Sunshine Express

Sunshine Express is a Hong Kong-based bus company/franchise that operates routes in fictional maps. Formerly founded by ATR102, this company is currently temporarily co-owned by BusDriverKLN, matthew8271 and NLB11A and operates in multiple jurisdictions.

The group can be found on Facebook and Discord, even though most communication is in Chinese (there are limited communications in English, mostly on Discord). In most of the areas where the company operates, you do not need to be in the group to drive; however, you do need to be in the group to drive some buses.

Early Years
In June 2017, Sunshine Express launched service in the Forever City, running route 53R. The group had a fleet of A-Chassis buses in use by that time. These were a mix of Toyota Coasters and other models.

In August 2017, the bus company joined the Universal Alliance transit union. At the beginning of 2018, the company unveiled a new livery, which was phased in starting with double deck buses. The company worked with another well-known operator, Horizon Group, to take charge of the area. The company also began service in Derry District around that time, eventually expanding to the City of George, Sunshine Islands and West Door.

In 2018, Sunshine Express started to operate double deck buses, with Wright-bodied Volvo B5TLs in the City of George, another map it had acquired routes in. The company had also tested double deck buses in other maps and in the Sunshine Islands, it started running them on busy routes until they were replaced with single deck city buses. That year, the company started service in West Door City, operating two residents' routes. In September of that year, the company introduced a branding redesign known as "SE 2.0"- with a new livery, new displays and new features. The updates were gradually phased in, starting with the blue and yellow livery. In December 2018, Sunshine Express joined the FWWS transit union.

The New Brand
In 2019, the MAN RC2 was released to Sunshine Islands, with the Hino Poncho for low ridership routes. These two models became the backbone of the company's fleet- as they were operated at Derry District, George District and Sunshine Islands. The company then introduced new destination displays at the end of 2019, being multi-colour LCD instead of the older LED displays used on the previous fleet. Some buses were refitted with the new displays while others kept older ones. The company cut service at West Door and Derry District that year, although it returned upon the opening of new contracts.

Sunshine Express' new displays feature a dynamic route map on the exterior side display, showing the destination and upcoming stops. Like the first generation buses, new buses starting in 2020 have a dynamic next stop system which shows upcoming stops on screens equipped inside the buses as well.

At the beginning of 2020, the company purchased new Alexander Dennis Enviro500 MMCs for the Sunshine Islands, along with Youngman JNP6122Gs to replace the MAN RC2s. These buses featured the new displays and working turn signals. However, a few of the RC2s are kept as spare buses in the Islands are not accessible to the public- although they are not common due to the company's preferences for newer buses.

At the beginning of 2020, Sunshine Express formed an airline called Sunshine Air. The company started well in theory but was plagued with problems, including its maiden flight cancelled on June 30, 2020. This led to many memes around the Roblox Hong Kong community about the airline, as it had failed miserably. A second flight also resulted in a crash after the plane's engines engine caught fire. At the time, the airline only operated one Boeing 787.

Meanwhile, to further support its bus fleet, the company is refurbishing its Duple Metsec-bodied 10.3 m Dennis Trident LHs- including the addition of newer LCD displays- using them for route 3E and non-franchised routes; these will be kept in the older livery. In addition, Sunshine Express refurbished its MAN RC2s and renumbered some of them as the 20xx to replace its Youngman JNP6122Gs to comply with bus model restrictions. The used buses, having been retired early, ended up with various agencies and some have returned to service with their new owners; 10 were put in storage for future expansion.

In June 2020, Sunshine Express acquired 18 Mitsubishi MK117s for service in Derry District. These buses required a rank of PCV Driver and above (although they can be spawned by the public) and could be found among their group only low floor buses. The buses are now in storage following the termination of SE's contract in the area.

Starting Over
In October 2020, a few months after going under new management, Sunshine Express changed its Chinese name from 晴城特快 to 新快運, although keeping the same English name; which also meant a rebranding would begin. Rebranding initially occurred when the Welmsby area of the City of George was introduced, which was then applied to all SE stops in the City of George; this was natively built in when the company began operations in Hanwick. However, Sunshine Islands will slowly receive the new SE brand through updates to the game. New buses released also sport a revised version of the blue and yellow livery, which has a white stripe. The first buses to receive this update were the 2020 ADL 12 m Enviro500 MMCs (60xx), which also included the additional deployment of more vehicles to the Islands.

On November 14, 2020 (November 15 in Hong Kong), MatTrans' routes in Hanwick City was transferred to Sunshine Express, including routes 72/72A, 91, 95/95S, 95P, N93, P2/P2A and P3. In addition, Sunshine Express also acquired MatTrans' bus fleet; buses from the latter can be identified by having their green livery. Sunshine Express also redeployed its Dennis Tridents and MAN RC2s from the City of George alongside 10 Youngman JNP6122Gs from Sunshine Islands; it also now operates a unit that was owned by MatTrans. However, unlike SE's own vehicles, the former MatTrans fleet retain the same specifications as they did before takeover. This also introduced 10 Youngman JNP6122Gs that were reactivated, alongside older buses such as the Dennis Trident, ADL Enviro500 and MAN RC2s into the fleet there to help with increasing service.

