Buses back in public hands. The savings back in your fare.
Your taxes pay private companies over a billion dollars a year to run NSW buses and ferries, and complaints about the service have doubled.
I commute. I've watched ferry fares climb while the timetable got less reliable. And I've watched people tap off at the airport station and realise they've just paid more than $18 on top of their fare to walk through the gates.
What's going on
Between 2018 and 2022 the state sold off the last public bus routes in Sydney. Now every bus in the city is run by a private company. The contracts capped the fines for cancelling a bus. Once an operator hit the cap, cancelling more cost them nothing, and a cancelled bus never counted as late. So when drivers were short, cancelling was the cheaper option. The operators kept their profit. You kept waiting at the stop.
By the numbers
Who pays
The commuter who leaves half an hour early because the 7.42 might not turn up.
The taxpayer, who already covers 75 to 82 cents of every dollar the network costs to run.
The driver, among the lowest paid in the country, in the most expensive city to live in.
The suburbs whose buses were sold off last, where the cancellations hit hardest.
The people who work at the airport, paying more than $35 a week in gate fees on top of their fare just to get to their shift.
What I'll do
- 01
Bring them back.
Return buses and ferries to public hands as each private contract runs out, instead of quietly extending them like this government just did.
- 02
Put the savings in your fare.
As the profit stops leaving the system, it goes straight into cutting your fare. Over time, fares are capped by law at 10 per cent of what the network actually costs to run.
- 03
Bring back the buses that were cut.
Restore services on the routes that lost the most, starting with the suburbs whose buses were sold off last.
- 04
Pay drivers properly.
So there's someone to drive the bus.
- 05
Scrap the airport gate fee.
Right now you pay more than $18 on top of your fare just to walk through the gates at the airport stations. The private contract behind it ends in 2030, and when it does, I'll scrap the fee.
What it costs
Bringing buses and ferries back costs around $80 to 200 million, once. After that, the profit that used to leave the system stays in it, and it goes into your fare first. Getting all the way to the fare cap takes more, and I'll get there in steps as the savings build.
Proof it works
In 2025 Adelaide brought its trains and trams back into public hands. There were no break fees, the transition cost about $33 million, and nearly all the staff stayed on.
What changes for you
When the fare cap is fully in place, fares fall by more than half. And when a bus doesn't come, someone who answers to you has to explain why.