The Strathfield Connector Bus service is part of a group of cost saving initiatives currently under review. Council is seeking views from the community about the service and its cost. This review is occurring concurrently with a proposed Special Rate Variation (SRV). Both the SRV proposal and review of the Connector Bus service are exhibited for public comment until 31 January 2023. Recommendations on the Connector Bus based on community feedback will be presented to the Council meeting on 28 February 2023.

The Strathfield Connector Bus was first launched in 2019. The service is owned, operated and fully funded by Strathfield Council. The estimated cost of the service for the current financial year is $1.377 million. This equates to an estimated $83 per residential ratepayer in the Strathfield Council area. Since 2019, the service is estimated to have cost over $4 million.

The Strathfield Connector bus service runs hourly bus services in the north and south of the LGA between 7am and 7pm on a 7 day per week basis. The red route which services the north of the LGA was first launched in 2019. The blue route was later launched for the southern areas of the LGA. Frequency of the service changed to hourly due to COVID measures causing reduced demand.

It should be noted, public transport services are the responsibility of State Government and are a non-core function of local government. The Strathfield Connector Bus service is supplementary to the public and private transport services operating in the Strathfield LGA.

Strathfield Council fully funds and operates the Connector Bus service. The service is delivered directly by Council staff (employed on a casual basis). Council owns and maintains the five buses, needed to operate the service to current standards.

Council is not permitted to set fees and charges for the Bus service under the existing licence accreditation process under the Passenger Transport Act 1900 and therefore, there are limited means to recover costs beyond sale of advertising space and/or sponsorship and voluntary donations by passengers.

Since 2019, the estimated cost of the service is over $4 million. The estimated costs for 2023/24 and beyond are over $1.3 million per year.

Council has received no grants from State or Federal Government to fund this service. To meet costs, Council sought sponsorship agreements with local businesses located near the bus routes. However, past agreements have ended and there are no current sponsorship agreements. Payment for the service is voluntary and returns around $2,000 per year.

It is highly unlikely this service could become profitable or reach cost neutrality as there are insufficient revenue sources available to offset expenditures.

	Adopted			Estimated
	2019/2020 $	2020/21 $	2021-2022 $	2022-2023 $
Income
Sponsorship	-	150,000	100,000	-
Voluntary payments	5,000		2,000	2,100
Total income	5,000	150,000	102,000	2,100
Expenditure
Operating expenditure (employee & operating)	655,475	908,591	826,247	923,326
Capital expenditure (Buses)	-	434,000	444,900	467,400
Total expenditure	(655,475)	(1,342,591)	(1,271,147)	(1,379,326)
NET RESULT	(650,475)	(1,192,591)	(1,169,147)	(1,377,226)

Budget for the Strathfield Connector Bus

The Connector Bus service operates two bus routes on an hourly basis over a 12 hour period seven days per week .The carrying capacity of each bus is 22 persons. Therefore, on a daily basis, there are 264 seats on each bus available for passengers, totalling 528 seats.

To illustrate usage of the bus services, statistics for the month of November 2022 were collected. There were no significant variables during this month affecting service delivery such as school holidays, public holidays or disruptions in service.

The Red Route

The Red Route which primarily services the north and central sectors of the Strathfield LGA is the more popular route. The most popular times for use of the service is 7-9am during week days, especially from 8-9am, which generally accounts for about 26% to 33% of passengers per day. Passenger numbers generally increase from 3- 4pm on weekdays and decline from 4-7pm. Use of the service on weekends is less than weekdays about 25-35% occupancy. There is minimal use before 10am but specific hours of use is less consistent than weekday use.

November 2022	Total Passengers	Passengers per day (average)	Passengers per hour (average)	% bus occupancy daily (average)
Week 1	924	132	11	50%
Week 2	939	134	11	50%
Week 3	985	140	11	50%
Week 4	935	133	11	50%

Red route average daily occupancy.

The Blue Route

The Blue Route primarily services central and southern sectors of the Strathfield LGA. The most popular time of the day is between 7-9am which generally accounts for over 30% daily passengers. After 4pm, demand for the service declined significantly and in the month of November 2022, there were no passengers from 6-7pm at night.

November 2022	Total Passengers	Passengers per day (average)	Passengers per hour (average)	% bus occupancy daily (average)
Week 1	649	92	7.7	35%
Week 2	655	93	7.7	35%
Week 3	730	104	8.69	39%
Week 4	665	95	7.9	36%

Blue route average daily occupancy.

Data that records individual passengers is unavailable. As an example the service may record 100 passengers, but there is no information on whether this is 10 people travelling 10 times or 100 different people using the service.

Council’s community consultation for the Strathfield Connector closed on 31 January 2023.

Thank you to everyone who took time to submit their feedback for careful consideration.

Recommendations on the Connector Bus based on community feedback will be presented to the Council Meeting on 28 February 2023.