The Horizon Group (abbreviated as HG or HZG, though HZ is more commonly used) is one of the bus operators in the Sunshine Islands. The company is owned by kmb5.
Introduction[]
Horizon Group operates bus services in two cities, namely West Door and Sunshine Islands. It is the second transit service operator in Sunshine Islands, where they mainly serve Zone 6. Currently all Zone 6 routes are solely operated by this company[1], however Zone 6 is currently closed for redevelopment. It now operates 13 ordinary service routes and 4 special service routes in total.
Its depot in Sunshine Islands is located in Horizon Island, next to the Horizon Depot Bus Terminus.
Before June 2024, most of Horizon Group's services in the Islands had lower ridership compared to other operators in the Islands, so that it's fleet mainly consisted of two axle buses, although it ran a small fleet of Volvo B10TLs and MAN NL323Fs (A95) as admin buses. The company consequently did not invest in new buses for the Islands after 2020.
With the new contracts in June 2024 focusing, having routes with higher ridership mostly serving Zone 7 prompted Horizon to move its older double deck buses out of storage to ensure they had enough capacity, making the Mark I Enviro500 (DTE class) and B10TL (VSOV) available to the public. In the meantime, with the suspension of most Zone 6 routes, Horizon no longer needed as many single deck buses. This meant that the MAN RC2s, despite being the newest buses in the Islands fleet, were relegated to spare duty and are mostly kept in storage (although they can make rare appearances as part of Daily Challenges).
Since all Zone 6 routes are inter-zone routes, Horizon Group is the only bus operator in Sunshine Islands which solely runs inter-zone routes, barring the shortened route 673.
History[]
Horizon Group was founded on March 30, 2018, which was formed by the merging of the former FSFTC (峰城巴士) and String Bay Transit. In March and April 2018, it started operation in George District (now named as City of George) and SI. The sub-companies in the two regions are independently named Horizon George (aka HZG, then renamed as HZCG) and Horizon Sunshine Islands (aka HZSI) respectively to distinguish them. When Horizon West Door opened, this subsidiary was abbreviated as HZWD,
In SI, Horizon Group started out with two bus models, the MAN NL262 and Youngman JNP6122, on two routes. The two models were operated until double decker buses, particularly the Volvo B5TLs, were introduced to cater to the rising demand in the Sunshine Islands. The company received more franchises to operate longer and more complex routes, including inter-zone services from Zone 7. Interestingly enough, Horizon is also the only operator in the Islands without intra-zone routes, with all routes leaving Horizon Island (except for the 73/673, which temporarily runs only in Leafy and Haisey because of the temporary closure of Horizon Island).
In July 2019, Horizon began operating rush-hour route 360, which provides a link between Long Island and Horizon Island, running via Senpai.
In February 2021, with the Haisey update, Horizon began operating route 673 with City Scape Bus, which ended the company's monopoly on Zone 6 services.
Horizon Group previously was owned under FWWS 峰華工作室 (which also used to own Sunshine Express, another bus operator in SI) until February 2022. The company is now directly managed by kmb5 and other members personally, due to reform of FWWS into a workshop solely focusing on bus driving map development.
Effective May 2, 2022, following the closure of the City of George, Horizon Group operated in just the Sunshine Islands until June 19, 2022, with vehicles in the former map put in storage or retired.
On June 13, 2022, kmb5 posted a photo of a new Alexander Dennis Enviro500 MMC for Horizon Group on Facebook. However, the division pasted next to the company logo on the vehicle was "Horizon West Door", a name that was never heard of. This led to speculations of Horizon Group having new operations in West Door City.
On June 20, 2022, effective 1:52 am Hong Kong Time, Horizon Group took over airport routes that were formerly operated by TaYLAS with its newest order of transit specification ADL Enviro500 MMCs. With the buses being built, it is unknown if vehicles from the former City of George fleet would be used as fill in, although the company announced a HK$4 discount on its A-series routes for the time being, until premium specification buses could be put in service. However, no changes were made to the Sunshine Islands fleet, where the remainder of the company's buses were operating at the time.
With the V2 update in June 2024, Horizon introduced older vehicles with higher capacity, being the refurbished Volvo B10TL and Mark I Enviro500 as part of its expanded tender in the Islands. These allowed the company to now run some of the oldest buses that are in regular use in game, with them hailing from 2004. As part of this change, the MAN RC2s, despite being the newest buses in the fleet, were relegated to spare duty and are only playable as rare buses (after unlocking them in Daily Challenges), while Dennis Tridents 335 & 336 were reintroduced as rare buses, which can be unlocked through select Daily Challenges. Moreover, all buses are equipped with functional multi-colour next stop reporter displays, working wheelchair ramp, kneeling, driver's tablet and automated announcements, features most Horizon Group vehicles did not have in Version 1.
As part of the V2 update, Horizon also temporarily does not serve its namesake island in Zone 6 due to revamp of said area. Therefore, three of Horizon's routes are temporarily suspended, while route 673 was shortened to run in Zones 7 & 8. This also required the company to store its buses elsewhere, mainly in the Senpai Multi-Story Car Park.
Routes[]
- ↑ except route 673 which operate with CSB
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Special Route after shows,only operate on days with shows at Sunshine Stadium
- ↑ Partially operated by FTCC
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 Partially operated by CSB
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Operated on Mon – Fri/Sat Rush Hours only
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Temporarily suspended
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Partially operated by REBC
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Overnight service
- ↑ Marathon Shuttle Service
Bus Fleet[]
Current Fleet[]
- MAN RC2 11.3 m (#MRG) (Only available in Daily Challenges as a rare bus)
- Dennis Trident LH (Only available in Daily Challenges as a rare bus)
- Dennis Dart (#DD2) (Admins, HRs or Maintenance Dept. Staff Only) (To be deployed on route 370 only unless under special situations)
- MAN A95 ND323F (Admins, HRs or Maintenance Dept. Staff Only)
- Volvo B10TL (Super Olympian) 12m (#VSOV)
- Alexander Dennis Enviro200 10.4m (#AES)
- Alexander Dennis Enviro500 (#DTE)
- Alexander Dennis Enviro500 MMC 12.8m (#AELX-used in West Door only)
To cater to the rising amount of passengers, HZSI tested a 3-axle double decker Volvo B8L (#VBWL1); the company is also testing MAN A95s that can be run in both West Door and Sunshine Islands which are to phase out the older B10TLs. However, Horizon refurbished its B10TLs and put them into regular service alongside Mark I Enviro500s, which have replaced the smaller Volvo B5TLs.
Past Fleet[]
- MAN NL262 (All withdrawn from both SI and George District)
- Youngman JNP6120 (#AYMS) (All withdrawn from SI and sent to GD, withdrawn in GD too due to a ban of Chinese buses there)
- Volvo B5TL 10.5 m (#VBWS) (Withdrawn from SI due to broken front door)
- Dennis Dart (DD1)
Sometimes buses from Horizon George, e.g. Volvo B5TL, Dennis Trident LH, Youngman JNP6120 (#AYMS) and MAN RC2 (#MRC) were deployed to support the bus services in SI when necessary, or to operate special bus routes in SI, e.g. Sunshine Stadium special routes. Whether a certain bus belong to HZG or HZSI can be distinguished by the logo on the bus, and the vehicle registration number. (The registration number of buses from George District start with 'HZG', while those from SI start with two random letters.) However, one of the Dennis Darts was retired and its registration transferred to a MAN ND323F.
Service in other cities[]
- City of George (discontinued)
- West Door
Gallery[]
Refer to HZSI Buses Gallery.
Notes[]
Link[]
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