WA school buses: the orange fleet and its specification

Western Australia

WA school buses: the orange fleet and its specification

Western Australia is the only state besides New South Wales that publishes something you could call a vehicle specification, and it is the most prescriptive in the country about what may be fitted to a bus at all. It also runs the only fleet in Australia defined by its paint: the orange school bus network, operating since 1918.

Where this comes from. Drawn from the School Bus Specification, which is Part 2 of Schedule 10 to the Evergreen School Bus Contract, from that contract, and from the Public Transport Authority and Department of Transport. July 2016 is the latest publicly reachable version of the specification — the Authority may amend it on one month’s written notice and the controlled copy sits behind the contractor portal login, so confirm the current version with PTA Schoolbuses before relying on any clause here.

Who runs it, and who owns the buses

Requirement	What it says	Source
The authority	The Public Transport Authority, through its Schoolbuses branch. Not the education department, which funds a subset of 49 buses across four cluster contracts but does not run the network.	PTA
The programme	The Student Transport Assistance Program, under the Student Transport Assistance Policy and Operational Guidelines, version 2.7, republished January 2026. Around 962 contract buses serving roughly 530 schools and more than 26,000 students.	PTA; STAP v2.7
Who owns the bus	The contractor does. All contracted school buses are operated by private contractors, and under the Evergreen contract the contractor buys the bus at its own cost. A minority are Authority-owned — the policy glossary allows for both — but no government source quantifies that share. Do not assume the state is the buyer.	PTA Annual Report 2022–23; Evergreen Schedule 10
How the capital comes back	Through the daily service charge, in two parts: straight line depreciation over the bus’s service life, and a return on investment of 10.5% of the Class Bus Price. That price is a band average the Authority sets, not what the contractor actually paid — so a bus priced above its class band ceiling earns no extra return and the contractor absorbs the difference. Pricing into a band is a design constraint, not just a quotation.	Evergreen Schedule 3
Residual value is underwritten	At the end of service life the Authority pays the difference between the notional bus value and the sale price, and reimburses stamp duty where it directed the purchase.	Evergreen Schedule 3
Who you are actually selling to	Several hundred individual small contractors. In 2022–23 there were 664 Evergreen contracts, 136 fixed-term, 63 tendered and a handful of clusters — and a tender is generally one contract per bus. It is many small transactions rather than a fleet tender.	PTA Annual Report 2022–23
Which is changing	Since 2017 new and vacated contracts go to open tender on terms of twelve to seventeen years rather than rolling in perpetuity. The 2022 Bus Fair parliamentary report pushed that further. Expect the commercial basis to keep moving.	Public Accounts Committee, Bus Fair, 2022

The bus classes, and the service life that replaces an age limit

Requirement	What it says	Source
Class A	Up to 20 adult seats, or 27 with a primary conversion, or 24 with none. Ten-year service life.	Spec Part 2
Class B	43 adult seats. Fifteen years.	Spec Part 2
Class C	57 adult seats and a maximum of 83 primary students. Fifteen years.	Spec Part 2
Class D	Up to 15 adult seats. Ten years.	Spec Part 2
Classes F, G and H	Four-wheel-drive classes, with no equivalent anywhere else in the country: 17 adults or 21 primary students, 24 or 32, and 34 or 49 respectively. All fifteen years.	Spec Part 2
The dual rating	Every class carries an adult capacity and a larger primary-student capacity. That is a Western Australian convention and it changes how a bus is sized against a route.	Spec Part 2
Age	There is no separate maximum age rule. The trigger is the service life for the class, running from the date the vehicle first went into service — and it can be extended by agreement between the Authority and the contractor, which is why fleets run older than the nominal figures.	Evergreen Schedule 1
Who decides the replacement	The Authority. It specifies the seating capacity of the replacement bus and the contractor must comply, and it can require replacement before the end of service life on safety grounds.	Evergreen cll. 5.3–5.4

Seats and seatbelts

Requirement	What it says	Source
Seatbelts on new buses	All seats on a new school bus must be ADR 68 compliant, passenger and driver, fitted with lap-sash belts of a type the Authority approves.	Spec cl. 1.2
Seat construction	All passenger seats must face the direction of travel, be at least 300 mm wide, and must not be able to recline. Where seats are raised for a stepped floor, no cushion may sit more than 150 mm above the cushion directly in front.	Spec cl. 2.18(a)–(b)
The seatbelt sign	A bus with belts needs an interior sign reading FASTEN SEATBELTS WHILST SEATED or similar, visible to all passengers. Above 24 adult seats it must flash, starting no more than 30 seconds after the door closes. At or below 24 seats it must be illuminated or reflective.	Spec cl. 2.18(d)

The child alarm — Western Australia got there first

Requirement	What it says	Source
Mandatory since 1 July 2013	Every new school bus must have a child alarm: audible, hard wired into the vehicle, activating when the ignition is switched off.	Spec cl. 2.22
How it must work	The disabling switch sits inside at the rear, positioned so the driver has to walk the aisle to reach it. Up to 30 seconds’ delay before it sounds. Audible from 10 m and at least 95 decibels. The operating procedure must be laminated and fixed where the driver can clearly see it.	Spec cl. 2.22
Compare	New South Wales states the duty and leaves the device to the operator. Queensland specifies nothing. Western Australia wrote the decibels into the contract.

