Then and Now

Westbus has provided bus services to the communities of Western Sydney for more than forty-five years. Established in 1955 by the Bosnjak family, various small bus companies were purchased as residential development occurred, and merged to form the one company.

The company began with 5 buses and the rights to operate a service from Canley Vale station to Edensor Park in 1955.

Trading as Bosnjak's Bus Service, the company purchased Parramatta Bus Company in Parramatta, WJ Bales Bus Company in Penrith and opened a new depot in Boundary Road, Northmead. With the purchase of Bowman's Bus Service in St Mary's in 1983, the entire operation was renamed Westbus. This not only reflected the geographical location of the company's operations but the pride in being the Western Sydney Bus Service.

International Expansion
Commencing operations in the United Kingdom in 1986 was a giant step for Westbus. Two depots were purchased, in Ashford and Hounslow, with an existing fleet of buses and coaches. The coaches were used for international tours and charters with travel throughout Great Britain and Europe. The bus operations were later sold off and the coach operations were consolidated into Westbus International Luxury Coach Travel operating from a depot close to London's Heathrow Airport. Many a traveller from Sydney has expressed a feeling of comfort on seeing the familiar Westbus livery on the coaches.

New Technology In the mid 80's, Westbus was one of the first operators to use electronic ticket machines. These not only issued tickets but also provided computer data on tickets sold and passengers carried. This data was transferred from the ticket machines on the bus to the computer located in the depot by means of a smart card carried by the driver.

Further Growth
Westbus acquired the Route 715 service from Toongabbie Transport in 1987. This was a route-only purchase in that no buses or equipment were exchanged. This was a further enhancement to the Hills District services with this route operating from Seven Hills to North Baulkham Hills. Later that same year Macquarie Towns Coachlines, located at South Windsor, was purchased.

The following year, 1988 saw the purchase of Toongabbie Transport Company and its depot at Seven Hills to complement the Route 715 service purchased the previous year. The Calabro's bus service located at Bonnyrigg was the next company to be bought by Westbus.

With the purchasing of these various companies over the years there were a variety of bus types in the fleet. In 1982 the company embarked on a fleet upgrading programme to rationalize the bus types and to improve upon the service reliability.

The upgrading of the fleet concentrated on bringing high quality Volvo and Mercedes Benz chassis into the company. A local Smithfield firm, Custom Coaches, constructed the bodywork of the vehicles. With over 200 buses built between 1982 and 1992 this provided many employment opportunities in western Sydney.

The early eighties also saw Westbus introduce the first cross regional bus services in western Sydney, in co-operation with the State Government. Today, Westbus operates a number of cross-regional services providing important links to shopping centres, employment areas, tertiary education centres and residential areas. The services include Route 830 from Liverpool to Castle Hill, route 835 from Liverpool to Penrith, Route 630 from Macquarie Centre to Blacktown, Route 678 from Penrith to Richmond, Route 673 from Penrith to Windsor, Route 608 from Windsor to Castle Hill, Route 800 from Liverpool to Parramatta and Route 715 Blacktown to Castle Hill.

The last local company purchase came with the acquisition of the Richmond Bus and Coach Service in 1994. This operation was then combined with the South Windsor depot. Today Westbus operates bus depots at Bonnyrigg, Northmead, Penrith, Seven Hills and South Windsor.

In May 1999, National Express Group, UK became the major shareholder of Westbus. National Express is based in the UK and operates transport systems in the U.K, U.S.A and Australia, including buses, coaches, trains, trams and airports.

The Nepean Nipper
On 13 February 1993, Westbus introduced the "Nepean Nipper" high frequency minibus network to the Penrith District. Some of the features of this service included:

Double the frequency on all bus routes within the Penrith urban area. Introduction of new Mercedes-Benz minibuses, being customer orientated with lower step heights.

Hail-n-Ride services: Drivers of Westbus' new minibuses began stopping where passengers hailed them along the route, apart from the set stops within the Penrith Shopping area.

The separation of school bus travel from normal services buses. The initial order for 26 Mercedes Benz minibuses were built locally by Custom Coaches, at Guilford in Western Sydney. More than 18,000 man-hours were used to build these buses, which created another 10 full-time manufacturing, jobs in Sydney's West.

The new minibuses allowed environmental improvement and made a substantial inroad into car utilization in Australia's urban environment, with the consequent reduction in pollution.

The investment made by the company for the Nepean Nipper services totaled three million dollars in capital investment for buses, research and planning costs in producing new routes and schedules, wage costs for the additional bus drivers employed and funding that was required to cover the time lag between service introduction and the relevant growth in patronage and revenue. The introduction also enabled 18 new jobs to be created in the Western Suburbs.

Hills City Express
Westbus commenced operation of its Hills-City Express services in mid 1996. These services were instigated following the opening of the new Glebe Island Bridge and the introduction of Transit Lanes along Victoria Road from Ryde to the Sydney CBD. Residents of the Hills district had indicated a desire for a direct service to the City. However, prior to the completion of the Glebe Island Bridge it would not have been possible to operate services to a reasonable travel time.

The service started with three routes from Castle Hill to the City, Castle Hill to North Sydney and Winston Hills to the City. These services experienced growth over the next twelve months however, with the opening of the M2 Motorway and the subsequent reduction in trip times the patronage skyrocketed.

The M2 Motorway was constructed to incorporate exclusive bus lanes and bus stations at a number of locations. Westbus was successful in negotiating with the Department of Transport to operate services along the Motorway. This provided the unique opportunity for Westbus to operate express services to the City and North Sydney faster than is possible by car. This had already been proven by the Member for the Hills, Michael Richardson MP when he carried out a comparison between the Castle Hill to the City service along Victoria Road and a private car.

This travel time was further improved upon the opening of the M2 as travel times were reduced by up to 35% with the use of the bus lanes on the M2 and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The opening of the M2 and the subsequent increase in patronage on the service meant that the service was expanded to provide additional routes, more buses during the peak periods, services seven days a week and buses operating from the City up to 11.00 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 2 am on Friday and Saturday. The additional routes have included a peak hour service from the Bella Vista Estate at West Baulkham Hills to the City with pick-ups on the M2 at Winston Hills and Baulkham Hills. A service was introduced from Blacktown and Seven Hills to Macquarie University and Macquarie Shopping Centre and also from Rouse Hill to the City.

The aim of Westbus was always to provide a fully air conditioned service from Castle Hill to the City and this was achieved at the beginning of December 1998. The 30 buses provide an investment by the company of over $8 million dollars in equipment and drivers on the Express services.

Consolidation 2001 - 2002
2001 was a year of consolidation and upgrading for Westbus. After the purchase by National Express UK, more than $40 million was invested in both the fleet and the refurbishment of depots.
Seventy-one new buses as well as the complete rebuilding of the Bonnyrigg depot took place during this time. Many of the buses were either low-floor accessible buses, air-conditioned, or both.
In order to cope with the increased customer demand on the M2-City routes, five new articulated (bendy buses) buses were purchased. These vehicles were the first new articulated buses to take to Sydney roads in more than twenty years.

Bonnyrigg Depot - Before

Bonnyrigg Depot - After

Planning is also underway to assess what services are to be put in place in the expanding population areas in our catchment region. We understand that bus services need to be in place in the new areas as soon as the residents start to move in. Of course, this is always dependent on the road network being in place to allow the buses to operate efficiently.

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