Sydney Metropolitan Bus Service Contracts

The Sydney Metropolitan Bus Service Contracts[1] are contracts issued by the Government of New South Wales to metropolitan bus operators in Sydney, Australia. Since the early 2000s, the government has moved from individual contracts with operators to larger contract regions, leading to the consolidation of bus operators.

History

Until the 1990s all of Sydney's private bus services were run by family owned companies. The Passenger Transport Act 1990 requiring average fleet ages to be maintained at no more than 12 years and minimum service levels, resulted in many of the smaller operators selling out to larger operators.

But even these larger operators such as Baxter's, Busways, North & Western, Shorelink, South Trans, Transit First and Westbus, were still owned by Australian families. In the late 1990s and early 2000s multi-national transport operators including Connex, ComfortDelGro, National Express and Transdev began to buy up some of these larger operators.

In March 2004 the Minister for Transport released the final report of Barrie Unsworth's Review of Bus Services in NSW.[2] At this stage Sydney's bus operating contracts were divided into 87 contract areas. After recommendations from Unsworth's report, the contract regions were consolidated into 15 regions with seven year contracts negotiated with the operators.

In 2012 under recommendations from the Unsworth Report the current 15 contract regions were to be consolidated into eight regions, however this was not implemented and it was decided to put the provision of the services out to competitive tender for the existing regions.[3][4][5][6] Current contracts operate for five years, with an option to extend for a further three years.[7]

In May 2017, the government announced the operation of State Transit region 6 would be contracted out to the private sector from July 2018.[8][9]

Regions

A region may have more than one operator (including consortium of operators). The leading operator (or cosortium) of those regions are in bold.

Region Boundaries[10] Original Operators (2005) Changes until Tendering Operator after Tendering Start Date of Tendered Contract
1[11] 2, 3, 4, 15 Area 1 Management Company Busways[3][12] 6 October 2013[7]
2[13] 1, 3, 13, 15 Area 2 Management Company Interline[14] 1 June 2014[15]
3[16] 1, 2, 4, 13 Area 3 Management Company

Western Sydney Buses

 Baxter's routes sold to Westbus in September 2006[17] Transit Systems Sydney[3][18] 13 October 2013[7]
4[19] 1, 3, 7, 12, 13 Hillsbus Hillsbus[14] 1 August 2014[20]
5[21] 6, 7, 10, 13 Punchbowl Bus Company Punchbowl Bus Company[14] 1 July 2014[7]
6[22] 5, 7, 9, 10, 13 State Transit State Transit 1 July 2013[23]
7[24] 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 14 State Transit State Transit 1 July 2013[23]
8[25] 7, 9, 14 State Transit State Transit 1 July 2013[23]
9[26] 6, 7 State Transit State Transit 1 July 2013[23]
10[27] 5, 6, 11, 13 Connex Connex renamed Veolia Transport
Veolia renamed Transdev NSW in July 2013
Region 11 absorbed into Region 10[28]		 Maianbar Bundeena (route 989)
Transdev NSW (all others)		 1 January 2013[5]
11[29] 10 Caringbah Bus Service
Crowthers
Maianbar Bundeena Bus Service 		Crowthers bought by Veolia in January 2009
Caringbah bought by Veolia in October 2011
Veolia renamed Transdev NSW in July 2013
Region 11 absorbed into Region 10[28]
12[30] 4, 7, 8, 14 Shorelink Shorelink renamed TransdevTSL Shorelink in 2008[31]
TransdevTSL Shorelink renamed Transdev Shorelink in 2010
Transdev Shorelink operations merged into Transdev NSW in 2014		 Transdev NSW[3][32] 1 June 2013[7]
13[33] 2, 3, 5, 6, 10 Connex
Transit First		 Connex renamed Veolia Transport in 2006
Transit First bought by Veolia in February 2007
Veolia renamed Transdev NSW in July 2013		 Transdev NSW 1 May 2013[5]
14[34] 7, 8, 12 Forest Coach Lines Forest Coach Lines[3][32] 1 April 2013[7]
15[35] 1, 2 Busways Busabout[14] 1 June 2014[36]

Livery

A requirement of the contracts is that operators adopt a white and two blues livery as prescribed by Transport for NSW, this was implemented from 2010. Forest Coach Lines' 2005 contract did not require their buses to be repainted blue, hence the livery applied to their buses saw the blue replaced with green. This loophole was closed when the region was tendered in 2012.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Buses and coaches, Transport for NSW, Retrieved 23 July 2016
  2. ↑ Annual Report 30 June 2004 Transport NSW
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Cut costs or bus contracts will go to private sector, minister tells drivers Sydney Morning Herald 7 November 2012
  4. 1 2 Blue over green Forest Coach Lines buses Manly Daily 11 January 2013
  5. 1 2 3 Veolia Transdev Secures Bus Contracts Transdev Australasia 16 January 2013
  6. ↑ Tenders open soon for Sydney bus services Transport NSW 25 February 2013
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Annual Report for year ended 30 June 2014 Transport for NSW pages 38-39
  8. ↑ NSW Transport Minister announces inner-west bus region tender ABC News 16 May 2017
  9. ↑ Sydney Route Privatisation Australasian Bus & Coach 16 May 2017
  10. ↑ Sydney New Bus Regions 2005 Ministry of Transport
  11. ↑ Region 1 Transport NSW
  12. ↑ Busways wins 300 bus contract in Western Sydney Busways 7 November 2012
  13. ↑ Region 2 Transport NSW
  14. 1 2 3 4 More than 60 new buses and improved customer service with new bus contracts Transport for NSW 29 August 2013
  15. ↑ Busabout News May 2014 Busabout
  16. ↑ Region 3 Transport NSW
  17. ↑ Home Baxter's Bus Lines
  18. ↑ Transit Systems awarded Sydney buses contract Transit Systems 7 November 2012
  19. ↑ Region 4 Transport NSW
  20. ↑ Annual Report June 2013 Page 4 Cabcharge
  21. ↑ Region 5 Transport NSW
  22. ↑ Region 6 Transport NSW
  23. 1 2 3 4 Annual Report year ended 30 June 2013 State Transit Authority
  24. ↑ Region 7 Transport NSW
  25. ↑ Region 8 Transport NSW
  26. ↑ Region 9 Transport NSW
  27. ↑ Region 10 Transport NSW
  28. 1 2 Sydney Bus Contract Map 2012 Transport for NSW
  29. ↑ Region 11 Transport NSW
  30. ↑ Region 12 Transport NSW
  31. ↑ TransdevTSL Shorelink News September 2008
  32. 1 2 Mixed Result for Private Bus Operators Bus & Coach Association NSW 7 November 2012
  33. ↑ Region 13 Transport NSW
  34. ↑ Region 14 Transport NSW
  35. ↑ Region 15 Transport NSW
  36. ↑ Busways Campbelltown Busways
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