NSW Bus Observations 2022.

[Nat]

Malvina wasn't too bad in the mid to late 80s.

N&W did all the Malvina work - school routes and charters.

We always ended up in a Worldmaster to sport on a Tuesday.
Sometimes it was a CC Viking, which were slower than the Beddies from Metro-West.
M-W did one school route(out of Thistle St), through to Meadowbank Stn, N&W did the rest AFAIK.

[Swift]

Malvina wasn't too bad in the mid to late 80s.

N&W did all the Malvina work - school routes and charters.

We always ended up in a Worldmaster to sport on a Tuesday.
Sometimes it was a CC Viking, which were slower than the Beddies from Metro-West.
M-W did one school route(out of Thistle St), through to Meadowbank Stn, N&W did the rest AFAIK.

Fair enough. Those students probably just needed a fresh start.
Was it only the sole Worly in N and W colours or did they often put on a unit in HHBC colours with the twin rear glass? The N and W one had a single piece fitted which didn't look as good.

With that Viking it's not a surprise as the BLP2 had 100ci on it. It's only when they turbo charged the 400 lump, performance improved a lot as in their auto CC Super Vikings from 12 years later which I always loved.
Those Albion derived engines were very solid engines hence why the late Ken Butt would have chosen a more modern iteration of them in the 80s.

Good to see someone who attended high school at the same time as me appreciate the buses of his youth.

PS I now understand where Special K was coming from in the standpoint of Malvina's geographic proximity to Y depot, yet no school runs from therm. That aspect completely flew over my head the first time reading!

[Richard290]

Is this the thin edge of the wedge? Busways Northwest have quietly cancelled Route 543, a schooldays only service between West Ryde and Eastwood via a number of back streets. In its final form, the Route only operated as one return trip in each peak period. Perhaps the relocation of Marsden High to Meadowbank hastened the chop ? Route 544 (Auburn to Macquarie Centre via Everywhere) does duplicate part of the now gone Route 543 between Ermington Public School and Eastwood.
In a past life, Route 543 was known as Route 87 and operated hourly on weekdays and I think, provided a two hour service on Saturdays when the bus ran to Epping for a North Epping trip before ducking back down to Eastwood. Eastwood Bus Company, Commodore Coaches and North and Western are all known to have operated the former Route 87.

Maybe one of the group know more?

Official notification displayed on the timetable slot at Eastwood Station, stand A, taken 23 April 2022.

[Stonesourscotty]

Busways tidbits

Quite a few Busways Ryde buses still without final branding including 2993 and a couple of others

Former Jordan Springs bus 600 made an Extremely rare appearance on the 677 this week. First time I've actually seen it in Penrith Town centre in Service.

Still alot of B10BLE at Penrith Depot going against what the fleetlist says as it says all stored at Port Botany.

248 doesn't appear to have run since before Pascha/Easter it's in the same spot with the same display set.

Loadings on the 525 seem very high at the moment full and standing loads where seen to the rear seats last night can bendies be used??

[Randomness]

Loadings on the 525 seem very high at the moment full and standing loads where seen to the rear seats last night can bendies be used??

Just saw a bendy 525 at Olympic Park (Sunday 2pm) so probably is possible, may just be an allocation issue later on.

[Gusbus]

Busways tidbits

Quite a few Busways Ryde buses still without final branding including 2993 and a couple of others

Former Jordan Springs bus 600 made an Extremely rare appearance on the 677 this week. First time I've actually seen it in Penrith Town centre in Service.

Still alot of B10BLE at Penrith Depot going against what the fleetlist says as it says all stored at Port Botany.

248 doesn't appear to have run since before Pascha/Easter it's in the same spot with the same display set.

Loadings on the 525 seem very high at the moment full and standing loads where seen to the rear seats last night can bendies be used??

STA had scheduled many weekend 525's to be operated by artics, especially the trips that pass the DFO around closing time. I remember selecting them based on Opal data!! They were a common sight on weekends prior to Busways taking over. Maybe Busways have changed things?

[Stonesourscotty]

Think the Rail replacement at Parra won't have helped loadings.

[pgt]

Loadings on the 525 seem very high at the moment full and standing loads where seen to the rear seats last night can bendies be used??

Just saw a bendy 525 at Olympic Park (Sunday 2pm) so probably is possible, may just be an allocation issue later on.

Was driving towards Olympic Park and noticed a Strathfield bound 525 operated by an articulated bus (one of the CB60 ones) which makes sense given it passes DFO (this was a bit after 5pm or so), so it does happen.
That said the 525 only runs half hourly, and the Burwood bound 526 runs a few minutes behind it (also half hourly) which may not help.

[swtt]

Is this the thin edge of the wedge? Busways Northwest have quietly cancelled Route 543

Wouldn't have happened unless TfNSW authorised it I guess?

[swtt]

Loadings on the 525 seem very high at the moment full and standing loads where seen to the rear seats last night can bendies be used??

Just saw a bendy 525 at Olympic Park (Sunday 2pm) so probably is possible, may just be an allocation issue later on.

