Surfside Buslines

Bustech MDi in South Tweed painted in the old blue & yellow livery in August 2008

TransLink liveried Bustech MDi in Tweed Heads in August 2008

Gold Coast Tourist Shuttle liveried MotorCoach Australia in January 2008

Until June 1989 Surfside was owned by Greyhound owner Russell Penfold when it was sold to Joe and Tony Calabro with 56 buses.[1][2]

In 1993, Tweed Bus Service was purchased with 51 buses,[3] followed in February 1995 by Gold Coast Citybus,[4] in September 1998 by Gold Coast Tourist Shuttle[5] and in May 2001 by Coomera Bus Lines.[6] Gold Coast Tourist Shuttle was sold to Skybus and rebranded as Skybus Gold Coast in November 2017.[7][8]

In April 2019, Transit Australia Group was purchased by AATS Group, parent company of Skybus and majority owned by OPTrust.[9] In August 2019, AATS Group was rebranded the Kinetic Group.[10]

Surfside operates from Beenleigh on the north of the Gold Coast as far south as Pottsville in northern New South Wales.

TransLink ticketing applies to all Queensland route and school services.

Surfside has its own zone and fare system for New South Wales services.

Queensland fares apply to any travel that originates in Queensland and continues into New South Wales or that originates in New South Wales and continues into Queensland.

Translink's go card cannot be used on Surfside's New South Wales services, but can be used on Queensland services that start or finish at the Tweed Mall.

In the 1970s, Surfside built up a fleet of Leyland Nationals. In the 1980s some Volvo B59 and Volvo B10Rs and Volvo B10ML articulateds were purchased. Following the sale to the Calabros, large numbers of ex ACTION Volvo B58s, MAN SL200s and SG192 articulateds were purchased to replace the Leyland Nationals. Amongst the buses purchased with Tweed Bus Service were Leyland Tigers and Hinos. To replace the Gold Coast Citybus fleet, ex Brisbane Transport and TransAdelaide Volvo B59s and ex State Transit Authority Mercedes-Benz O305s were purchased.

From the mid 1990s, Surfside began to standardise on Mercedes-Benz and Volvo chassis for its route bus fleet and Hinos for school buses. Initially bodied by external suppliers, since 1998 all buses have been bodied by the Calabro's Bustech. Since 2008 all purchases have been Bustech MDi and XDis integral buses. Surfside has also received a steady flow of second hand buses including from the Calabro's Sydney operations, Busabout and Hawkesbury Valley Buses. Since 2013 Surfside Buslines have also received eight Bustech CDis double deck buses.

As at October 2016, the fleet consisted of 395 buses and coaches.[11] Vehicles are registered in both New South Wales and Queensland, although the fleet is utilised interchangeably, particularly the school bus fleet. The only restriction is the different ticket machines used in each state.

Under Russell Penfold ownership, Surfside had an orange with blue stripe livery. The Calabros introduced a blue with yellow livery.

Since 2008, all deliveries and repaints have been in TransLink colours, with blue body, green ends, a green and blue wavy stripe down each side and the TransLink logo toward the back. This is also being applied to the vehicles used in New South Wales to facilitate easy transfer between depots, albeit without the Translink decals. The Gold Coast Tourist Shuttle coaches are painted orange.

In 2007, Australian diecast model company Trax Models released a 1:76 scale model of a Mercedes-Benz 709D Reeve Burgess minibus in Surfside livery.[12]

• Translink timetables
• Showbus gallery