After removing 83 articulated buses from service in October last year due to safety concerns, bendy buses will soon return to routes in the Northern Beaches and lower North Shore regions.
More than half of the withdrawn bendy fleet operate on Northern Beaches routes and the loss of capacity has led to longer wait times at bus stops during the peaks due to full loadings on regular-sized buses.
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Commuters have had frustrating delays, cancellations and encountered repeated breakdowns while they eagerly awaited a fix from the NSW government.
The first six bendy buses are already being repaired with the first of these to return to service this month, with the majority of the remaining articulated buses to re-enter service over the remainder of 2025.
“I acknowledge the loss of Sydney’s bendy buses has been a headache for passengers in areas like the Northern Beaches and want to thank them for their patience as we make these repairs,” roads minister John Graham says.
“Seeing the first buses ready to hit the road again is a welcome start, but we ask for that same patience to continue as the repair program returns the majority of all those 83 bendys back to service over the months ahead.
“Building up bus capacity across Sydney is a priority for the NSW Government, with 15 new electric buses getting into service this month ahead of a number of new orders to boost the fleet.”
The complex repair work being carried out in Western Sydney is replacing a section of the chassis and relocating a rear door to improve the structural integrity of the longer buses.
Repaired buses will also be returning to the eastern suburbs and on busy routes to Lane Cove, Macquarie Park, Parramatta and along Victoria Road over the course of the year.
The state government has also moved to buy 50 new diesel-powered Euro 6 articulated buses as well as 10 double decker buses to supplement the B-Line fleet.
The procurement of these new buses will improve reliability on the B-Line and increase capacity across the Northern Beaches, North Shore and the wider network.
These will be the first new bendy buses purchased for the region in 14 years, and will also be accompanied by new standard sized Zero Emission Buses (ZEBs) that will also be rolled out in the area over the next 12 months.
At the same time, the government is introducing 15 new battery-operated electric buses to the South West Link which will freed up more buses to relieve areas where shortages have been the most acute such as Sydney’s north.
The new, locally-made Custom Denning electric buses will be reallocated to electrified bus depots once infrastructure upgrades are complete.
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