NSW budget 2024: Western Sydney to get new bus routes, more services amid system overhaul
More than $90 million will be spent to fix ageing tech that makes buses disappear from trip planning apps.
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Western Sydney communities will get new bus routes and more services while more than $90 million will be spent on a technology overhaul to stop commuters waiting for buses that never arrive.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal that Tuesday’s budget will include $139.5 million to modernise the state’s bus fleet and provide more services in booming suburbs.
Of that, $91 million will go towards a system overhaul which will bust “ghost buses” — where cancelled services still appear in trip planning apps, leading to commuters expecting a bus that will never arrive.
From later this year, work will begin to update 4000 Opal-enabled buses and 1000 in outer metropolitan areas, in an unprecedented upgrade to the Sydney’s bus fleet.
The buses will get on-board screens and audio announcements to help passengers get off at the right stop.
Ageing tracking technology will also get a much-needed overhaul to ensure that trip planning apps can accurately show real services.
The funding makes good on the recommendations from a report to the government which found that more than 10 per cent of buses are invisible to public transport phone apps, creating confusion for passengers and eroding trust in the network.
Tuesday’s budget will also include $24.7 million over four years for more services, new routes, and more Zero Emission Buses in Western Sydney.
The new routes and extra services will benefit commuters in Penrith, St Marys, Mount Druitt, Marsden Park, Blacktown, Eastern Creek and Arndell Park.
Those suburbs will get more services more often, and new routes connecting passengers to schools, shops and employment hubs.
There will also be more connections to train and metro stations.
It comes after Bus Industry Taskforce chair John Lee warned that some parts of Sydney were becoming “Uber-only” suburbs due to a dire lack of public transport options.
An extra $23.8 million will also be spent over the next two years on a “Medium Term Bus Plan” to set a strategy for how to fix bus connections in growing suburbs, mainly in Sydney’s west.
Premier Chris Minns said the “vital” investment will give Western Sydney commuters better access to public transport services.
Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the upgrades will help fix the “cornerstone” of Sydney’s public transport system.
“We’ve done a lot of positive work with buses since coming to government but there’s still more to do – and that’s what this investment will begin to deliver, especially for communities in our growing West,” Ms Haylen said.
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