Northern beaches bus timetable: Changes start on December 20

The new bus timetable – which will see 2000 extra bus services a week – will begin on December 20.

The B-Line at Warringah Mall. Picture: Adam Yip / Manly Daily

The new bus timetable for the northern beaches will start on December 20.

There will be an additional 2000 new bus services a week, including a 24/7 B-Line service and buses operating every 10 minutes, seven days a week, on five key routes.

Those routes are the 160X Dee Why to Chatswood; 199 Palm Beach to Manly via Mona Vale and Dee Why; 144 Manly to Chatswood via St Leonards; 100 Mosman to the city and the B1 – Mona Vale to the city (existing B-Line).

The bus timetable is changing. Picture: Adam Yip / Manly Daily

But it will also mean a number of other direct bus services currently in operation will be replaced with shorter connecting buses to interchange hubs such as Seaforth, Warringah Mall, Narrabeen and Mona Vale, where passengers will have to get another bus.

Locations where bus services will change include Avalon, Warriewood Valley, Cromer, Narraweena and Balgowlah Heights, where higher frequency local services will connect to new frequent routes at key transport hubs for travel to the Sydney CBD and major local centres.

The move has upset some commuters who will now need to catch two or more buses to get to their destination. Several petitions were launched after the announcement.

The changes will also see some bus stops moved and five are being scrapped altogether.

New bus services begin on December 20. Picture: Adam Yip / Manly Daily

“From 20 December we’ll be making changes to increase the frequency of services on selected routes, with improved connections for customers travelling to the city or within the local area,” Transport for NSW chief operations officer Howard Collins said.

“For the first time the B-Line will offer overnight services – the ‘BN1’ – every 30 minutes, seven days a week between Mona Vale and the CBD between midnight and 4am.”

Mr Collins said there will also be new all-day services to the city from North Balgowlah, and additional peak services to the city from Allambie Heights.

To support the new all-day frequent services, there will be some changes to existing local and city express services. To help reduce duplication on the network, some routes will be replaced by new routes or extra services on other routes, while some routes will remain the same with a change of route number only.

Details of the bus service improvements and updated timetables are now available online.

Customers are encouraged to visit transportnsw.info ahead of 20 December, to plan their trip and make the most of the extra services.