The Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC) is calling for more bus shelters in Sydney’s west as summer and extreme heat approaches.
Accounting for 37 per cent of public transport trips across New South Wales, there are only 20,000 bus stops in Sydney’s network, a number the organisation wants to see rise significantly.
- Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive the latest news and classifieds from Australasia’s bus and coach industry
- Don’t miss a second and subscribe to our monthly ABC magazine
The WSROC says limited basic infrastructure is failing to protect commuters from Western Sydney’s heat, where temperatures can soar over 9°C higher than in the east.
President Barry Calvert says the WSROC is urging the NSW government to fund thousands of new bus shelters across the city, with a particular focus on Western Sydney.
“This is especially concerning for vulnerable groups like children and the elderly, who face serious health risks from extreme heat,” he says.
Calvert explains that even though bus services are largely operated by private companies or by the state government, it’s left to local councils who are already stretched thin.
“This is a blatant example of cost-shifting, with local ratepayers essentially being forced to subsidise large, profit-making private transport businesses or the operations of NSW government buses,” he says.
“Why should the residents of Western Sydney, who are already grappling with extreme heat and substandard infrastructure, bear the cost of providing basic public transport amenities?”
In a recent study conducted by national advocacy group ‘Sweltering Cities’, the Busted Bus Stops report reveals issues with Western Sydney’s bus network, including:
- more than 60 per cent of 105 bus stops mapped in the new growth area around Schofields in the north-west had no shelter, shade or seating
- almost 70 per cent of 596 bus stops mapped in and around Penrith, where temperatures have reached over 50°C in summer, had no shelter, shade or seating
- in comparison, in the inner-west suburbs of Strathfield, Ashfield and Summer Hill, over 65 per cent of 101 bus stops mapped had seating and shade or shelter.
“It’s time for the NSW government to step up and fund the thousands of new bus shelters Western Sydney urgently needs,” Calvert says
“Overturned milk crates with no shading will not do as ‘public transport infrastructure’ in Western Sydney.”
Read more:
- BusTech enters voluntary administration
- Zero emission bus contracts handed out for Melbourne
- Video Review: Yutong C12 and C12E
- Video Review: Challenger Callibar
- ‘Strong response’ from potential buyers circling BusTech