Veteran bus driver Graeme Crossingham has seen plenty of changes in the bus and coach industry over his more than 25 years behind the wheel. One specific technology advancement however, led to him delaying his retirement just to try it out.
Crossingham works for CDC Canberra at its Queanbeyan depot and was close to retirement when three electric buses were introduced into the Queanbeyan region in Term 4 last year.
Queanbeyan is one of the trial sites for Transport for NSW’s $25 million Zero Emission Bus (ZEB) project to trial battery electric buses in various regional locations across the state.
“I was ready to retire, but when they told me an electric bus was coming in, I thought, why not give it a go?” Crossingham says.
Six months later, Crossingham has notched up roughly 14,000 kilometres driving on the Sutton Public School run in one of the bright blue ZEBs.
Now, at 74, he’s hanging up his bus keys and has plans to travel around Australia, but he’s pleased his delayed departure gave him the chance to drive a ZEB.
He said the transition to an electric bus was a surprise, but one he quickly embraced.
“It’s quiet, smooth and different, in a good way,” he says. “The kids love it and so do I. I prefer it to the older buses. It’s much simpler.”
As part of Transport for NSW’s ZEB trial, CDC is operating two 57-seat and one 28-seat battery electric buses on school bus runs to 15 schools in NSW and the ACT.
Transport for NSW director project development Richard Skoda says it was great to see drivers such as Crossingham enjoying driving a ZEB as part of the trial.
“The experience of passengers, who have experienced the ZEBs will also be a valuable part of our trials of these battery electric buses,” Skoda says.
“We need to analyse how zero-emission buses perform in real-world conditions to help us plan the transition of the state’s regional bus fleet to zero emissions by 2047.”
Crossingham says he is glad to have finished his working life driving the quiet and comfortable electric buses, after a long career as a bus driver which started in the early 1990s, at first as a contractor with his own vehicle and later as a CDC employee.
He says he has been driving so long on the same school bus route that he is now driving the next generation of children, and this connection with the community is what has kept him behind the wheel for so long.
“I thought I’d be done, but I kept going. I really enjoy the people, and the children are fantastic. It renews your faith in the new generation.”
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