Sydney’s CBD bus routes have undergone some major changes in preparation for the light rail project
Commuters are being advised to ensure they know which bus they are catching from next week as the biggest change in a generation to bus routes in Sydney’s CBD is undertaken.
All the preparations are in place and all that remains is for customers to ensure they know what bus they are catching, and where it goes from October 4.
The changes are being undertaken as the city prepares for construction of a light rail network.
“We couldn’t have beat the drum any more to ensure bus customers knew that an immense change is coming,” CBD transport coordinator general Marg Prendergast says.
“Our street teams – patrolling busy bus stops, dressed in bright pink – have handed out more than 300,000 pamphlets and bus route brochures, and we hope everyone has gone to transportnsw.info to plan a new journey or looked at mysydney.nsw.gov.au, where there’s an interactive tool to show you how your route is changing.
“The catalogue of work that has taken place to prepare bus operators, staff and the road network is immense, but all that counts for naught if customers don’t do their bit and find out how the changes affect them.”
To prepare for the bus network changes, Transport for NSW has designed a new bus network accommodating more than 180 routes and 1600 individual services every peak period, rationalised bus stops along new priority routes and rolled out new, and installed new bus lanes to battle congestion, including simpler and cheaper bus lane surfacing, among other initiatives.
“The only thing we can’t do is plan every customer’s new journey for them – the buck there stops fairly and squarely with the person tapping the Opal card,” Prendergast says.