Hoys Roadlines

Hoys Roadlines was an Australian bus operator based in the Victorian city of Shepparton. For 11 years from 1993 to 2004 the company also had a contract to operate train services on the Shepparton line on behalf of the State Government. The company was acquired by the B-Line Bus Company in July 2005.cite web
url=http://www.busaustralia.com/fleetlists/hoys.htm
title=Hoy's Wangaratta Historical Fleet List
publisher=www.busaustralia.com
accessdate=2008-10-05]

Bus services

The company commenced operations in 1930 from Wangaratta in the north-east of Victoria, to Shepparton, Bright and the Mount Buffalo Chalet. The company later expanded into school bus runs, charter coaches, and Department of Infrastructure contract coach services such as the daily Albury - Adelaide service.cite web
url=http://www.buslines.com.au/hoys/background.htm
title=Hoys Roadlines
publisher=www.buslines.com.au
accessdate=2008-10-05] The company begun to downsize their operations after the loss of the rail franchise, the Adelaide – Albury route operations being purchased by Dyson's Bus Services in August 2004.

Rail services

History

In August 1993 the Victorian Government under Jeff Kennett put the operation of nine country passenger rail services to tender. Companies were invited to use trains, buses, or a combination of the two. Hoys won a 7 year contract for the Melbourne to Cobram service, which ran though Shepparton.cite journal | year = 1996 | month = April | title = Train A-Hoy | author = Sid Brown | journal = Newsrail | publisher = Australian Railway Historical Society (Victorian Division) ]

Hoys opted to operate trains as far as Shepparton, with buses beyond. Station staff, conductors and buffet staff were employed by Hoys; but the trains themselves were operated and maintained under a lease arrangement with the then operator of the line, the Public Transport Corporation. This was in contrast to the other private company to win a contact, West Coast Railway for the Melbourne - Warrnambool service, who decided to purchase maintain and operate their own trains.

Contracts

Two contracts were entered into by Hoys. The first was with the Department of Transport to provide a public service of acceptable standard until 2000 and be compensated at an agreed rate per passenger carried per sector, these being Melbourne - Seymour, Seymour - Shepparton, and Shepparton - Seymour. A second agreed cost contract was made with V/Line for the provision of locomotives, crews, carriages, train maintenance and servicing, safeworking training and implementation, and food and drink catering services. Hoys could have extra passenger cars or luggage vans added to the train at an extra cost. Loading figures were given to V/Line every 28 days.

Operations

From August 22, 1993 the company was contracted with the Department of Transport to provide 26 services each week. These included four trains and two buses (two and one each way) Melbourne to Shepparton Monday to Saturday, with one train each way on Sundays. A bus connection were made to Cobram, with some buses extended to Tocumwal, New South Wales. A six month trial was also made for bus services to Finley and Berrigan in New South Wales, and a service to Griffith, New South Wales was later adopted.cite book |author=Lee, Robert |title=The Railways of Victoria 1854-2004 |publisher=Melbourne University Publishing Ltd |date=2007 |isbn= 9780522851342 |page=page]

Hoys employed 11 staff, with half of them former V/Line employees. They included a station master at Shepparton, two station staff and 5 conductors, all trained by V/Line in safeworking. A company conductor was in charge of the train, with a second conductor in charge of the buffet. Conductors could only sell tickets for Hoys operated services, with travellers connecting to V/Line services needing to buy tickets at Spencer Street Station, or from the ticket agent at Shepparton.

The company was responsible for the unmanned Nagambie, Murchison East and Mooroopna stations, as well Shepparton station which was manned. Trains were cleaned by Hoys at Shepparton during the daytime layover, with a thorough cleaning carried out when the train was stabled overnight. Any locomotives and carriages from the V/Line fleet could be assigned to the service, with no special Hoys branding applied.

The usual consist of the trains was a 3 carriage 'N' set providing 206 first and economy class seats, carrying 80-100 passengers at Shepparton, and 160-200 further along the line to Melbourne. By 1995 a 5.5% increase in patronage had been recorded. An average of 188 passenger per service was recorded, with 5500 sector fares sold per week. Local radio advertisement promoting the train were made, as some locals believed the train had been completely cancelled in 1993.

End of contract

The initial contract with the government was due to expire in 2000, but was extended. During the contact period V/Line itself had been privatised, being sold to the National Express Group, who in December 2002 withdrew from their operations in Victoria. [cite web
title = The long goodbye
author = Richard Web
work = The Age
date = March 14 2004
url = http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/13/1078594612786.html
format = HTML
accessdate = 2008-02-17 ] V/Line passed back to full State Government control in 2003.cite web
url=http://www.vline.com.au/about/news/en/12/157/article.aspx
title=V/Line Background
publisher=www.vline.com.au
accessdate=2008-03-27]

In August 2002 the state government had commenced negotiating with Hoys for a contract extension to 2006, [cite web
url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/08/23/1030052975188.html
title=State to tear up V/Line contract
author=Andrew Heasley
date=August 24 2002
publisher=www.theage.com.au
accessdate=2008-10-05] but in 2004 V/Line took back the service when the franchise expired on June 30, 2004.cite web
url=http://www.vline.com.au/pdf/media/annualreport03-04.pdf
title=V/Line annual report 2003 - 2004
publisher=www.vline.com.au
accessdate=2008-10-05]

ee also

* Shepparton railway line, Victoria
* West Coast Railway (Victoria)

References

* State Government of Victoria: [http://www.contracts.vic.gov.au/major/40/Hoys-Shepparton_Services_Agreement.pdf Hoys Roadlines Cobram-Shepparton Services Agreement]

External links

* http://www.hoys.com.au/ - official site
* Bus Australia: [http://www.busaustralia.com/fleetlists/hoys.htm Fleetlist of the bus operations]