By Margaret Maccoll
Both Noosa Council and TransLink say they will continue working “to investigate innovative transport technologies” following the cancellation of the Noosa electric bus trial last week.
Mayor Tony Wellington said the project was halted because the supplier had been unable to meet “contractual target dates”.
But he expected smaller, electric shuttle buses were likely to be part of the answer to our congestion problems.
Cr Wellington said it was “good news” council had “only spent $18,000” on “consultants, Energex design work and staff time” of council’s overall $500,000 commitment to the trial.
A TransLink spokesman said they had contributed $34,841 towards procurement, supplies and evaluation of the Noosa Council-led project.
As reported in Noosa Today (17 May, 2016) the preferred tender came from Chinese company Higer Bus and Coach which proposed a six-month lease cost of $131,200. At the time the cheaper cost was a factor in awarding the winning tender.
Cr Wellington said the trial had taught them there were “real risks associated with having overseas technology meet our Australian standards.”
Cr Wellington told ABC radio on Monday: “The shame of it is there was no Australian business set up to manufacture electric buses at the time we went out for tender.”
A second tender under consideration had come from Bustech Pty Ltd, a Queensland bus construction company based in Burleigh on the Gold Coast that boasts on its website of successfully launching Australia’s first electric bus in 2015.
The Bustech tender, which proposed a six-month lease cost of $929,681, was rejected.