Livery, signs and the absence of flashing lights

Requirement	What it says	Source
The paint is a legal requirement	Above the lower edge of the passenger windows, white. Below, a colour matching Readymix Orange, relieved by a strip matching Hawthorn Green between 50 and 150 mm wide running the length of the vehicle, in high-grade baked enamel.	Spec cl. 2.6
And it is tied to the licence fee	A 50 per cent licence concession applies to a school bus over 4,500 kg, but only where the body type is recorded as School Bus, the vehicle is licensed to a PTA contract holder, and the bus is predominantly orange with green detail and a cream or white roof. Get the body-type coding or the paint wrong and the operator loses the concession.	Department of Transport
Signage	SCHOOL BUS and CAUTION in Hawthorn Green or black on white, at least 100 mm high, front and rear — CAUTION as high and central as practical, SCHOOL BUS central and as low as practical on the white. Symbolic child crossing signs as far right as practicable, front and rear. DO NOT OVERTAKE TURNING VEHICLE at 400 by 400 mm on classes B, C, G and H, above the rear bumper both sides.	Spec cl. 2.7
<strong>No flashing warning lights</strong>	The specification sets out signage down to 25 mm lettering and 50 mm stripe widths, and contains no requirement for roof-mounted flashing school bus warning lights of any kind. The only flashing device required is the interior seatbelt sign. Nor did our research find any reduced speed limit for passing a stopped school bus in Western Australian road law — no 40 km/h rule as in New South Wales, no 25 km/h rule as in South Australia. We searched large parts of the Road Traffic Code rather than every provision, so treat that as strongly supported rather than absolutely settled.	Spec Part 2; Road Traffic Code 2000
Nothing imported from New South Wales	No Western Australian source references any TS number. TS150 and TS160 do not apply here.

Doors, driver’s view and what else the specification demands

Requirement	What it says	Source
Doors	No external plug-type forward opening doors. Above 24 adult seats the entry door must have a door-sensitive safety edge. Doors held shut by air or electrical means need external and internal visual release controls, clearly labelled and as close to the door as possible. Doors behind the driver need an open-position audible warning that operates when the emergency brake is released. Door steps must be guarded where there is potential to fall through side gaps.	Spec cl. 2.8
The driver’s view	The driver must have adequate visible, audible and physical access to the passenger compartment, and from the normal driving position an adequate view of the access doors and approaches including the first two windows behind the entry door. A convex mirror of at least 165 mm² to the front left, additional to the mandatory driving mirrors.	Spec cl. 2.17
Nothing may be fitted or removed	No item, including anything classed as an accessory, may be fitted to or removed from a school bus unless the contractor applies in writing and a PTA inspector approves it. Standard-fit extras — cameras, telematics, accessories — are a compliance question in Western Australia, not a selling point.	Spec cl. 1.5
Inspection before first use	Every bus must be inspected and approved by a PTA-appointed inspector before it goes on a service, at the contractor’s expense and at a location the Authority nominates. That is on top of the annual licensing inspection for the concession.	Spec cl. 1.4
Other fitments	Audible reverse warning buzzer and high-level roof-mounted clearance, stop and indicator lights. Audible low vacuum or air warning beyond the ADR. Steel-belt radial tyres. Emergency glass-breaking equipment with audible warning if dislodged. A fire extinguisher to AS 2444 at 20B minimum with hose, inspected to AS 1851. First aid kits to AS 2675 Kit B — two kits and five safety triangles on classes A, D and F, three and six on B, C, G and H. No external roof racks. Corrosion protection to chassis and body on anything bought after 1 July 2014. Engine fire suppression on education support buses since 1 July 2014.	Spec Part 2
Bull bars	Prohibited on buses serving metropolitan schools and associated routes. Permitted elsewhere only with the Authority’s approval.	Spec cl. 2.15
Cameras	No CCTV or camera requirement appears anywhere in the published specification, and we found no Western Australian source imposing one either way.

