2021/22 Easter Show

[Scott4570]

Friday Evening, April 9, at Macdonaldtown Station, announcements were made several times between 5pm and 6pm, that the Show had reached capacity and patrons should book on-line for another day.

[Linto63]

Having not been included in 2021 to allow for contact tracing, free travel is included in the price of Easter Show tickets in 2022.

[Stu]

The major special event bus network map has been updated (2022). There has been a few minor changes made in comparison to the map from 2019 such as the train and metro icons have been reduced in size.

Stop name change:
Route 2: Meadowbank renamed to Meadowbank Public School
Route 8:Dural terminus renamed from Dural Caravan Park to Dural Golf Driving Range.

[ed24]

The new version also spells Terrey Hills incorrectly

[Fleet Lists]

2022 timetables available so far
1a Separate timetables for 8/4 and 9/4 Keolis Downer
1b Link only but no timetables.
2 One timetable 8/4 to 10/4 Busways (previously Transdev????)
4 One timetable 8/4 to 12/4 Transdev John Holland.
5a and 5B and 8 Two timetables for each route 8/4 to 10/4 and 11/4 to 18/4 Hillsbus.
Nothing so far on routes 6 and 7.

[Stu]

^ This is similar to what I found last weekend regarding services for the FIFA match at Sydney Olympic Park although the route 2 did not appear at all.

Route 2 was formally operated by Transdev for many years and originally STA for a short time in the early years of Sydney Olympic Park or Homebush Bay as it was known as.

Last during two events at Sydney Olympic Park Transit Systems operated a very small amount of route 7 services on each respective day.

[Fleet Lists]

Route 7 -now like route 1b, has a link referring to Tripfinder but still no timetable. I tried Tripview for the first time today and it has timetables for both these routes but not route 6 which is also still missing from Transport Info.

Route 4 now has 5 timetables right up to18/4 the lat day of the show.
Route 2 has a second timetable up to 14/4

[Fleet Lists]

Route 7 Punchbowl Bus Co 1 timetable 8/4 to 10/4.
Friday afternoon seems a problem with the last of school specials also operating. From Cronulla a break from 13.40 to 15.20 and from Olympic Park from 15.20 to 17.15.

[gilberations]

Does anybody else remember the golden era of Easter Show transport?
4tph Blacktown to Olympic Park
Lithgow services diverting via Olympic Park (but only Lithgow not short runners)
Direct trains from Newcastle to Olympic Park
12tph Central to Olympic Park
Post peak runs from Olympic Park to Campbelltown via Regents Park

And this was every day of the show!

[Transport Buff]

Also the Easter Show used to run for 3 weeks. Now it's not even 2 weeks....

[Fleet Lists]

Route 7 Punchbowl Bus Co 1 timetable 8/4 to 10/4.
Friday afternoon seems a problem with the last of school specials also operating. From Cronulla a break from 13.40 to 15.20 and from Olympic Park from 15.20 to 17.15.

But in the Tripview timetable there are trips in between the above times but they are shown in blue instead of red. There are various other trips in blue on weekdays such as the first two trips to Olympic Park and others. What does the change to blue mean? Are they trips outsourced to other operators and hence not Opal operated? Not that Opal means anything as the fares are included in the tickets. But in that case the TNSW timetables are pretty useless. This also applies to Monday and Tuesday next week.

[BanksfielderIdiot823]

Route 7 Punchbowl Bus Co 1 timetable 8/4 to 10/4.
Friday afternoon seems a problem with the last of school specials also operating. From Cronulla a break from 13.40 to 15.20 and from Olympic Park from 15.20 to 17.15.

But in the Tripview timetable there are trips in between the above times but they are shown in blue instead of red. There are various other trips in blue on weekdays such as the first two trips to Olympic Park and others. What does the change to blue mean? Are they trips outsourced to other operators and hence not Opal operated?

