Melbourne’s First Fully Electric Bus Is Now A ‘Pride Bus’

Victoria’s first fully electric bus is now a ‘Pride Bus’ that is spreading the message of environmental sustainability and inclusiveness. 

The bus had hit the roads in February 2021 on one of the busiest routes – Route 251 between the city and Northland Shopping Centre. The bus has now undergone a transformation and sports Rainbow colours with the words ‘Ride With Pride’ emblazoned on it. 

“Victoria’s first fully electric bus is encouraging people to Ride with Pride throughout May. The Transdev Melbourne bus is helping spread the message that the Victorian public transport network is committed to offering an inclusive, welcoming and safe bus service for all,” Ben Carroll, Victoria’s Minister For Public Transport, Roads and Road Safety tweeted. 

Victoria’s first fully electric bus is encouraging people to Ride with Pride throughout May. The @Transdev_Melb bus is helping spread the message that the Victorian public transport network is committed to offering an inclusive, welcoming and safe bus service for all. pic.twitter.com/uLcniNcSrb

— Ben Carroll (@BenCarrollMP) May 5, 2021

Ride With Pride

The fully electric bus was first launched on a trial run in November 2019. In its first 300 days of service, the vehicle travelled over 32,900 kilometres and saved around 61 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

This is the third Pride initiative from Victoria’s public transport network in as many months.

In March, Australia’s first regional Rainbow Pride train set off on the V/Line from Melbourne’s Southern Cross station on March 9, 2021.  V/Line had launched the train – that carries passengers on various regional routes in the state, including Geelong, Ballarat, Ararat, Maryborough, Bendigo, Echuca and Traralgon – to coincide with the wrapping up of ChillOut Festival.

It visited us at “Queer Beers” 🌈 pic.twitter.com/9vMcfUtLJB

— Sean Mulcahy (@seanamulcahy) March 11, 2021

All Aboard

The same month, Yarra Trams along with Midsumma Festival, unveiled Melbourne’s first Rainbow tram. This was part of its All Aboard initiative.  

This morning, we proudly unveiled Melbourne's first Rainbow #Tram alongside our partner @midsumma. T3530 is now on the network, operating Rt 5, 6, 16, 58 and 72.

More here: https://t.co/N7URHQJZSn#AllAboard pic.twitter.com/reWUNV0gCJ

— Yarra Trams (@yarratrams) March 17, 2021

“Yarra Trams is committed to making our network safe and welcoming for everyone in our community. Our diversity and inclusion program has a number of initiatives to support our people and passengers to feel comfortable on our network.  As an LGBTI+ ally, I am so proud of our All Aboard program in support of the LBGTI+ community,” Julien Dehornoy, Yarra Trams CEO had said. 

Yarra Trams also announced that it had engaged LXRP “to deliver LGBTIQA+ Cultural Safety in Public Transport training, and work is ongoing in delivering additional training for our frontline workforce.”