Blue Bus Tours - Luxury and Responsible Touring
In September 2022 we set out to design one of the most luxurious tour coaches in Australia. With over 35 years of experience in the industry we wanted to create a level of comfort that is not usually seen in Australian tour coaches. We have always believed that the passenger should come first so we designed our tour coach to enhance the customer experience.
We believe in small group touring – we don’t want you to get lost in the crowd! Our coach has only 30 passenger seats in a coach that would normally have 48 seats.
We want you to have the best views – our coach has panoramic windows for excellent viewing. the tour hostess sits at the rear of the coach so the premium viewing seats at the front of the coach are available to our passengers. We have seat rotations, so everyone moves throughout the coach on the tour and you are not stuck in the one place on the coach on our longer tours.
The coach has roadcam so you can see what is in front of the coach on the screens. It is also fitted with a fridge-freezer, a hot water service for our morning teas and fresh water cooler to fill up your re-usable water bottles. The coach has an on-board modern toilet that is there for you to use if you need it. We will never lock the toilet door or limit access to it!
Environmentally friendly: Our coach meets the highest emission standards in Australia (see more details below). We also supply stainless steel double walled cups and stainless steel water bottles as a tour souvenir, so we don’t have to use disposable cups for morning teas.
Accessibility
Our tour coach is fully wheelchair accessible. If someone needs assistance getting onto the coach without stairs, we can utilise the wheelchair lifter to provide no step access. The coach lowers at the front to allow for easier access into the vehicle. We have also installed additional grabrails at the entrance to make it easier to walk up the stairs.
We also allow mobility wheelie walkers to be brought on our tours (preferably folding ones). Motorised scooters can also be brought on some tours – contact us if you wish to do this.
Seating
Our coach seats were custom designed and made by Styleride in Brisbane and are extra-wide luxury seats with generous legroom, footrests, armrests and map pockets. We also provide lumbar cushions if you need one. Each seat has individual reading light and air controls as well as both USB A and USB C charging stations.
As the seats are wider than standard tour coach seats, there are two seats on one side of the aisle and a single seat on the other side. We removed the luggage rack on the single seat side to give a wide aisle that is full standing room height, and you won’t hit your head on the luggage racks. The wider aisle allows for easier and faster access in and out of the coach.
Safety
The coach is a 3-axle coach that provides superior stability and comfort and ensures less body roll and a smoother ride.
The Volvo B11R offers unique systems for driver assistance:
- Collision Warning with Emergency Brake automatically detects vehicles in front and warns the driver when there is a collision risk. If the warning is ignored it is escalated and first followed by gentle braking, and then by emergency braking with maximum retardation;
- Volvo Electronic Stability Program prevents roll overs;
- Electronic Braking System 5 ensures appropriate braking force to each wheel;
- Anti-Lock braking System prevents wheel lock ups or skidding;
- Adaptive Cruise Control;
- Volvo Lane Keeping Support;
- Volvo Dynamic Steering;
- Volvo Collision Warning with emergency braking;
- Lane Keeping Support monitors the lane markings and alerts the driver when the risk of an unintentional lane departure is identified. The warning is given as a vibration in the seat, or as an acoustic signal.
We have also fitted Guardian Seeing Machines to monitor driver fatigue and distraction. The system constantly monitors the driver for any signs of drowsiness or distraction and alerts the driver in real time with both alarm and seat vibration.
Starlink Satellite Access is fitted to the coach. We can always be in contact or be contacted in even the most remote locations thanks to the world’s most advanced internet system.
We carry a defibrillator onboard.
Community
We are proud supporters of the Save the Bilby Fund and we have collection tins on our coaches.
We are proud sponsors of Disability Entertainment Australia Inc who provide live interactive musical entertainment and workshops to enrich the lives of adolescents and adults living within the autistic/neuro-divergent spectrum and disability sectors.
We are licenced with OneMusic which gives us permission to play music on our coach. We are also licenced with Roadshow to give us permission to show films/videos on our tours.
Environmentally Responsible Features
Volvo’s 11-litre engine combines fuel efficiency and Euro 6 exhaust aftertreatment with uncompromised power, elasticity and solid torque. Blue Bus Tours is one of the first tour companies in Australia to adopt Euro 6 emission standards as these standards will only become mandatory from November 2025.
Learn more about emissions standards here: Heavy vehicle emission standards Australian Government
The main changes under Euro 6 compared with Euro 5 are:
- reduction in emission limits for oxides of nitrogen (NOx) by up to 80 per cent
- reduction in emission limits for particulate matter by up to 66 per cent
- new particle number limit to reduce ultrafine particle emissions
- new, more representative engine bench test and new on-road emissions test.
Sustainability
With more and more travellers searching for responsible tourism options, we decided it was important to show you how we are striving for tourism sustainability.
We are a Quality Tourism Accredited Business. This gives you the assurance that we have a proven commitment to the highest quality of service and business procedures.
We also took Ecotourism Australia’s Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard for a snapshot of where we are up to on our sustainability journey by assessing our practices across the four pillars of sustainability: sustainable management, environmental impacts, cultural impacts, and socio-economic impacts. Our score was 66%.
As the peak body for ecotourism and sustainable tourism, Ecotourism Australia connects, champions, inspires and informs through strategic partnerships and global best practice standards.
