Surfside Buslines

Surfside Buslines is the principal provider of public transportation on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. It operates bus routes under the TransLink scheme in southeast Queensland.

Service area

Surfside operates from Dreamworld in the north of the Gold Coast as far south as Murwillumbah in northern New South Wales (NSW). It is a unique operation as it encompasses both Queensland and NSW state government contracts for Gold Coast City Council and Tweed Shire Council respectively. The area with the best service coverage is the coastal strip, particularly between Southport and Burleigh Heads.

Routes

Bus route numbers and destination information are only displayed at the front of the bus. Older buses use roller blinds, whereas newer buses use a dot-matrix display or even an LED display. Some older buses have been retrofitted with dot matrix displays or "destos" as they are informally known by drivers.

Routes 1, 1A, 11, 22 and 607 are supposed to run with low-floor accessible buses. Generally, routes X, 3 & 10 and to a lesser extent routes 2 & 25 are also serviced by low-floor accessible buses. Other routes, especially the "inland" ones such as route 20, see these buses infrequently if at all.

All routes are currently being renumbered under a three digit system between 700-759, in keeping with other bus routes in South-East Queensland. It is anticipated that this will be complete by mid-2005.

Surfside also provides many school services in the Gold Coast region. Also, as no route buses service the Gold Coast Airport any longer, Surfside maintains a connection between the airport and the nearest bus stop at Golden Four Dr, Kirra, operated by Toyota Coasters. This bus stop is serviced by routes 1, 1A, 7, 8 and 11.

Interchanges

The main interchanges are:

• Southport (Australia Fair): Routes 1, 1A, 3, 5, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 18A, 20 & 20A
• Broadbeach (Pacific Fair): Routes 1, 1A, X, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 18, 738, 20, 20A, 22 & 25
• Burleigh Heads Stop 43: Routes 1, 1A, 3, 4, 6, 6A, 7, 8, 10, 11 & 25 (NB: Technically not an 'interchange' per se)
• Tweed Heads (Tweed Mall): Routes 1, 1A, 7, 8, 11 & 601-607
• Helensvale Railway Station: Routes 1A, X, 3, 14, 16 & 19
• Nerang Railway Station: Routes 20, 20A, 21 & 22
• Robina Railway Station: Routes 2, 11, 12 & 25

Plans to extend the Queensland Rail CityTrain Gold Coast Line south of Robina to the Gold Coast Airport will probably see more feeder services introduced to link new stations into the greater local public transport network.

As part of the TransLink service changes, several routes such as routes 1, 1A and 7, which are very long, will be split up to improve reliability. New services are also anticipated e.g. connecting Robina and Coolangatta via an inland route in anticipation of the railway, new connections between large developments at Coomera with the rest of the network and better links through currently serviced areas. Higher service frequency and better late-night, peak period and weekend running on most routes is also planned.

Fleet

Surfside operates a varied fleet of approximately 300 buses and coaches, the majority of which do not possess a rear or centre door. Its most recent acquisitions are a small number of low-floor accessible Volvo B12BLE buses with a VST body, manufactured by Bustech (a company owned by Surfside which manufactures and bodies buses for Surfside and other operators such as Clark's Logan City , Sunbus , Nowra Coaches and Busabout ). There are many other low-floor accessible buses such as the Volvo B7RLE, Mercedes-Benz O405NH and one LO815 but the majority of the fleet is not accessible and air-conditioned (though there are some air-conditioned and non-accessible buses such as the Mercedes Benz 0400 with Ansair Orana bodies, or the LO814).

Surfside also operates the Gold Coast Tourist Shuttle, a coach service for tourists connecting hotels, attractions and the airport, among other things.

Livery

Yellow and white; some more recently introduced/refurbished buses have a large emblem depicting surfboards and a palm tree, whereas other buses merely depict a stylised "Surfside Buslines."

External Links

Surfside Buslines Homepage

TransLink

Surfside Photo Gallery (past and present)