Transport for NSW has confirmed that services across the Greater Sydney area will be cut from Monday 19 July 2021, as restrictions under the COVID-19 Public Health Orders continue to be tightened. This means that all services will move to a permanent reduced Sunday timetable until further notice.
The move to reduced timetables will see a significant reduction in service across the entire network. Changes by travel mode include;
Buses
Services will operate to a Sunday or reduced timetable with additional services along some corridors. School services will still operate in some areas.
Sydney Metro
Services will run every 10 minutes during peak periods and every 20 minutes at other times.
Sydney Trains
All lines will operate to a Sunday timetable.
NSW TrainLink Intercity
BMT, CCN and SCL will operate to a Sunday timetable, HUN and SHL lines will operate as normal.
Sydney Ferries
Services will operate hourly on all lines, except the Pyrmont line which will operate every 30 minutes.
Sydney Light Rail
Services will run every 20 minutes
This comes as COVID-19 restrictions continue to be tightened across Greater Sydney in response to the growing outbreak of the Delta strain in Sydney, with 1242 local cases since the start of the current cluster as of 18 July. Restrictions on movement are forcing work and study from home whilst many cannot leave their Local Government Areas except for essential work. Masks continue to be mandatory on public transport.
Transport for NSW COO Howard Collins urged commuters to stay home and not travel on public transport services across the coming weeks. Collins also noted that it is really important that we ensure the remaining services are only used by essential workers as per the current public health orders.
Update 22/07/21 – As a result of overcrowding concerns, additional services have been added to the network on top of the regular Sunday service levels. This includes extra bus services along key corridors and a doubling of peak Sydney Metro frequency from every 20 minutes to every 10 minutes.
Bus routes with extra services include;
- B1 – Mona Vale to City Wynyard
- 265 – Lane Cove to North Sydney
- 309 – Banksmeadow to Railway Square
- 309X – Port Botany to Railway Square
- 324 – Watsons Bay to Edgecliff
- 352 – Marrickville to Bondi Junction
- 400 – Eastgardens to Randwick
- 440 – Leichhardt to Railway Square
- 600 – Pennant Hills to Parramatta
- 607X – Bella Vista to City QVB
- 610X – Castle Hill to City QVB
- 611 – Blacktown to Macquarie Park
- 664 – Parramatta to Norwest
- 665 – Parramatta to Rouse Hill
- 723 – Mt Druitt to Eastern Creek
- 723 – Blacktown to Eastern Creek
- 724 – Blacktown to Huntingwood
- 779 – St Marys to Erskine Park
Update 25/07/21 – Based on updated advice from Transport for NSW there have been changes to bus services in some areas. Forest Coachlines, Transdev North Shore, and Busabout will all move to a weekday school holiday timetable with no school services from today. Punchbowl and Transdev South will move to a Saturday timetable with no school services from today. State Transit, Transit Systems, Hillsbus, Busways and Interline are all remaining on Sunday timetables including the previously reported supplementary services.
Update 31/07/21 – Move to ‘Dynamic Weekday Timetables,’ see here
Transport NSW Blog 
This makes absolutely no sense unless the aim is to save money, which equally makes no sense when you are already handing out tons of it in worker support.
The only people who can use public transport are ESSENTIAL, FRONTLINE and CRITICAL workers, most of whom are shift workers and many doing a ton of extra shifts to cover for those who are COVID affected. And who rely heavily on getting to those shifts or have those shifts aligned with normal public transport timetables.
Now, many cannot get to their critical workplaces by their shift starts because either the buses/trains don’t run at a time conducive to that or worse don’t run at all on Sundays! Alternative methods potentially now make them late for shifts, affecting other workers around them.
Let alone the bus drivers you now put out of work. Who cares if buses run empty, you are supposed to be making it EASIER for critical and frontline workers to do their already stressful jobs, NOT harder!!
Stupid stupid decision that makes no sense other than to save a buck.
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