Forever Transit Central Connect (abb. FTCC, Central Connect, CenCon or FT Central Connect) is a subdivision of Forever Transit. It is the successor to the defunct Sunshine Express, which went defunct in 2023 after its merger with the Forever Group. Like its parent company, FTCC is owned by BusDriverKLN.
Introduction[]
As the successor to Sunshine Express, FTCC is responsible for running Sunshine Express' former services, as well as being the main operator of Zone 4 routes. FTCC's livery also incorporates Sunshine Express' former livery, using a white/yellow/blue livery rather than the standard white/blue used on older livery Forever Transit buses.
History[]
On June 1, 2024, Forever Transit was supposed to take over the Zone 4 tender from the Sunshine Islands Government (the remaining Sunshine Express operations), which will be operated under the Central Connect brand. However, due to a delay in the delivery and refurbishment of the Central Connect buses, this made Forever Transit miss the V2 launch. Therefore, Sunshine Islands Bus ran services with its branding from June 1, 2024, until delivery of refurbished buses, with the government handing over the tender on June 28, 2024.
Starting June 29, 2024, Forever Transit launched its Central Connect brand and subdivision, with the appropriately branded buses now in the Islands, which will replace services that were previously operated by Sunshine Islands Bus/Sunshine Express. This will make Forever Transit the largest operator by number of routes in the Sunshine Islands. Consequently, every island, other than Horizon Island is served by at least one Forever Transit-operated route.
Routes[]
| Route | Start/Finish Point | Service | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 41A | Northern Beach ↔ Sunshine Pier | Every Day | |
| 42 | Southern Central ↔ Rocky Road | Every Day | |
| 42A | Sunshine Pier ↔ Rocky Road | Every Day | |
| 46 | Lunar Point ↔ Eastmallow Praya Road | Every Day | |
| 47 | Sun Central Street ↔ Norton Town Centre | Every Day | |
| 49A | Northern Beach ↔ Sunshine Pier | Every Day | |
| 140 | Long Island Ferry Pier ↔ Sunshine Pier | Every Day | Co-operated with FT |
| 140P | Sunshine Pier → Long Island Ferry Pier | Mon - Fri PM Rush hour only | Co-operated with FT |
| 141P | Containers Island ↔ Norton Town Centre | Mon - Fri Rush hour only | Co-operated with REBC |
| 142 | Sunshine Pier ↔ Dove Estate | Every Day | Co-operated with REBC |
| 148 | Containers Island ↔ Norton Town Centre | Every Day | Co-operated with REBC |
| 160R | Sunshine Stadium → Zone 7 Interchange | After Stadium events only | Co-operated with HZ |
| 246X | Eastmallow Praya Road ↺ Timelapse Mall | Mon - Fri Rush Hour only | Co-operated with REBC |
| 473 | Leafy Bay ↔ Lunar Point | Every Day | Co-operated with CSB |
| N146 | Containers Island ↔ Eastmallow Praya Road | Overnight only | Co-operated with REBC |
| U47 | North Sunshine University ↔ Hotel Symbol | Every Day | Co-operated with FT and CSB |
Bus Fleet[]
The Central Connect fleet uses buses that were new to Sunshine Express:
- Alexander Dennis Enviro500 MMC (1140-1189, ex SE 6000-6049)
- MAN RC2 (3520-3529, ex-SE 3000-3009 and moved from Hanwick)
- Youngman JNP6120GR (3100-3110, ex SE)
Trivia[]
- FTCC operates more routes than its parent company, Forever Transit, with FTCC's network spanning 16 bus routes, in contrast to Forever Transit's 7.
- 3 of the 4 buses in the Central Connect fleet have clickable Octopus card readers that make a beeping noise when pressed, to allow you to mimic scanning an Octopus card.
- These buses have the stop reporters that can be found on all of the other companies, excluding the parent company FT (which has LBTech stop reporters).
- In the option to filter the routes by company in the route select screen, for unknown reasons, Sunshine Express still shows, but clicking the filter will show all FTCC routes.
- All FTCC routes can be operated using the buses from the parent company, Forever Transit, and vice versa. This can be done by spawning a FTCC or FT bus in Free Drive mode. Then, drive to any bus terminus and press the pink "Start shift at [Terminus Name]" button at the top of the screen.
- However, you can't select FT buses to operate FTCC routes and vice versa when directly starting a shift in the main menu. (This was announced in the Discord server and is intentional, not a bug.)
- In addition, you cannot use FT buses to operate FTCC routes and vice versa for Daily Challenges, unless you own the "Master Pass" gamepass. The only exception is route 140, 140P and U47, which is operated by both FT and FTCC.
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