History
Metro Tasmania's history stems back to 1893, when the Hobart Electric Tramway Company (HETCo.) was founded by a London consortium. The HETCo. was one of the earliest such operators in the world, and was the first electric tramway in the Southern Hemisphere. The company also operated two Dennis motorbuses prior to being taken over in 1913 by the Hobart City Council, who renamed it to Hobart Municipal Tramways (HMT). In 1935, HMT began to use trolleybuses on some networks to replace trams, and petrol buses were introduced on some networks in the 1940s to alleviate congestion.
In 1955, a statutory authority called the Metropolitan Transport Trust (MTT) was formed, and this entity amalgamated the operations of the Hobart Municipal Tramways and the Launceston Municipal Tramways, which had been operated by the Launceston City Council since 1911. At its commencement, MTT operated trams, trolley, petrol and diesel buses.
In 1960 MTT acquired the operations of Norton Coaches, which provided bus services in the Burnie area. This resulted in the MTT operating transport services in the South, North and North-West regions of Tasmania. 1960 also saw the end of Hobart's trams, and in 1968 electric traction was removed altogether from Hobart's streets.
MTT continued to operate until re-branded in the 1990s as Metro. Metro Tasmania Pty Ltd is a state-owned company established in February 1998. In May 1999 Metro purchased Hobart Coaches which operated services to New Norfolk, Richmond, Blackmans Bay and the Channel areas of Hobart. Hobart Coaches was the regional division of Metro, operating with separate buses at separate yards, however, the former has now been amalgamated into the latter, and Metro operates all former Hobart Coaches services.
In December 2008, Metro sold its New Norfolk services to O'Driscoll Coaches.
Read more about this topic: Metro Tasmania
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