Hillsbus: Difference between revisions

Hillsbus

Hillsbus Volgren bodied Scania K230UB at Castle Hill bus interchange in July 2013
Parent	ComfortDelGro Australia
Founded	February 2002 (brand) December 2004 (company)
Service area	Hills District
Service type	Bus services
Depots	Seven Hills Foundry Road (Seven Hills) Dural Northmead
Website	www.cdcbus.com.au/hillsbus

Hillsbus is an Australian bus operator who operates bus services in the Hills District of Sydney. Since 2005, it is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia, formerly ComfortDelGro Cabcharge.

In 1996 Westbus established a separate Hillsbus brand to run express services from the Hills District to the Sydney CBD and North Sydney, initially via the Anzac Bridge and from 1997 via the M2 Hills Motorway.^[1] However the Hillsbus brand seemed to have disappeared by the 2000s as these services were classified as Westbus rather than Hillsbus in early versions of the Westbus website.^[2] These Westbus services, however, are still referred to by Westbus as "Hills City Express".^[3]

On 11 February 2002, Hillsbus was recreated as a joint venture between Westbus and National Express' newly acquired Glenorie Bus Company, and introduced a new bus route 642 under the Hillsbus brand.^[4] This service linked Dural and the City via the M2 and was therefore known as a "M2 City" express service. On 8 July the same year, Hillsbus introduced three more M2 City routes 650, 652 and 654.^[5][6] According to the Hillsbus timetables, these Hillsbus services were operated by Glenorie,^[7] even though neither Westbus nor Glenorie buses were used.^[5][8]

In December 2004, all Westbus routes operating out of Northmead and Seven Hills depots, as well as the rest of Glenorie Bus Company, were rebranded Hillsbus.^[9] At the same time, Hillsbus took over the operation of Harris Park Transport routes 620 - 630, following the latter ceasing operation. The services were transferred from Hillsbus to Sydney Buses on 28 January 2005.^[10] On 25 September 2005, after the purchase of Hillsbus by ComfortDelgro Cabcharge, routes 620, 625, 626, 627 and 630 were transferred back to Hillsbus.^[11]

Despite the rebranding to Hillsbus, the new Hillsbus website was only launched in January 2006, about a year after the rebranding.^[12] The delay could be related to the debt of Westbus and was only resolved after the sale of Westbus and Hillsbus to CDC. After the launch of the new website, it still did not show any timetables of the former Glenorie-operated timetables until May/June 2006, and during this period, customers were asked to check the Glenorie website instead.^[13]

When the Parramatta - Rouse Hill section of the North-West T-way opened on 10 March 2007, routes 730 (renumbered T63) and 735 (renumbered 616, now 616X) were transferred from Busways to Hillsbus with route 718 transferred from Hillsbus to Busways.^[14]

Since 2005 Hillsbus' services have formed Sydney Bus Region 4.^[15] In August 2013 Hillsbus successfully tendered to operate the Region 4 services for another five years from August 2014.^[16][17]

On 30 June 2014, the Opal card was rolled out on all of Hillsbus' NightRide and Region 4 routes (including school services).^[18][19]

In May 2019, as part of the Sydney Metro opening, there were bus reorganisation in the HIlls District, with some services were rerouted to stop at Sydney Metro stations.^[20]

Hillsbus operates the following services:

• M6x series Metrobus routes
  • M60 from Hornsby to Parramatta (to be renumbered 600 in May 2019)
  • M61 from Castle Hill to Queen Victoria Building (to be renumbered 610X in May 2019)
• T-way routes T60 to T66 along the North West T-Way in Sydney's north-western suburbs (Parramatta, Westmead, Rouse Hill)
• Bus routes 601 to 653 in Sydney's north-western suburbs, including
  • 60x series along the North West T-Way
  • Express services along the M2 Hills Motorway and Lane Cove Tunnel to Macquarie Park, North Sydney and Queen Victoria Building
• Bus routes 700 to 715 in Sydney's western suburbs (Wentworthville, Seven Hills, Blacktown)
• S8 route (Wentworth to Constitution Hill) for "shopper hopper" route.
• Station Link Series SLx (Epping, ,Chatswood,Macquarie Park, Eastwood, Macquarie University, Beecroft and St Leonards stations), joint operation with Transdev NSW
• North West Night Bus (from May 2019)

As of December 2018, Hillsbus operates 620 buses across four depots Seven Hills, Foundry Road (Seven Hills), Dural and Northmead.^[21] Hillsbus also operates 62 buses at the Camellia depot designated for Station Link. Thus brings the Hillsbus bus total to 682. Upon formation Hillsbus adopted Westbus' cream and red livery. This was simplified in the early 2000s to plain yellow. In 2010 the Transport for NSW white and blue livery began to be applied.

• Hillsbus website