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The Mercedes-Benz O405NH was one of the air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible bus models of the Sydney Buses fleet. They have individual fabric seating and electronic destination displays. The O405NH has also been named 'Australian Bus of the Year' twice.
History[]
300 buses were originally delivered to Sydney Buses in 1999-2002. The buses were some of the last buses in the O405 range produced by Mercedes.
Several of the buses were used to transport athletes for the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, including bus number 2000, which was specially numbered for the Olympics. All of the buses were registered on M/Oxxxx plates, which bear the Olympic logo and slogan 'share the spirit'.
In 2007, cracking was found in the frames. In order to assess the causes and find solutions, 1210 was sent to the manufacturer in Germany and returned to Sydney at the end of 2007. The solution to this problem was to install a diagonal bar across the first passenger window on both sides of the bus. This is visible on the photo to the right.
On 1st July 2018, the Leichhardt-based Citaro/O405NH fleet was transferred to operation under Transit Systems West after successfully gaining the Region 6 (Inner West) contract.
On the night of 16 July 2019, fleet no. 1347 struck and killed a 29-year-old pedestrian on Old South Head Road near Curlewis Street in Bondi. 1347’s front was damaged in the fatal incident. 1347 was taken out of service for repairs, being transferred to Ryde upon re-entering service.
The fleet were withdrawn on 30th April 2021 with 1288 being the last one withdrawn.
Service[]
These buses are located at Leichhardt (now owned by Transit Systems West), Ryde, Port Botany and Waverley depots and serve all routes run by the above depots.
Specifications[]
The buses are powered by CNG and have Mercedes 'Citaro' bodies. These buses were delivered from Germany as a fully constructed frame and panels were fitted by Custom Coaches, so that as many of these buses could have been on the road in time for the Sydney Olympic Games. They have M447hG Euro 2 engines producing 175 kW and a 5-speed automatic ZF 5HP500 gearbox. On the roof, there are two gas tanks at the front in one pod, along with an air-conditioner at the back. They can seat 45 passengers and are 12.5 metres long, with the standard low-entry design of most Sydney buses.
A Mobitec ICU400 is fitted in the overhead instrument cluster to control the flipdot displays on the bus. However, as these flip dot displays are very old, they do sometimes have lots of 'dead' dots, making the destination unreadable.
The total seating and standing capacity of these buses is 70 passengers.
Paint[]
The O405NH buses are painted in the Corporate v1 (blue and white with thin red line), Corporate v2 (blue and white). Fleet No. 1213 was instead painted in the TfNSW (light blue and white) livery. 1213 was retired as of late 2018.
Gallery[]
