Baking In The Bus

Yesterday afternoon, it was about 40 degrees - unless you were unfortunate enough to be riding the 611 bus from Macquarie to Blacktown, in which case it was about 60 degrees. Despite all that we hear about new buses being introduced throughout Sydney, some of the buses they send out for the hour-long trip are over 25 years old and have no air conditioning. On a hot Summer day, in the "world's best city" that's just not right!

I've been riding this bus for just over 2 years now, and have made my share of complaints to various staff at the Ministry of Transport and Hillsbus, yet frustratingly, nothing ever seems to happen.

The 611 is a busy service. It picks up a bus full of passengers from Macquarie Shopping Centre, and then stops at Macquarie University to pick up a bus full of university students - so we end up with 2 bus fulls of people on the same bus. Each trip must generate around $200-300 in fares, and a sum of around $500,000 each year for all 611 trips. ...That's the same figure both Hillsbus and the Ministry of Transport keep quoting to me as the cost to purchase a new bus - so please, If that's what we're shelling out in fares each year, why can't they see fit to put that money towards a new bus for us? Isn't that why we're paying (in fares and taxes) in the first place?

Most of the 611 buses are dispatched from Northmead, but for reasons unknown to me, there are a few exceptions each day which are dispatched from the Seven Hills depot which seems to be overlooked whenever new buses are added to the Hillsbus/Westbus fleet. Apparently, at some stage the Ministry of Transport passed a law requiring that bus companies ensure that no bus over 25 years old be used to service public transport routes (but they could be used on charter services). This must have rang alarm bells in some tight wad's head, and the law/policy was changed so that the average age of buses at any should not exceed 25 years. Although the Seven Hills depot has many (mostly?) buses over 25 years old, it's newest bus is 3 years old and has enough other "new" buses to bring the average age of the fleet to 16 years.

So the good news is that there's a slight chance that they'll send the 3 year old bus out for us next time it's 40 degrees (but there's also a slight chance of snow in hell), but the bad news is that Hillsbus/CDC don't need to send any new buses to the Seven Hills depot for another 9 years. It seems ironic to me that the Ministry of Transport requires Hillsbus to dispatch the newer buses to school services over commuter services, even though the school students pay nothing to ride, pay no taxes and aren't able to vote. I can understand that the primary school students may be less heat resistant (and have parents who vote and pay taxes), but why do high school students ride for free on air conditioned buses while commuters (not all of whom are "spring chickens") pay top dollar for the privilege of baking on the one hour trip home each day? It also seems ironic that this neglected bus depot is barely a stone's throw from ex-premier Nathan Rees' office? At least nobody can accuse him of playing favourites...

There are a number of questions I'd like to see answered:
1) Why does the Seven Hills depot have so many decrepit, non-airconditioned buses and no new buses in the last 3 years?
2) Why does the Seven Hills depot, which is designed and equipped to handle shorter trips have anything to do with the 611 route? (I hope that if this changes that the 7:45 "phantom" bus is not dropped)
3) Why are non-airconditioned buses dispatched to serve hour-long trips which consistently meet the maximum passenger capacity?
4) What is Nathan Rees doing about public transport in his own back yard?

I'd really like to see a representative from the MOT (preferably Minister Campbell, not just a clerk) and Hillsbus/CDC join us from Macquarie at 5:15 one afternoon. Perhaps if there were some members of the press riding with us Mr Campbell and the Hillsbus/CDC director would feel more compelled to ride with us.