There used to be short running 526 services on weekends (prior to the pandemic) that would ply between Strathfield Station and DFO only, turning around at the Australia Ave roundabout.

I guess all of these have been cut

[Fleet Lists]

Is this the thin edge of the wedge? Busways Northwest have quietly cancelled Route 543

Wouldn't have happened unless TfNSW authorised it I guess?

Not only did they authorose it but they initiated the change.

[Linto63]

The T1 rail replacement over the weekend was largely operated by buses from Punchbowl and Transdev as it has previously been. Perhaps the suggestion that these would be operated by the operators of the Metropolitan Bus Service Contracts in each area is incorrect?

Quite a few Busways Ryde buses still without final branding including 2993 and a couple of others

Keolis Downer's 2711 has slipped the leash retaining TfNSW roofline branding, at least on the offside, 6 months after the handover.

[Fleet Lists]

The T1 rail replacement over the weekend was largely operated by buses from Punchbowl and Transdev as it has previously been. Perhaps the suggestion that these would be operated by the operators of the Metropolitan Bus Service Contracts in each area is incorrect?

Possibly being introduced progressively.

[Noel]

Keolis Downer's 2711 has slipped the leash retaining TfNSW roofline branding, at least on the offside, 6 months after the handover.

2711 has just had an AOA (coincidently for STA Driver Recruitment) removed hence the branding is still visible.

[Swift]

2711 has just had an AOA (coincidently for STA Driver Recruitment) removed hence the branding is still visible.

Formerly a Willoughby mark 3 I used to drive.

[Bovways]

The T1 rail replacement over the weekend was largely operated by buses from Punchbowl and Transdev as it has previously been. Perhaps the suggestion that these would be operated by the operators of the Metropolitan Bus Service Contracts in each area is incorrect?

Possibly being introduced progressively.

That is my understanding.

[taptap23]

Busways tidbits

Quite a few Busways Ryde buses still without final branding including 2993 and a couple of others

Former Jordan Springs bus 600 made an Extremely rare appearance on the 677 this week. First time I've actually seen it in Penrith Town centre in Service.

Still alot of B10BLE at Penrith Depot going against what the fleetlist says as it says all stored at Port Botany.

248 doesn't appear to have run since before Pascha/Easter it's in the same spot with the same display set.

Loadings on the 525 seem very high at the moment full and standing loads where seen to the rear seats last night can bendies be used??

248 was spotted out on the road last week. It’s the dedicated driver training bus so is used as required.

[Fleet Lists]

Possibly being introduced progressively.

That is my understanding.

I have not checked the timetables for a few weeks now but if they are operated by the region operators, the name of the operator(s) concerned is shown but if they are still operated under separate operators, they show as "Bus Replacement operators" or something like that.

[Fleet Lists]

All the current Sydney replacement routes I have checked show "Train Replacement Bus Operators" and the first two digits of the actual timetable URL are 01.

But I found two Newcastle timetables 4HU and 6HU which show the operator as Hunter Valley Buses and the first two digits of the URL are 46 which is used for all Hunter Valley timetables https://transportnsw.info/documents/tim ... 220603.pdf
So I think the latter two are issued under the new system.

[Stu]

The T1 rail replacement over the weekend was largely operated by buses from Punchbowl and Transdev as it has previously been. Perhaps the suggestion that these would be operated by the operators of the Metropolitan Bus Service Contracts in each area is incorrect?

Transdev contracted rail replacement is currently T1 North Shore, T8 from Turella to Macarthur and T2 Granville to Leppington.

The T1 Western is contracted to CDC. Granville to Penrith & Richmond.

I am not sure which operator is now responsible for the T7 Olympic Park line, it was previously STA, I wonder if that contract became a part of Region 7 for Busways North West?

[captainch]

When I worked out of ryde a lot of kids going to mulvina came from dundas valley & caught the 513 from dundas valley & melrose park to school.

[Jurassic_Joke]

It’s been a long two years but looks like the tape covering front seats on buses is finally slowly coming off. Good, a restriction well past it’s use by date

[swtt]

This is one big joke:

https://transportnsw.info/news/2022/nor ... ce-changes

Published one day after it's meant to start.

(All of these are to support Marsden HS relocation to Meadowbank)

[Linto63]

Appears the changes were communicated in a timely fashion to those affected, the school communicating it via its website on 13 April. Also the school didn't open until Thursday 28th.

[ScaniaGrenda]

Former 4696 MO (Dereg Csepel 844.31 CB60) no longer stored at the back of the Hunter Valley Buses Thornton Depot, Sister dereg bus 4698 MO (The other dereg 844.31) still remains as of this post as the back of Hunter Valley Buses Thornton. It's possible 4696 has finally been scrapped or sent to Edgeworth if their still storing buses over there).

1796 MO's Whereabouts currently unknown, was sitting at the back of the Thornton Depot for the past couple of weeks, today it was gone (Only observed by passing the rear of the depot on Thornton Rd).