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The Outer Sydney Metropolitan Bus Service Contracts (OSMBSC) are contracts issued by the Government of New South Wales to bus operators in areas surrounding Sydney. These regions include the Hunter Region, Central Coast, Illawarra and the Blue Mountains. In 2014-15, 14.7 million passenger journeys were made on Outer Metropolitan bus services.
Contents
History
The OSMBSC is made up of ten bus system contract regions, OSMBSC 1 to 10. These regions were declared and appeared in the NSW Government Gazette on 1 August 2008.
Unlike the Sydney Metropolitan Bus Service Contracts which are put out to open tender, the government has indicated it does not intend to go down this path with the OSMBSCs, but negotiate with the incumbent operators.
Like the bus contracts in Sydney, a requirement of the OSMBSC contracts is that operators cease using their own liveries and adopt a standardised white and two blues livery as prescribed by Transport for NSW. This livery was first implemented from 2010. As of 2014, the transition to the standardised livery is ongoing.
The Newcastle Buses & Ferries contract for region 5 was renewed for three years from 1 July 2014.
Regions
Each region can have more than one bus operator. Some of the bus operators are stated in the Transport for New South Wales website.
Blue Mountains
Blue Mountains Transit routes were formerly operated by the Blue Mountains Bus Company until acquired by Blue Mountains Transit in December 2014.
Illawarra
Premier Charters' region 9 routes were operated by Green's Northern Coaches, until taken over in February 2015.