Murton's City Bus

Murton's City Bus is a bus operator in the Australian city of Broken Hill.

History

In 1902 a steam tramway opened in Broken Hill. After this closed in 1926, several bus operators provided unregulated replacement services. This led to fighting between operators and naturally instability. In 1935, a number of bus operators formed the Murton Street bus syndicate resulting in a degree of order in the services.^[1][2]

The syndicate was incorporated as a private company in 1945. Up until 1985, the company was owned by a number of private shareholders, who all worked in the business and participated in the management of the business. As well as local bus services, in January 1973 it diversified into interstate coach services with the purchase of the Broken Hill to Adelaide run from Ansett Pioneer.^[1][2]

On 5 September 1985, the business was sold to Adelaide-based coach company Briscoes. At the time Briscoes was developing a national express coach service and its interest in acquiring Murtons was primarily to gain control of the Broken Hill to Adelaide service. In February 1986, Briscoes was acquired by Bus Australia who had no interest in the Broken Hill business and in December 1987 sold its interest to the other Murtons shareholders John Hillier, Brian Coucill and Tim Williams. In July 1997, the business was rebranded as Murton’s City Bus.^[1][2]

In 2004, Hillier retired selling his shares to Coucill and Williams.^[1] In July 2013, Murton's City Bus purchased a shareholding in Adelaide operator Buses-R-Us who operate a thrice weekly service between Adelaide and Broken Hill.^[3][4]

Fleet

As at August 2014, the fleet consisted of 10 buses.^[5]

References