About

Large cities need some form of public transport to function for lots of reason.Many people don't have parking at home or at their destinations and a bus uses up only a tiny fraction of the limited road space to convey each passenger. Buses help busy parents, saving them from running return trips to and from their children's schools. They provide that all important plan B for those who would otherwise drink and drive and are essential for those who,for whatever reason, are unable to drive a car. But best of all they relieve you from the responsibility of spending hours behind the wheel of your car fighting the Sydney Traffic, on a bus you can strike up a conversation with a stranger, read a book,study or work on a laptop or just sit back and relax for a while.

Governments are under constant pressure from vested interests to ignore the need for good public transport in major cities such as Sydney. Willoughby is a suburb built on tram lines, however in 1958 the then Cahil Labor government entered an arrangement with Shell and Goodyear where these companies helped the government rip up the tram lines and burn the trams in exchange for lucrative contracts at the Willoughby Bus Depot. Although they claimed the trams were losing money it is noted that the number 61 tram from Chatswood to Wynard via Willoughby Rd made a profit in its final year of operation.

Today it seems like nothing has changed as the current government has moved to cancel many much needed bus services and then write the reduced timetables into 8 year contract with Busways effectively making it very difficult for it or any subsequent government to return the services so many in our community have relied on in the past to get to school, work, netball or Balmoral beach.

Like its predecessor the 61 tram the 272 to Wynyard (cancelled in early 2020) appears to me to have been a very successful service. I'm thinking it made a tidy profit for the government so this begs the question why was it then cancelled?

I and many others in Willoughby have done all possible to persuade the government to again value public bus transport in our area. We have set up petitions, made submissions to the inquiry into bus privatisation and even attend the inquiry as a witness. We have enlisted the assistance of Local member Tim James who has restored some services to Royal North Shore hospital, yet struggles to bring back any of the other services cancelled just before his bi-election win where he replaced Premier Gladys.

When services have been cancelled the cancellations have always been announced in a very positive light by Transport for NSW. The withdrawal of the 257 was publicised as part of "Bus Service improvements" on their website. Constantly we are told that they have introduced thousands of new services, yet never do we here about additions to the bus fleet or the hiring of additional drivers. It is clear that whenever they add buses HERE they have to come from THERE. There is evidence that this has already happened since this pirate bus idea was first floated in late 2022 immediately an new timetable appeared on the Transport for NSW website reinstating the three peak hour services from Willoughby to the CBD that had been deleted in 2022. As to which services were withdrawn to make this happen we have no idea.

The other issue with service reliability is that Willoughby Depot now has a shortage of drivers with just 200 available compared to 300 prior to privatisation in early 2020. This has seen thousands of buses on the reduced schedule cancelled by Busways. Drivers have lost benefits under their new contracts with Busways  yet the government claims that the issue is related not to driver conditions but the global pandemic. Despite the current bus situation it has rejected the recommendation made at the Bus Privatisation inquiry that they look at unwinding the privatisation model and instead take much pride in a claim that the new arrangements have delivered 75 million in savings across the 8 year for the Willoughby and Ryde bus depots.

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Ken Wilson January 2023

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