March saw a “record” amount of bus trips in the Illawarra since the introduction of the Opal card, according to Transport for NSW.
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This comes as good news for the government, which has been trying to increase the percentage of trips made via public transport in the Illawarra.
In terms of public transport options, many more people in the Illawarra catch trains over buses – largely due to the region’s commuter population travelling to Sydney.
In March 2017, the number of Opal trips on both Premier Illawarra and Dions buses reached a new high since the smart card was introduced, according to Transport for NSW.
That month, 444,804 trips were made on Premier Illawarra bus routes, while Dions had 65,219.
That’s a total of just over 510,000 trips.
“The most recent Opal data for March 2017 shows a record usage of public transport in the Illawarra,” a Transport for NSW spokesman said.
In the same month, 966,000 train trips were made on the South Coast line.
The previous best month for travel on the region’s buses was in August 2016, when 499,092 journeys were made.
“While this shows that public transport in the Illawarra remains popular, it would be reasonable to assume that figures for April, when they become available, might see a comparative decline because of the Easter and ANZAC Day breaks and school holidays,” the spokesman said.
This turned out to be true, with a fall in April of 198,927 trips to 311,096.
The spokesman said the state government expected to see the number of people catching buses in the Illawarra increase in the coming months and years.
“We have reason to believe that public transport in the Illawarra will continue to grow in popularity, and we will continue to add services as demand increases,” the spokesman said.
“For example in February, we added more than 30 new services between Austinmer, Bulli and Wollongong in response to growing demand.”
In terms of trip numbers, Premier Illawarra’s numbers are higher that Dions’ in part because it runs substantially more services.
Leaving aside school buses or specific shuttle services, Dions runs two routes, compared to the more than 20 overseen by Premier Illawarra.
In fact, when it comes to the outer Sydney metro areas, in March only Newcastle Buses had more trips than Premier Illawarra – an extra 45,000.
The March figure for Premier Illawarra would also place it in 10th spot for Sydney services, beating bus runs through northern Sydney and Punchbowl.