The NSW Bus Industry Taskforce has released its Directions for On-Street Transit White Paper at the Western Sydney Bus Symposium.
The white paper outlines the key challenges and identifies a way forward in delivering a more equitable provision of bus services for passengers in Western Sydney and across NSW.
The NSW government has met with industry, unions and other key stakeholders to discuss the steps that need to be taken to improve reliability and frequency of bus services and discuss planning for new on-road infrastructure, such as bus stops and bus lanes.
The white paper identifies five key moves to transform bus services across the state, including evolving services and infrastructure over time to focus on providing essential services for the growing population demand, as well as growing the network demand and capacity to provide priority access for on-street transit and invest in technology.
The five points also include delivering new permanent high-quality routes by developing a priority list for 39 rapid bus routes in Greater Sydney, growing the city along permanent high-quality routes by identifying on-street transit support for medium-density housing areas and creating funding and partnerships through strategies to support private operator performance.
“More than 138 million trips are taken on our bus and on-street transit network each year, we can’t grow our communities properly if our bus network isn’t meeting demand,” NSW transport minister Jo Haylen says.
“The Bus Industry Taskforce has already announced measures to improve bus service delivery and this white paper highlights five key moves that will be considered for the successful future of our bus fleet.
“We need to look at best practices from all around the world. If other cities like Manhattan and Amsterdam can do it, so can Sydney.
“Everyone is a possible bus passenger, and I am committed to working with industry and experts to make sure on-street transit is front and centre when we talk about city planning.
“The only way we can continue to grow our cities is by supporting that growth with accessible and reliable public transport options.”
The key challenges the paper aims to address includes increasing public transport access across all growing cities, improving passenger information, better reliability and priority of bus services and tackling congestion to free up public transport movement on roads.
This new vision for transforming how NSW plans and develops cities across Greater Sydney, Lower Hunter and Greater Newcastle, Central Coast and Illawarra-Shoalhaven, will feed into the Bus Industry Taskforce’s interim report, to be delivered to government by October 31.
Attendees at the Bus Symposium had the opportunity to have their say on the White Paper which Transport for NSW will use to create a formal policy position to be presented to government.
Consultation on the white paper will take place until November 25 and the Bus Industry Taskforce will be engaging with a range of stakeholders including bus operators, councils, planners and the public.