There must be an election coming, as NSW plays the free bus card across Sydney’s fringe
With a NSW election less than two months away, the public transport card is being played in outer western Sydney and Gosford with the offer of free shuttle bus services starting this week.
The three green shuttle buses worth a combined $1 million will service an expected 24,500 passengers a week, one each placed in Campbelltown, Liverpool and Gosford.
Premier Kristina Keneally says the new shuttles will provide free transport links between key commuter destinations – including hospitals, transport hubs and shopping centres.
“These new buses will help families in western Sydney and the Central Coast who are feeling the pressure of the cost of living,” Keneally says.
The buses will operate at 20 minute intervals between 9am and 2.30pm on weekdays and 9am to 5.30pm on weekends.
Keneally says the new buses are a significant expansion of the free shuttles already operating in Sydney and Wollongong – which have provided eight million people with free transport since 2008.
The bright green shuttle buses are in line with the NSW Government’s $50.2 billion Metropolitan Transport Plan, announced by Keneally in February last year.
Transport Minister John Robertson, whose electorate is based around Gosford on the NSW Central Coast, says each free loop bus carries iconic images of the city in which the route runs.
“People in Liverpool, Campbelltown and Gosford can simply keep an eye out for the green buses and bus stops, and then hop onboard,” Robertson says.
“These buses are in addition to the 1500 extra services a week the NSW Government introduced to the Central Coast late last year, and 290 extra services a week from Liverpool to Burwood under Metrobus 90.”