Sydney Buses have announced that they will introduce 9 new Metrobus routes in the near future. They are (taken from the Sydney buses website):

M52 connecting Parramatta, Ryde, Drummoyne, Rozelle and Circular Quay (beginning 8 August 2010)

M50 connecting Drummoyne, Rozelle, the City, Darlinghurst, Moore Park and Randwick (beginning October 2010)

M41 connecting Macquarie Park, North Ryde, Ryde, Burwood, Campsie, Bexley North and Hurstville

M54 connecting Parramatta, Carlingford, Epping and Macquarie Park

M60 connecting Parramatta, Baulkham Hills, Castle Hill, Cherrybrook, Pennant Hills, Thornleigh and Hornsby

M61 connecting Castle Hill, Baulkham Hills, via M2, Wynyard, Town Hall and Central

M90 connecting Liverpool, Moorebank, Bankstown, Strathfield and Burwood

M91 connecting Parramatta, Granville, Chester Hill, Bankstown, Padstow and Hurstville

M92 connecting Parramatta, Lidcombe, Bankstown, Padstow, Menai and Sutherland.

Will Sydney Buses be running all of these routes? I didn't think that Moorebank was in their territory.

An interesting question.

The M92 is the current Veolia 900 route, which is fairly frequent and well patronised by western suburbs bus service standards. Given a big enough subsidy and what with MyBus/MyZone ticketing, I s'pose there's no reason for Veolia not to adopt Metrobus livery and frequencies. Curiously, Veolia have the new Metrobus route news release on their website, but don't say who will be running it. Given that they already supply most of their services under State Government contract, though, it seems a reasonable probability it will be them.

The M52 looks suspiciously like the 520/L20, although the M91 and M92 are new and interesting concepts. I'm surprised they haven't included the T80, although it already has metrobus-like frequencies and a distinctive 'brand'. Looks as if the Metrobus concept has expanded from cross inner city routes (following where I would suggest real metros in some cases), to 'ring route' services connecting mid-outer suburbs and strategic points on the Cityrail network and obviating the need to make long 'into the city and out again' sorties for those awkward cross-suburban trips on public transport.

I can see a challenge emerging in all of this though. No sooner had the new extended range 'Daytripper' ticket made the "Can you ride all Cityrail lines in one day" challenge impossible, we now have a new one for Bunzels. Who will be the first sad dude to attempt to ride all the new Metrobus routes in the space of a single day??

M90 is the 900 route and will start 6th December, M91 is the 910 to Bankstown and then a 948 to hurstville they are both going to be combined and will start in late January 2011, The M92 is a new route to come into affect April 2011 and may be extended to Cronulla in the summer peak. These routes will be run by Veolia Transport and they have 60 new buses on order and a new depot to be built in Sth Granville and need to employee 100 new drivers. The buses will be in the red and white metrobus branding.

Cheers

Whoops, did mean M90 (not 92) and the M91 now makes perfect sense. Thanks for that detailed info rman.

As rman indicated some time ago, the first private (Veolia) Metrobus service will commence next Monday (6 Dec). The Veolia website gives details. However, while its route is described, there is no mention of its start date on the 'flagship' Metrobus page of the STA website.

M41 started on Sunday December 19, running Marsfield to Hurstville via Macquarie Centre, Macquarie Park, Top Ryde, Burwood, Campsie and Hurstville. The service is excellent. Congratulations to Sydney Buses.

The frequencies on the M90 are about double the 900, and even more frequent that the previous 860.

Peak: about 10 instead of 20. (860 was 30)

Off Peak: about 15/20 instead of 30. (860 was 30/60)

Blessed be he who lies on the route of a M90.

Like all Metroute buses, they are painted red, seem to have a middle door that works, and some scrolling message displays inside. They smell of new leather.

The M91 (Parra to Hurstville via Granville, Bankstown and Padstow) begins in Feb, with the M92 (Parra to Sutherland via Lidcombe and Bankstown) later in 2011. Wiki has a page on Metrobus at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrobus_(Sydney) .

Have noticed a few red Veolia units (without metrobus markings) running Cityrail bustitution services recently, plus 'branded' units along some of the proposed routes (timing checks, driver training ??)

M92 started yesterday. An excellent route that should do well. Only two issues from me.

- Many car drivers haven't sussed to its commencement and still park in bus stop zones that formerly saw little or no use. Needs parking police to give them a hint.

- Also, the Metrobus routes that work to a schedule have the annoying habit of dwelling (sometimes for nearly 10 minutes) at timing points to get back on schedule. A bit annoying when you're a passenger waiting for it to get going again. As patronage grows it might have them running closer to schedule, but for a TUAG based service they would probably be better just to keep going once they're mobile.

How did the government come up with the metrobus routes? I can only assume that public transport experts were consulted. Some of the new routes (like M61, M90 and M52) really only replaced existing, well patronised routes, so their implementation only enhanced and existing services. But other routes, like the new M92 hardly seem to justify the high frequency services which the Metrobus concept provides. For example, in the section between Parramatta and Lidcombe there a no large employment centres, a low population density, no universities, and the many bulky goods- homemaker type stores don't cater for the shopper who travels by public transport. Between Lidcombe and Bankstown, at least the Cumberland University campas provides a big trip generator. Yet again, the section between Bankstown and Sutherland with its low population density and lack of significant trip generators hardly justifies such a high frequency bus service.

