Bus Lines

Depots

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CDC Melbourne operates from five depots:[23][1]

  • West (Purple and Orange franchise)
    • Albion (formerly referred as Sunshine depot)
    • Truganina (formerly referred as Wyndham depot), also houses the head office of CDC Victoria
  • Northwest (Dark Blue franchise)
    • Airport West (formerly referred as Tullamarine depot), the former depot of Tullamarine Bus Lines
    • Westmeadows, the former depot of Kastoria Bus Lines and Broadmeadows Bus Service
  • East (Teal franchise)

CDC Melbourne also used to operate from Altona and Werribee depots until they moved into the Wyndham depot which opened in December 2017.[8][9]

Fleet

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As of August 2024, the fleet comprised 387 buses and coaches.[24] The fleet includes 50 Volvo B5LH buses which was once Australia's largest hybrid bus fleet, as well as eight of Victoria's first Volvo BZL battery electric buses.[25][26]

As part of the new bus franchises, a number of buses were transferred from Kastoria Bus Lines (including Broadmeadows Bus Service) to CDC Melbourne on 1 July 2025.[1]

Liveries

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Westrans fleet livery was white with red stripes for buses at Altona (now closed) and Sunshine depots, and white with blue stripes at the Werribee depot (now closed). Eastrans fleet livery was white with white and green stripes. A few Eastrans buses used for SmartBus route 900 were in the SmartBus livery, six of which remain in this livery as of August 2024.[24]

Since the rebranding to CDC Melbourne, the Public Transport Victoria white and orange livery has been adopted as standard for route service buses. An orange, blue and white livery was adopted for charter buses. A small number of buses at the Tullamarine depot still bear the Tullamarine Bus Lines livery, branded with CDC Melbourne signage.[24]

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Westrans and Eastrans

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CDC Melbourne

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d "CDC Victoria Commences Operations Under Metropolitan Zero Emission Bus (ZEB) Franchises". CDC Victoria. 3 July 2025. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
  2. ^ "Kefford Group finds a buyer". Australian Bus & Coach. 20 November 2008. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013.
  3. ^ "ComfortDelGro Expands Melbourne Operations Through A $22.0 Million Acquisition" (PDF). ComfortDelGro. 20 May 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 November 2013.
  4. ^ Skelton, Andrew (20 May 2013). "Acquisition of further Bus Route Service Business in Melbourne" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  5. ^ "Updates and News". CDC Victoria. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014.
  6. ^ Driver Group sells Melbourne route operations Australian Bus issue 57 May 2013 page 10
  7. ^ Driver's Exit Route Bus Services Australian Bus Panorama issue 29/1 July 2013 page 18
  8. ^ a b "CDC Victoria - Unite! Newsletter - March 2018" (PDF). CDC Victoria. March 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  9. ^ a b c "CDC Victoria - Unite! Newsletter - September 2018" (PDF). CDC Victoria. September 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  10. ^ "CDC Vic pays deposit for north-west Melbourne bus operator". Australasian Bus & Coach. 13 April 2018. Archived from the original on 9 May 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  11. ^ "CDC Victoria further strengthens bus footprint in Victoria" (PDF). CDC Victoria. 13 April 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 June 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  12. ^ CDC Takes Tullamarine Bus Lines Australian Bus Panorama issue 34/1 July 2018 page 26
  13. ^ "New Melbourne Bus Contracts Put Passengers First". Premier of Victoria. 2 April 2018. Archived from the original on 11 May 2018. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  14. ^ "Bus Contracts Backflip; Vic Govt Offers New Seven-Year Option Without Assets Acquisition". Australasian Bus & Coach. 18 June 2018. Archived from the original on 19 April 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  15. ^ "Metropolitan Bus Services Contract - CDC". Buying for Victoria. Archived from the original on 9 October 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  16. ^ "Metropolitan Bus Services Contract - Tullamarine Bus Lines". Buying for Victoria. Archived from the original on 9 October 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  17. ^ a b "Metropolitan Zero Emission Bus (ZEB) Franchise - Dark Blue - North West Melbourne". Buying for Victoria. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
  18. ^ a b "Metropolitan Zero Emission Bus (ZEB) Franchise - Purple & Orange - North West Melbourne". Buying for Victoria. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
  19. ^ a b "Metropolitan Zero Emission Bus (ZEB) Franchise - Teal - South East Melbourne". Buying for Victoria. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
  20. ^ "ComfortDelGro Australia wins bid to retain and expand bus services in Melbourne". ComfortDelGro Australia. 4 September 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  21. ^ "UN 185: Network synergies from our new ZEB bus contracts". Melbourne on Transit. 12 September 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  22. ^ "Industrial action to disrupt bus services on Tuesday 1 July 2025". PTV. 1 July 2025. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  23. ^ "Head Office and Depots". CDC Victoria. Archived from the original on 30 August 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  24. ^ a b c "CDC Group". Australian Bus Fleet Lists. Archived from the original on 6 August 2024. Australian Bus Fleet Lists
  25. ^ "ComfortDelGro Australia Delivers Australia's Largest Hybrid Bus Fleet to Melbourne's Streets". CDC Victoria. 17 October 2022. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  26. ^ "ComfortDelGro Australia Begins Electric Bus Trial in Melbourne". CDC Victoria. 16 December 2022. Archived from the original on 3 February 2023. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
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