This metro car park is full by 7.13am. Now, Sydney commuters might have a better option

Commuters in the city’s north-west are set for a reprieve from clogged parking lots and poor transport connections to metro stations.

Following a months-long community campaign of complaints and feedback, Transport for NSW will shift to a more frequent timetable with extended bus routes for services around stations at the end of the north-west metro line.

For much of 2024, locals around Tallawong, Box Hill, Schofields and North Kellyville complained about a chronic lack of bus services connecting to metro stations, forcing them to walk on roads, order costly Ubers or drive into commuter car parks that get full by the early hours.

Commuters entering Tallawong car park face significant congestion.Credit: Nick Moir

But from January 19, many routes – including the 732, 740, 742, 745, 746, 747 and 748 – will become more frequent, and additional buses for use during peak times will be deployed on the 601, 605 and 643 routes.

Adrian Dessanti, the director of public transport at the agency, said locals’ outspoken feedback about the lack of services contributed to the change, along with patronage and housing development data.

“We do use qualitative feedback,” he said, saying people had been writing in letters and sending the agency other feedback about the services. “It’s not just about using Opal data – that records who currently catches the bus.”

The changes to the north-west routes – part of the state government’s push to improve bus services across the city – are one of several changes being progressively made. Inner west bus services moved to a new timetable in December, and smaller changes will be made from January in south-east Sydney and the northern beaches, including improved frequency on the B1 line.

New buses for new areas

Communities in the area had partly been deprived of services because the suburbs were so new. Melonba, a new suburb in the Blacktown local area, was built on old farmland and had virtually no access to public transport despite the Tallawong metro station being a 15-minute drive away.

The 748 route, which currently travels from neighbouring Marsden Park to Rouse Hill metro station, will now go between the new suburb and Tallawong.

Warren Kirby, the state Labor member, said the route’s extension “will mean 5500 people will be able to travel to Tallawong metro station without needing to find a park”.

The changes mean some on-demand buses, which had been used to connect people to transport routes, will be discontinued.

The specialist leading the changes, Anthony Boston, said those on-demand routes filled “gaps in the network where demand is too low to provide a decent bus service”. But now, patronage was too high.

“People have got used to using public transport … and now they’re reaching the numbers that are exceeding what we can carry on small buses,” Boston said.

“Now that you’ve got so much residential growth and so many more people there, on-demand has got to the nexus point.”

Boston said the changes were not set in stone but needed “to be tended to like a garden”.

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