A transport depot with a capacity for 32 buses and more than 80 staff has officially opened.
The unveiling of mass transit operator Kinetic’s $15 million Noosaville depot comes as the region experiences record public transport patronage growth.
The Production Street facility has been designed to improve operational efficiency and service reliability, with passenger numbers across Kinetic’s Sunshine Coast services up 20 per cent in the past 12 months.
Kinetic managing director (Australia) Matthew Campbell said the depot delivered immediate benefits for the community.
“The Noosaville depot allows us to respond more quickly to network requirements in the Noosa area, where high traffic volumes often cause delays, improving service reliability for passengers across the northern Sunshine Coast,” he said.
“With 20 per cent more passengers on our services this year, having the right infrastructure in the right locations matters more than ever.
“This depot puts us in a stronger position to support the growing demand we’re seeing right across the Coast, and as new communities and developments take shape across the region, having infrastructure like this already in place means we’re ready to extend services where they’re needed.”
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Kinetic Group CEO Michael Sewards said the new depot was a direct response to the growth of public transport patronage.
“We’re seeing more people choosing buses on the Sunshine Coast than ever before, and that trend is only going to accelerate,” he said.
“Affordable fares, better infrastructure and growing communities are all driving passenger demand, and this depot is part of our investment into the Sunshine Coast to make sure the network can keep up.”
The Noosaville depot marks the company’s latest investment in the region, following upgrades to the Caloundra depot in 2022 to support the introduction of 11 zero-emission buses.
Kinetic has operated on the Sunshine Coast since 2019 following the acquisition of Sunbus, managing a fleet of more than 100 buses across 30 routes in partnership with Translink.
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Mr Sewards said Kinetic was focused on playing its part in the Coast’s transport future as projects such as The Wave ramp up.
“As The Wave comes online, the bus network will be critical to connecting communities to rail, increasing service frequency and making sure passengers can move seamlessly across the Sunshine Coast,” he said.
The facility poised to reduce non-service travel by more than 400,000km annually, resulting in an estimated annual decrease of 502 tonnes in CO2 emissions and saving over 176,000 litres of diesel fuel each year.
The Noosaville depot has been built with charging gantry infrastructure and electrical transformers already installed to support zero-emission buses or other future transport technologies.