As of December 2020, work is underway to refurbish vehicles in the former MatTrans fleet and repaint them in Sunshine Express' livery; the first being the 2019 Volvo B8Ls. This process also involves changing the older LED displays to SE's multi-colour LCD displays and renumbering vehicles.

In March 2021, Sunshine Express received the tender to run extra trips on routes 2 and 2X with Horizon Group in the City of George. To help distinguish that the buses are on a Horizon Group run, the route numbers use Horizon's turquoise colour as the background. However, Horizon Group still has the tender to operate on routes 2 and 2X alongside route 41 and 41P.

On April 1, 2021, Sunshine Express wrapped some of its Enviro200 MMCs for April Fools', which also included a joke rebrand to "Vegetarian Pork" with purple/pink livery, a pig nose in front replacing the SE logo and a meme LCD exposure on the City of George fleet for former route S616. Setting the LCD displays to this route would show the regular route and a P/R saying "LET ME INNNNN!" Inside, the next stop system would show "Welcome to Vegan Pork", or if signed for route S616, "Next stop: RTV hch"; signing the bus for revenue service would have the upcoming stop system display "Sunshine Express". This was purely for show and other buses in the fleet still retain Sunshine Express' normal livery and branding. This was made in reference to SE losing the tender for non-franchised routes within that map in July 2020.

In June 2021, Sunshine Express began retirement of the oldest buses in its fleet, including the 2001-2002 Dennis Tridents. According to sightings, 4109 and 4115 were retired on June 9, 2021.

As of August 10, 2021, the premium livery was rolled out in Hanwick with 26 premium-specification Volvo B8Ls introduced, bearing a C prefix to distinguish them as coaches for airport service. They also wear a modified version of the livery to make them more easily recognizable compared to SE's conventional B8Ls. On August 11, 2021, Sunshine Express introduced route 90 along with other new route adjustments, which serves as a frequent link between the Hanwick airport and the Central district.

On May 2, 2022, Sunshine Express ceased operations in the City of George after the map was shut down.

Incomplete Vehicles For Sale
On July 20, 2020, Sunshine Express' former CEO, ATR102 was accused of scamming people following major defects with purchased vehicles. According to a Facebook post, a customer described that after purchasing retired Sunshine Express buses, he found the vehicles incomplete- missing parts and important components, including meshes that had been banned from Roblox which were removed. This caused seats to be missing from interiors, which also meant that the vehicles were not usable until a new driver's seat and passenger area was installed.

This spawned outcry from the community as people were charged in real currency or high Robux prices for vehicles, they were being scammed of money and their Robux. In addition, the company was found to be using money transfers for people to conduct transactions with Hong Kong currency, as well as charging high prices if paying in Robux- which the former was a violation of local laws. This also meant that the group was possibly putting users' credit cards and bank accounts at risk if they had paid for a product. The sales department responded that they could do nothing since it was ATR102's fault.

Furthermore, some people later discovered that those buses Sunshine Express sold were actually made by other builders and bus companies, but the resale through Sunshine Express was conducted without the original product makers' permission, which now violated intellectual property regulations.

The accusations were severe enough that ATR102 resigned altogether and left most of the Discord groups he was in, with iLLUMINE6039 taking over as CEO. Furthermore, the group went under reform to remove the money transfer option. To compensate for people who were scammed, Sunshine Group released a free model of their 2200-series MAN CitySmart which was on the market for a limited time (albeit without an interior), allowing people to customize it to their liking. However, it is unknown how people who paid with Hong Kong currency will be refunded. As a result, the group then retired the MAN CitySmart buses in its Derry District and West Door operations.

Due to the scandal, Sunshine Express has lost its operating contracts in Derry District and West Door City, which were awarded to Bauhinia Bus. In addition, Transport for George, the government body that oversees the City of George's bus network has decided to take back some of routes that are subcontracted to SE, which were taken over by the government's services (New Harbour Bus/Edwin Bus) and Bauhinia Bus. The company also had its membership in the FWWS alliance terminated.

Though iLLUMINE6039 took over Sunshine Express, he was unable to manage the company well, and caused the company to be declining in reputation and service quality. In August 2020, after another SunshineAir flight ended up in failure, iLUMINE6039 suddenly announced he would be on hiatus until 2021, and even rage quit from both the SE and SunshineAir Discord servers. Upon this stage, the company had entered a state of nearly a complete standstill. As iLLUMINE6039 was proven to be making the image and condition of Sunshine Express even worse, in late August to early September 2020, under the actions of a number of Sunshine Express' HRs and the assistance of Transport for George, iLLUMINE6039 was overthrown from the position of SE's owner. The company was temporarily taken over by a board of directors formed by BusDriverKLN, matthew8271 and NLB11A. The new board of directors started to implement policies like starting another upgrade project to SE's bus fleet, and managed to slightly regain some of the lost reputation for the bus division, but the reputation and image of the company is still a long way behind how it was before the scandal.

