Month: October 2017

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Ferries, B-Line and Newcastle Interchange.

This week has been a rather eventful week for Transport here in NSW, here is your lowdown.

  • The State Government announced that it plans to purchase a number of new 150 passenger ferries to replace the Rivercats on the F3 Parramatta River line. This is due to large increases in passenger demand and the lack of ferries that can travel up Parramatta River all the way to Parramatta.
  • Newcastle Interchange Station will open on Sunday 15 October. This will be the new terminus for Central Coast and Newcastle and Hunter line services. This change will see some minor timetable adjustments, as well as the addition of new faster Express trains from Newcastle to Sydney.
  • There will be a 15 percent drop in the available funds for operating expenses for Transport for NSW, equating to a multi million dollar cut in their budget. This is matched with a freeze in new recruitment for operations positions.
  • The newest buses in the State Transit Fleet, Malaysian bulit Double Decker Gemilangs with MAN engines arrived at Mona Vale Depot this week. These buses will be used exclusively on the new B-Line and are painted in a special Yellow livery to differentiate the service.
Left: New B-Line Bus at Mona Vale Depot. Right: Newcastle Interchange
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Featured Bus Route – October 2017

This month our featured bus route is the 303. Route 303 operates between Sans Souci and City Circular Quay via Brighton-Le-Sans, Mascot, UNSW and Surry Hills.

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There have been suggestions in the past that this route is ineffective as a route to the CBD, with many people living along the far southern part of the route preferring railway feeder services to the nearby Illawarra Rail Line and the Northern Part of the route being duplicated by numerous bus routes. Various proposals have suggested that the route be modified to operate between Miranda and Bondi Junction or to re-route the service via West Botany Street and Sydney Airport. None of these proposals have come to fruition due to community backlash.

The service operates between 6am and 8pm, with short runnings to and from Mascot continuing to 10pm. The service runs every 20 minutes in peak hour, 30 minutes off peak and hourly on weekends. It is operated by Port Botany and Tempe depots.

 

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Line Up Changes

Yes, I know the blog has been relatively inactive. Yes, you will eventually get posts.

Here is the plan:

  • Featured Bus Route – Once a month I will feature a bus route from around Sydney, looking at it’s history and current operation. Just like Route of the Week, just monthly not weekly.
  • News and other updates – The rest of my posts will be transport related news and other updates, including some of the information that would have previously come from Train Talk Tuesday, Ferry Friday, etc.

I have realised that it is too time consuming to do so many posts a week. I hope you are all understanding and continue to enjoy my content.