State Transit Authority

Structure

The State Transit Authority comprises two business units.

Sydney Buses

Sydney Buses is a commuter bus service operating in Sydney. The network is loosely based on the reach of the city's former tram network.

Sydney Buses has grown significantly through acquisitions of smaller bus companies as reforms to contracting arrangements encourage consolidation in the industry. In December 1999 North & Western Bus Lines was purchased followed in February 2000 by Parramatta-Ryde Bus Service. In January 2005 most of former Harris Park Transport routes were taken over from Hillsbus, which were then given back to Hillsbus in September 2005 with the exception of routes 623, 624, 628 and 629.

Sydney Buses operates a number of high-profile services.

As of 2014/15, State Transit has not met its on-time running target in any of its four metropolitan contract regions for the last three years, although its performance has improved in three of the regions.

Newcastle Buses & Ferries

Newcastle Buses & Ferries is a commuter bus and ferry service operating in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie. Newcastle Buses & Ferries operates 28 bus routes plus a ferry service across the Hunter River between Newcastle and Stockton. The network radiates from a bus terminal near Newcastle station. Major interchanges are located at the University of Newcastle, Wallsend, Glendale, Warners Bay, Belmont, Charlestown Square, Westfield Kotara and Broadmeadow station.

Ticketing on Newcastle Buses & Ferries

Newcastle Buses and Stockton ferry services became Opal active as from 20 November 2014 as some older tickets were retired.

Trips within a designated area of the Newcastle CBD on State Transit-operated bus services are zero-fare under the Newcastle Alliance's Free City Buses programme. The zero-fare zone operates between 07:30 and 18:00, seven days a week. The programme receives funding from the Honeysuckle Development Corporation and the Government of New South Wales.

Former units

The State Transit Authority also comprised two former business units.

Sydney Ferries

Sydney Ferries is the public transport authority for ferry services on Port Jackson in Sydney. It was established in 2004 as a government agency, separate of the State Transit Authority. Since July 2012 the provision of services has been contracted out to Harbour City Ferries.

Western Sydney Buses

Formed in 2003, Western Sydney Buses operated route T80, a bus rapid transit service in Western Sydney on the Liverpool-Parramatta T-way. Passengers made 2.77 million journeys with Western Sydney Buses in the 2011/12 financial year. Western Sydney Buses operated out of a corner of Westbus' Bonnyrigg depot.

In November 2012, Transit Systems Sydney won the tender for Sydney Bus Region 3 which included route T80 with the service and 22 buses transferring on 13 October 2013.

Bus Network

Sydney Buses operates services in the following areas:

Newcastle Buses & Ferries operates services in Newcastle. It also operates a ferry service between Queens Wharf on the Newcastle waterfront and Stockton across the Hunter River.

Tickets and fares

Sydney Buses services charge fares on the basis of distance. Newcastle Buses & Ferries bus services charge fares on the basis of travel time. Journeys on Newcastle buses within a certain area of the CBD are zero-fare during the day. Fares are set by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of New South Wales.

Fares are calculated on the number of sections travelled, where one section is approximately 1.6 kilometres.

State Transit services uses a variety of tickets under the MyZone structure. These include single ride tickets bought on board buses or from selected resellers, MyBus TravelTen, MyMulti, Pensioner Excursion Ticket, MyMulti DayPass and Opal card.

On single ride tickets, the bus number + 4,000 (e.g. 6492 = 2492) is printed on the top left side, the time of travel, route number and direction of travel is printed on the bottom. For TravelTen tickets, the route number is printed on the left, followed by the section number, then the direction of travel, the time of travel, the bus number + 4,000 (e.g. 6492 = 2492) and the trip number.

State Transit services use the Automated Fare Collection System and its magnetic stripe multi-ride tickets. In 2006 route 333 Bondi Beach – Circular Quay was the subject of a prepay only test. The test was successful and further prepay routes have been introduced. In 2009 the STA progressively rolled out prepay only to all CBD bus stops between 07:00 and 19:00.

On 6 December 2013, route 333 became the first route to accept the Opal card. The Opal card was rolled out to all State Transit services in 2014 along with the installation of new Parkeon Wayfarer 200 ticket machines to connect to the Opal card. In preparation for the Opal ticketing system, from 1 June 2014, daily unlimited travel tickets such as MyMulti Daypass and Pensioner Excursion Tickets and Family Funday Sunday tickets were not available for purchase onboard all Sydney Buses routes.

History

In view of its political sensitivity, the agencies responsible for public transport in New South Wales are frequently restructured. Buses and ferries were the responsibility of the Department of Government Transport until 1972, when it was merged with the New South Wales Government Railways to form the Public Transport Commission.

In July 1980 the Transport Authorities Act 1980 (NSW) separated the functions of the Public Transport Commission with the State Rail Authority taking responsibility for trains, and the Urban Transit Authority responsibility for buses and ferries.

In January 1989 the Urban Transit Authority was restructured as the State Transit Authority taking over the private bus service functions of the Department of Motor Transport. In October 1989, the Chullora Bus Workshops closed with a smaller facility established at Randwick for mechanical repairs with body repairs contracted to the private sector. The remaining four hydrofoils were replaced by three JetCats and the MetroTen ticketing system introduced a few years before was replaced with the Automated Fare Collection System in use today.

In 2004 the STA's Sydney Ferries business was separated into a separate agency, Sydney Ferries Corporation. On 13 October 2013, T-way service T80 was transferred from Western Sydney Buses (a subsidiary of State Transit) to Transit Systems Sydney who was awarded the Region 3 Contract.

The current state government plan is for the STA to become more tightly integrated with the 'transport cluster' headed by the NSW Department of Transport. This will involve the implementation of shared services and common infrastructure for departments such as information technology to ensure that the costs of transactions and administration are kept to a minimum.

Fleet

As of March 2017, the fleet consisted of 2,168 buses operating in both Sydney and Newcastle from 14 depots.

All State Transit vehicles are now fitted with CCTV cameras. The STA continues to improve its environmental impact with a large percentage of the fleet being powered by compressed natural gas as well as meeting strict emissions regulations with 270 Euro 5 compliant vehicles entering service from 2007.

In the early 1990s, State Transit adopted a white and blue livery with a red stripe. This livery with minor variations was retained until 2010, when the Transport for New South Wales white and blue livery was adopted. Buses dedicated to Metrobus services are painted in a red livery.

Newcastle Buses & Ferries operates two vessels, Shortland and Hunter, both of which entered service in 1988. The vessels are named for Newcastle pioneers Lieutenant John Shortland and Vice Admiral John Hunter.

Depots

State Transit operate 14 depots. The depots (depot code indicated) are located at: