Type Joint venture Area served Australia Headquarters Melbourne Parent organization Keolis | Industry Public transport Products Bus & tram operator Founded 30 November 2009 | |
 | ||
Owner Keolis (51%)
Downer Rail (49%) Subsidiaries G:link
Hornibrook Bus Lines
LinkSA
Path Transit
SouthLink
Yarra Trams CEO Benedicte Colin (Oct 2014–) | ||
Keolis Downer is a joint venture between Keolis, the largest private sector French transport group, and Downer Rail, an Australian railway engineering company, that operates bus and tram services in Australia.
History
Keolis Downer commenced trading on 30 November 2009, when the joint venture commenced operating the Yarra Trams franchise on the Melbourne tram network. The contract is for eight years, with an option to extend for a further seven years. KDR continue to operate under the Yarra Trams name that had been used by TransdevTSL.
On 21 July 2014, Keolis Downer commenced operating the G:link tram operation on the Gold Coast. In March 2015, Keolis Downer purchased bus operator Australian Transit Enterprises which operated the Hornibrook Bus Lines, Link SA, Path Transit and SouthLink operations with 930 buses.
On 1 July 2017, Keolis Downer trading as Newcastle Transport will take over the Newcastle Buses & Ferries operation and in 2019 commence operating the Newcastle Light Rail.
Keolis Downer also unsuccessfully bid to operate the Melbourne Metropolitan Bus, Sydney Light Rail franchises. and Capital Metro light rail.