A Retirement Village with a difference...

Friday, 5 September 2014

They are among the longest serving Public Transport Authority employees, but despite decades of service, these staff won’t be getting a token of thanks on their retirement.

In fact, they are more likely to be put into a depot yard and pulled apart, or sold by auction to join a new family.

But don’t panic – we’re not advocating any scary human rights abuses – we’re talking about Transperth’s buses!

Last month the Transnews team paid a visit to the O’Connor Transdev Depot to see what happens to our buses when they’re too old to keep in service.

PTA Fleet Technical Officer John Lambert said some of the buses that came into retirement could be close to three decades old.

If they have usable parts, these are removed from the buses to help keep other old model vehicles running in the future (think of it as a kind of bus organ donation) and the remainder is scrapped.

“All the operations staff are told to remove viable engines and any useful parts before buses are taken to be scrapped,” John said.

“As we’re still going to have some of the older model buses up until around 2016, it’s important to keep hold of all the parts we can as we may need them one day.

“It’s very difficult to find parts for many of the older models.”

Operational buses that have outlived their practical working life with the PTA are sold at auction, where they may be bought by private companies, and in some cases are even purchased by travellers to turn into campervans!

Some buses also live on at the Revolutions Transport Museum in Whiteman Park.

Mr Lambert said depots acted as a sort of ‘half way house’ between active service and sale or scrapping. There are currently three buses waiting for a ‘new life’ at O’Connor.

“It’s a little sad, but they’ve more than done their duty,” he said.