Diesel, and what that means for an electric bus

Requirement	What it says	Source
The clause	Clause 2.1 of the specification reads: the school bus must be diesel powered. No Euro step or ADR 80 level is specified beyond the general obligation to comply with applicable design rules.	Spec cl. 2.1
What follows	On the July 2016 text a battery-electric school bus does not comply. Whether the Authority has since amended that clause we could not establish, because the controlled copy is behind the contractor portal. Anybody bringing an electric product to Western Australia should put that question to the Authority in writing before doing anything else.
Context, not policy	A feasibility study on battery-electric regional school buses was commissioned by the Department of Transport working with the Authority, and the Authority has committed $125 million to 130 locally manufactured electric buses — but that commitment is the Transperth programme and does not mention school buses. Neither changes clause 2.1.
Transmission and air conditioning	Buses bought after 1 July 2010 may be automatic or manual, and must be air conditioned.	Spec cll. 2.2–2.3

Accessibility

Requirement	What it says	Source
The wheelchair specification	Part 3 of the same schedule applies to classes A, B, C and D and any others the Authority determines. Work must accord with AS 2942 for occupant restraint assemblies, the school bus specification itself and the Western Australian vehicle standards instruments.	Spec Part 3
What it requires	Maximum normal seating compatible with the wheelchair positions required, with seats and restrained wheelchairs facing the direction of travel. Manual operation provision if the primary system fails. A duplicate set of batteries on a purpose-built wheelchair lift vehicle. From 1 January 2016, low-floor ramps where practicable without a hoist, with the Authority able to approve exclusions for unsuitable terrain. Compliance with the disability transport standards and AS 1428, AS 3856 and AS 10542. Heavy-duty floor tracking both sides with anchor points marked to AS 2942. Seventeen-millimetre structural ply flooring on everything from 1 July 2013.	Spec Part 3
A stated gap	The 2022 parliamentary report found there are not enough buses with appropriate modifications to transport students to education support facilities. That is a market signal as much as a finding.	Bus Fair, 2022

Is there a Western Australian equivalent of BP4?

Requirement	What it says	Source
Closer than anywhere else, but not the same thing	Western Australia does publish a School Bus Specification. But it is a contract schedule rather than a standalone procurement specification — Part 2 of Schedule 10 to the Evergreen contract — with no document number, no issuing-body statement on its face and no public version history.
And it moves	The Authority reserves the right to amend it on not less than one month’s written notice, or immediately with verbal advice where safety requires it.	Spec cl. 1.6
What to say about currency	July 2016 is the latest publicly available version. Confirm the current one with PTA Schoolbuses before relying on any clause — including everything on this page.

Where ZBus stands

Class C is our bus exactly. Two clauses are the problem.

A Class C school bus is 57 adult seats with a fifteen-year service life, which is the H12 Diesel’s seat count precisely. But the specification says passenger seats must not be able to recline, and the H12 Diesel is specified with reclining seats — the same problem Queensland throws up. And clause 2.1 says the school bus must be diesel powered, which on the July 2016 text rules out the N12 City. We hold parts in Western Australia already, at the ATG depot in Cockburn Central.

What our H12 Diesel does meet

57 adult seats, which is a Class C school bus exactly
Diesel powered, as clause 2.1 requires
Cummins L9 Euro VI, well beyond the generic design rule obligation
Air conditioned, as required for anything bought after 1 July 2010
Parts already held in Western Australia at the ATG depot in Cockburn Central

What stands in the way, and what we have not checked

Passenger seats must not be able to recline, and the H12 Diesel is specified with reclining seats
The N12 City is electric, and clause 2.1 as published requires diesel
ADR 68 lap-sash belts of a type the Authority approves, on every seat including the driver’s
The child alarm to clause 2.22 — 95 decibels, rear disabling switch, laminated procedure
Orange and Hawthorn Green livery in baked enamel, which is a licensing condition rather than branding
Door-sensitive safety edge, the convex mirror, and the long list of fitments in Part 2
Whether the specification has changed since July 2016, which only the Authority can tell us

If you are replacing a bus under this category, ring 0477 957 513 or email sales@zbus.com.au and we will tell you straight whether we can help. If we are not the right answer, we will say so.

The source documents

School Bus Specification, July 2016 — Public Transport Authority (PDF)
Evergreen School Bus Contract, consolidated 1 July 2013 — Public Transport Authority (PDF)
Schoolbuses — Student Transport Assistance Program
Schoolbuses — Public Transport Authority
School bus licence concession — Department of Transport
Tenders — supplying to the Public Transport Authority

Written 21 October 2026 from the documents linked above. TfNSW revises these; check the current version before you rely on it, and treat your contract manager as the authority rather than this page.

South Australia