Traffic was flowing well, and the 303 bus was ahead of schedule, when the Leader took a trip one morning last week.
Create a free account to read this article
or signup to continue reading
There were mixed views among passengers about its reliability.
IS the 303 bus that departs Sans Souci at 7.26am for the city each weekday possibly Sydney's worst public transport service?
That's the view of a Kyeemagh resident, whose frustration boiled over after yet another instance of his teenage daughter, on her way to school, being left to stand at the bus stop for more than an hour.
"The traffic on The Grand Parade and General Holmes Drive is so bad that, for years, this bus has never been on time," declared the resident, who asked that his name not be used.
"On a good day, it is 12-15 minutes late, and on a bad one, people have to wait an hour or longer.
"My daughter and her friends are often late for school.
"It's also unfair on the bus drivers, who get abused."
The resident said that despite apologies he received from State Transit managers, the bus operator persisted with an "unachievable timetable", which needed to be rewritten.
As an example, he said, only 16 minutes was allowed for the bus to travel from Ramsgate Road, Ramsgate Beach, to Bestic Street, Kyeemagh, at the height of the morning peak.
A State Transit spokesman refused to release the on-time running figures for the service and referred the Leader to figures on the State Transit website but they offer only an average for services across a wide region.
‘‘It is incorrect to state this service is often an hour or more late,’’ he said.
‘‘State Transit monitors all its services and now uses GPS tracking to analyse on-time running’’
He said this service ‘‘consistently started on time at Sans Souci’’ but was ‘‘sometimes delayed by traffic ...’’ and its timetable was adjusted last in March 2012.
‘‘State Transit is always reviewing running times and looking at improvements to services,’’ he said.
‘‘Efforts to improve operations have seen an average improvement of 5 per cent in on-time running across Sydney Buses services, including route 303.’’
Is this Sydney’s worst bus service or do you know of another that is worse?