Outsourced to another operator, yes. The blue trips are the runs that have been assigned to Transit Systems (R6), while the red/maroon trips remain in the hands of Punchbowl. Every now and then they do outsource some of the runs to charter operators similar to during a Trackwork bustitution.

[Fleet Lists]

But they should be in the TNSW timetable. And the different colours in Tripview would be meaningless to travellers.

[BanksfielderIdiot823]

Agreed. It seems to be just yet another lack of foresight by TfNSW since they’re so pedantic about having separate timetables by operator despite it being the same route with the same stops.

[Fleet Lists]

The word pedantic may not be correct. It is a limitation in the software they use.
The only other case of shared routes that I know of are some routes shared between Coastal Liner or now Hunter Valley Buses and Busways on the Central Coast where they had to write a special exit to enable the software to create common timetables for the routes concerned although I dont think it was totally successful. When I get a chance later I might have a look at those routes on Tripview.

[Glen]

Also the Easter Show used to run for 3 weeks. Now it's not even 2 weeks....

The longest I recall the Easter Show being was 16 days, in the early years at Homebush Bay.

[boronia]

Some history of the Show times are here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Royal_Easter_Show

[Transport Buff]

Ah thanks for the info. I swear it at least feels like it used to run for longer. Maybe just my brain going crazy.

[boronia]

Back in my school days the year was split into 3 terms, not four, so no holidays connection with Easter. The Show started on the Friday before Easter and finished on Easter Tuesday, which was designated "Children's Day" and was a school holiday.

[Glen]

Ah thanks for the info. I swear it at least feels like it used to run for longer.

I remember talking to some stall holders back during the 16 day shows who also felt it ran for longer.

It was a tiring stint for them.

[Transport Buff]

Haha. Can imagine that it would have been quite tiring for them.

[Fleet Lists]

Route 7 Punchbowl Bus Co 1 timetable 8/4 to 10/4.
Friday afternoon seems a problem with the last of school specials also operating. From Cronulla a break from 13.40 to 15.20 and from Olympic Park from 15.20 to 17.15.

But in the Tripview timetable there are trips in between the above times but they are shown in blue instead of red. There are various other trips in blue on weekdays such as the first two trips to Olympic Park and others. What does the change to blue mean? Are they trips outsourced to other operators and hence not Opal operated? Not that Opal means anything as the fares are included in the tickets. But in that case the TNSW timetables are pretty useless. This also applies to Monday and Tuesday next week.

But it gets a bit more complicated as just after 9 o'clock this morning, the first trip I saw which was supposed to be a Punchbowl one was actually operated by Shire Buses.

[Stu]

The word pedantic may not be correct. It is a limitation in the software they use.
The only other case of shared routes that I know of are some routes shared between Coastal Liner or now Hunter Valley Buses and Busways on the Central Coast where they had to write a special exit to enable the software to create common timetables for the routes concerned although I dont think it was totally successful. When I get a chance later I might have a look at those routes on Tripview.

Why can’t TfNSW create a master timetable for major event buses just like they do when there are multiple operators for rail replacement buses during planned track work?

[Fleet Lists]

Good question.
Normally the contract goes to one operator who creates the timetables and which is sent to TfNSW with the operator then subcontracting certain trips to other operators but TfNSW treats it as just one contract.

But in this case it appears from what I have heard that two separate contracts were issued - one to Transit Systems for certain weekday trips for which they sent a timetable to TfNSW and a separate contract to Punchbowl Bus Co which further subcontracted some trips to Shire Buses and possibly other operators for which Punchbowl sent a second combined timetable to TfNSW.

Hence it was left to TfNSW to combine the timetables. I dont know whether TfNSW where aware that this needed to be done or if they were aware, the software did not work for it.

Perhaps the two operators should get together on this to ensure this does not happen again.

[Fleet Lists]

The route 7 timetable on Transport Info has now also gone to "Not Available - Refer Trip Finder"