As for SunshineAir, however, since iLLUMINE6039's departure, due to no top management staff to replace iLLUMINE6039, a lack of talented staff who are able resume operations and a poor reputation (having almost all of its flights failed), the airline was forced to indefinitely suspend operations. In addition, the temporary board of directors also was not interested in aviation, which ended up sending Sunshine Air into its demise. The airline has since been considered defunct. However, on 4 December 2020, iLLUMINE6039 rejoined the SunshineAir Discord Server, and announced that SunshineAir will resume in January 2021 after a six month hiatus. However, the airline division will cut ties with Sunshine Express' bus division, and the airline will also undergo a rename and rebrand.

As of early 2022, iLLUMINE6039 has reportedly left the Roblox platform.

Attempted Group Purchase
According to a post on Facebook on August 26, 2020, an attempted purchase of the company was conducted by Morris_CX using Hong Kong currency, which was unknown by high ranks at the time. The group claimed that there was no intention of any purchase or ownership transfer. In addition, a purchase of a Volvo B5TL with Wright bodywork was conducted using real money, which also violated the sales policies that had been implemented in July. This also revealed that management of the group has been below standard, further tarnishing the group's image.

Route Network
Sunshine Express is one of the few operators to have colour coded route assignments (yellow/orange for local, green for inter-zone in SI and brown for special routes). Turquoise-coloured routes represent Horizon Group contract/extra runs.

Sunshine Islands
In the Sunshine Islands, Sunshine Express operates in Zone 4 and some inter-zone commuter routes. Routes are also colour-coded by service type: Sunshine Express has most of its route network in this map, so a large portion of their fleet is deployed here.
 * Yellow: Local route
 * Green: Inter-zone route
 * Brown: Special

Sunshine Islands is the only map where the company retains its full route network after the bus sales scandal.

Hanwick
On November 15, 2020, Sunshine Express received a new tender at Hanwick to take over MatTrans services, effectively dissolving the latter. Sunshine Express has received a new depot and a new place to hopefully regain its customer base. The Hanwick network mainly serves the southern district of the city, including three services that run to/from a border port linking to Horizon Sea. This was the company's first expansion since its management reform. The tender was also expanded on August 11, 2021 to include one airport route, being traded off with a discontinued late night route.

With this contract, Sunshine Express acquired a sizeable fleet of buses from MatTrans although SE expanded the fleet with buses brought in from the City of George and storage, with new vehicles entering service as expansion. The former fleet was initially kept in MatTrans' green livery but had the decals replaced with Sunshine Express ones; work is now being done to refurbish all active MatTrans vehicles to SE 2.0 standards.

West Door City
In West Door, the company operated five non-franchised (residential) routes, which connect the Jade Bay development to the Chung Ping rail station and other parts of West Door. Operations were done with a mix of single deck and double deck buses.

Following the accusations surrounding ATR102, West Door's transport department conducted a poll to decide if should terminate the group's contract. Ironically, the group, including SE's official Facebook page wanted the contract terminated (as did most of the Roblox HK community that voted), with few voting to maintain service on July 20, 2020. On the evening of July 22, 2020, the transport department revoked the company's contract and ordered it to end service immediately, with Bauhinia Bus taking over operations on Jade Bay routes at 10:43 pm Hong Kong time.

Buses in this map were put in storage, retired or moved to other operations.

Derry District
Sunshine Express operated routes 75A and 94, solely with single deck buses after it took over these two routes from Forever Transit. Their contract was terminated on August 1, 2020 following the purchasing scandal. Route 94 was transferred to Bauhinia Bus while route 75A was discontinued.

On the last day of Sunshine Express operations in the game, its depot was ceremonially destroyed and in the next update immediately following the event, it was closed off with spawns removed. In addition, references to the group were removed and links to join the group were removed from the Roblox game's webpage.

All buses SE owned in the game were retired following the revocation of the contract.

Outdated Maps
Sunshine Express also had tenders in Forever City (the predecessor to Sunshine Islands), where it operated route 53R and in Tung Shing City, although few details are known about services there.

City of George
In the City of George, Sunshine Express operated routes 2, 2X (on contract to Horizon Group for extra trips), 3, 3A and 3E; although it formerly operated some Roblox TV and airport routes. Buses used for the internal airport services could be easily recognized by having a yellow strobe light on the roof of the vehicle.

Due to the scandal Sunshine Express has been accused of, Transport for George discontinued some of Sunshine Express' route tenders and reassigned them to other operators, reducing its network size there. The company also changed its fleet size as a result and put some vehicles into storage. However, some Dennis Tridents were retained for City of George operations as spare buses.

With the closure of the map, some buses have been retired while others have been put in storage.

Fleet
All buses not listed as admin or required to drive at a certain rank/be in the group (or retired) may be driven by any player, regardless of being in the group or not.

First Generation

 * Toyota Coaster (2017)
 * Youngman JNP6120/6105GR