Connecting With Buses: Reducing transport disadvantage by supporting bus services in Western Sydney

Connecting With Buses - Full Report and Recommendations: click here PDF (974kb)
Executive Summary and Recommendations: click here PDF (218kb)

Western Sydney Community Forum (WSCF) has released their position paper on bus services in Western Sydney. The paper is the culmination of over 1 year of consultation and research and the paper is designed to provoke discussion and advocacy about how to improve the bus services in Western Sydney.

In 2003, a review of bus services in NSW was undertaken by the former Premier of NSW, The Hon Barrie Unsworth. The Review was delivered to the Ministry of Transport in February 2004. Soon after, the Ministry of Transport responded to the Review and commenced implementing the recommendations, with some qualifications as the Ministry saw fit. Now, in 2009, five years after the Unsworth Review was delivered, WSCF believes it is timely to review how the transformation of bus services in Western Sydney is proceeding.

The WSCF report reviews and restates many recommendations of the Unsworth Review and makes 57 new recommendations on how to follow-up and improve on the work which has followed from the Unsworth Review.

In August 2008 WSCF convened a transport forum at Granville Community Centre which was attended by representatives of many key stakeholder groups including bus companies, the Ministry of Transport, local Councils, the RTA and some community service agencies. A paper was prepared for that meeting which canvassed many of the topics discussed in this new position paper. The participants at this meeting provided comments on the topics and these comments have been considered in the writing of this paper. WSCF acknowledges and thanks all the participants at that forum for their contributions.

WSCF believes that by creating this report and provoking discussion and advocacy around how to improve the bus services in Western Sydney they can make a contribution to reducing transport disadvantage and social exclusion in Western Sydney.

WSCF plans to create a website to be able to make this report a living document so that it can grow and react as things change. WSCF welcomes comment and any information about errors or omissions that have been made.
WSCF - Transport Development Project
wscf@wscf.org.au