Agree with you up to a point. The M92 is never going to be an M10 or M20, but nor is any service more than 10 km from the CBD.

I probably wouldn't be quite as pessimistic about its future. Parra to Lidcombe goes through medium density residential areas in Harris Park and parts of Auburn, past several hotels, a racecourse, a theatre complex, heaps of shops and close to Tooheys. Many of them employ people and get passing trade. Sure, most people will drive to bulky goods outlets, but even then some goods are so bulky you'll be getting home delivery anyway.

Certainly at Lidcombe most of the people getting on or off seem to be Uni students. I'm not all that familiar with the Bankstown to the river stretch, but beyond that I expect Menai and Bangor types would be happy enough with it. I understand they're considering extending it Cronulla in Summer, which would make it a 'fully sick' beach run.

For me, for the first time, it gives a viable second PT route home (M92/M90 combination) and perhaps its this overall network effect that might make Metrobus shine. I've never been a 'bus' person, the system is just too vast and speed is just too slow, but I'm starting to think of the Metrobus network more like I think of Cityrail. It's big, easy to spot, easy to navigate and will get me most places I want to go. There are bits I'll never use, but it's attraction to me to use it frequently is that I see it as a viable interconnected network, not as a big messy conglomeration of separate little services. But I didn't start to think of it that way until it began to spread well into the suburbs and common ticketing was introduced.

It would be interesting to know the sort of discussions behind the routes. Probably a dis-edifying combination of politics and marketing! Having said that it must be hard to decide between converting an existing route (although the 900 was only a couple of years old) or risking something completely new. I'm surprised the STA 400 and 525 haven't been converted to Metrobus as they would also seem to be good candidates (always amazes me how many use the latter to shop at DFO). The proposed M80 is obviously the current T80. I wonder if, once the SW rail link is up, it might run from Parra through to Leppington, Oran Park and Camden, with a stub from (say) Hoxton Park to Liverpool.

Okay, I'm prepared to keep an open mind. After all , the metrobus with all of its bells and whistles may well encourage more people out of their cars and into public transport, which can only be a good thing in a congested city like Sydney. But I still believe the metrobus concept was borne out of a need by the Kenneally state government to announce some sort of new and grand public transport package to make up for their string of failed projects (Sydney metro, Epping to Parramatta rail link, on again off again north western rail link). While a better bus system is an integral part of better public transport, it is a poor substitute for badly needed rail line extensions and expansion, which Sydney is in dire need of. For example, to kill a bit of time today, I caught the M54 from Parramatta to Macquarie. The bus left Parramatta at 7.50am, and it was pleasing to see how popular the service has become, stopping quite frequently along the way. The downside was that the constant stopping added to journey time, along a route which already suffers some traffic congestion. We arrived at Macquarie at 9am, so the journey took 70 minutes, which is far too long to make it a credible alternative to the motor car. On the other hand, if the Epping to Parramatta rail link had been built, and completd by 2010 as per the original plan, I reckon the journey would have taken about 20 minutes.

I'd agree with all of that. History will be the ultimate judge. I was very sceptical about them when they first kicked off; saw it just as a rebadged, slightly modern, conventional bus operating in already well serviced areas, running on the same congested roads; so what! And it's not that I don't still have doubts now.

Certainly lots needs to be done with rail, and most of it isn't cheap. It's disappointing to see Clearways not operational (and how the proposed operating patterns for, say, the SW Link actually contradict it), rolling stock still in short supply, a lack of several cross-mode ticketing options for day trips (its introduction in Brisbane led to a boom in combined train/bus use), and little attempt to integrate train and feeder bus services (in outer areas bus timetabling seems to have more to do with convenience of service rostering than allowing passengers to make connections).

From memory, Metrobus pre-dates Keneally, but its outer suburban expansion is certainly very recent. I understand there was quite a lot of negotiation between private bus operators and the Guv over stuff like Metrobus and MyZone. Perhaps someone 'in the know' can comment on how much that drove the agenda.

What actually puzzles me is that Labor haven't made more of it. Publicity has really been modest for something that's quite new, big, red and shiny; particularly in the absence of much other good news. Suspect their spin doctors really didn't 'get' it (just another 'bus'!) and it's too late now.

I saw a TV commercial the other day for the Metrobus routes.

I don't think buses make for very exciting news. I know of a lot of people (who own a car) who say they would never catch a bus, probably because they are a slow, "poor man's" mode of transport.

PS. I agree routes 400 and 525 would be good candidates for a Metrobus. Better still, combine the two routes and create a service between Parramatta and Bondi Junction. This brings me to another question : what ever happened to the proposed Parramatta to Strathfield transitway? It was supposed to be completed by 2002, but I don't remember hearing anything about it in recent years.

The Sydney Metro Plan for 2036 (page 90) mentions the development of more strategic bus services. I assume these will probably be Metrobus. Haven't seen anything in print; does anyone know if/when new Metrobus routes are in the wind?

Re The Parramatta to Strathfield T-way; where was that intended to run? Was it to use Grand Av past the racecourse and oil refinery, then across the creek to connect with the existing busway into the back of Olympic Park?