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By any measure 80 years is a long time, particularly in the tough and uncompromising bus transport business. However one Australian bus operator, Busways, has achieved just that milestone, marking majors anniversary in October, celebrating 80 years of delivering bus services for the Australian public. We take a look at Rowes and track its succsess.

When 18 year old Dick Rowe customised a car to operate a passenger service in the western suburbs of Sydney at Plumpton in 1942, few would have known that 80 years later that despite those humble origins, the enterprise would have grown into one of Australia’s largest privately held bus operations.

From those humble beginnings, when Dick Rowe turned his five seater Dodge into his first bus,the foundations were set for an enduring Australian business now operating more than 1300 buses over more than 62 million kilometres in passenger trips every year.

Today Busways is the largest wholly Australian owned bus operator with 2600 employees, operating 14 bus contracts across 20 depots in Greater Sydney, the NSW Central Coast, regional NSW and Adelaide.

Current Busways managing director, Byron Rowe, feels privileged to be the third generation of the Rowe family to lead the business.

“Eighty years is a milestone that makes us reflect on where we’ve come from and where we’re going,” Byron said. “A constant theme has been listening to customers and working closely with manufacturers and industry partners to innovate in new fleet design, onboard technology and safety features, to continuously improve services.

“We remain deeply invested in the provision of exceptional passenger services in Australia,” Byron explained.

Back in 1942, with a keen eye for opportunity, Dick purchased the five-seater Chrysler 70 for the grand sum of £120 to provide transport for his local area. With the help of his engineer dad, Cyril, Dick equipped the new vehicle with a wartimemandated gas producer, a washing machine-sized device that converted charcoal – ‘black gold’ – to fuel. With this golden opportunity he started his omnibus-style transport service between Rooty Hill and Plumpton.

By 1946, Dick had four different cars, including a seven-passenger

1930 LaSalle, a seven-passenger 1929 Studebaker and later a seven-passenger 1937 Dodge. He acquired his first bus, a 21-seat 1935 Reo, in 1946.

Rowes Bus Service initially grew through acquisitions and partnerships, keeping pace with the growing urban centres of Western Sydney.

Following the formation of the first partnership with St Marys bus operator Fred Bowman to operate the ParramattaVillawood service in 1958, Rowes Bus Service took on new routes and absorbed several existing companies over the next four decades. These included Baker and Howell in Campbelltown in 1967, Riverstone Bus Services in 1984, Higletts of Camden in 1986, Sergeants of Wyong in 1990 , and a number of Blue Ribbon Coaches services in Swansea in 1992, plus parts of Leslie’s Omnibus Service in 1993. Coinciding with the introduction of the new company name Busways, the acquisition of Peninsula Buslines in Gosford in 1994 brought with it three depots and 70 buses -the largest influx of vehicles for the company at that point. This was trumped by the purchase of King Brothers on the North Coast in 2003, which doubled Busways’ fleet to 600 buses. The acquisition of Kulnura Bus Lines and Palmers Yarramalong (2009) helped achieve economies of scale on the Central Coast bus network.

In 2020, Busways expanded interstate with the award of the Adelaide Metro Outer South bus service contract. A year later Busways was awarded one of the former State Transit operated North Shore and West bus contract, extending from Parramatta into the Sydney CBD and including the state’s largest bus depot at Ryde.

One of Dick’s foundational principles right from the start was to operate a reliable, wellbuilt and stringently maintained fleet. So in 1958, Dick approached Villawood-based bus builders Cycle Components Manufacturing Company (CCMC), later to be known as Custom Coaches and today Custom Denning. For £2,425 he ordered a Leyland Comet, which he requested in aluminum paneling, keeping the weight of the vehicle to a minimum to reduce fuel consumption and to improve tyre wear. This was the first bus body CCMC built for a private operator and signaled the start of a strong relationship between the two companies. In 2021, Busways beta tested and was the first operator to purchase Custom Denning’s Element electric bus, which is still built locally in St Marys in western Sydney.

Some of the big changes in the business over the years include the evolution in the fleet. Between 1978 and 1981, Dick started moving away from Leylands, purchasing 30 brand new Volvo B58s, more than any other private Australian operator. Later in 1982, Rowes became the second private operator in NSW to own an articulated, or ‘bendy’, bus. The Swiss-built Volvo seating 69 passengers was a hit with eight more procured in 1986, having been imported by Volvo after they had been used at Expo 85 in Tsukuba in Japan.

By this time Dick’s sons Stephen and Richard joined the business and would go on to take the helm in the 1990s. In the decade from 1990, Busways acquired more than 200 new Mercedes Benz 0405 vehicles, built by Custom Denning, and then between 2005 and 2012 it added more than 200 Euro4 MAN buses with bodies built by Adelaide manufacturer Bustech. While in the last five years, the company has purchased more than 200 new Volvo and Mercedes Euro 5 and Euro 6 buses, with bodies built by both Custom and Volgren.

After seven decades of growth through acquisition of buses and other bus companies, a new era arrived as state governments moved to an open tender process replacing bus service contract renegotiation with incumbent operators. Busways achieved initial success, doubling its Sydney operations with the award of the Region 1 contract for Western Sydney in 2013, followed by the keenly felt loss of the Region 15 contract after servicing the Campbelltown area for 47 years.

By this time, Dick’s grandson Byron Rowe had joined the business. It was under his leadership as managing director that Busways partnered with the NSW

Government, Coffs Harbour City Council, and automated vehicle manufacturer EasyMile, to design and run an automated vehicle trial on the north coast in regional NSW. The project kicked off in 2019 and achieved its goal of operating the world’s first fully autonomous public passenger service, known as BusBot.

In 2019, Busways worked with Transport for NSW and mobility as a service software provider Via to introduce Cooee Busways, an app-powered on demand public transport service. It launched with a fleet of six Hino Ponchos in western Sydney suburb, The Ponds, linking to the new Sydney Metro North West. The service is one of the most successful first and last mile on demand services in the world, named the ‘gold standard for On Demand’ by global management consultant LEK Consulting and winning Australian Business awards for Service Innovation and CX Management in 2020.

“The next frontier is zero emission buses,” said Byron Rowe.

“It’s a major shift – we’ve been rethinking how depots are planned and operated to support an electric fleet since 2018, taking delivery of Custom Dennings’ first locally manufactured electric bus in 2021,” he said.

“We now have 12 of their electric buses at our Penrith depot, with charging infrastructure and we are also trialling a unique Australian-developed solution for managing charging of batteries within the existing energy grid and preparing for rollout of ZEBs in other depots,” he added.

Reflecting on what it means to lead the company into its ninth decade, Byron says it is an exciting time to be a transport operator, with greater demand and opportunities for high quality, responsive bus services.

“Our vision is to continue being a committed, passionate and pragmatic partner to government, and an operator that sets high standards of safety and quality through trusted partnerships with vehicle manufacturers and industry,” Byron said.

“Our team works hard to deliver safe, reliable and comfortable services to customers. We have thrived because we value our relationships and recognize quality, which has a positive flow-on effect with our customers.”

“We take this opportunity to thank our clients, customers, suppliers and employees for their on-going support throughout our 80 year history. We look forward with great excitement to the future of the bus industry in Australia.”