The case of 640

I’m sorry everyone I’m talking about bus routes again. Thing is, Jo is giving myself and the little team of transport advocates little to work with. The Transport bureaucracy is currently head down in reviews and I haven’t seen one map of the new Western Sydney rapid bus network because of a financial spat with Canberra. Please Jo, just one pretty brochure.

It’s very easy to headline this as ‘The Worst Bus route in Sydney’ and get some AI crawler from daily fear publication Daily Mail or the anti-trans-boomer-network-also-fear-speaker the Seven Network but I avoided that. Don’t get me wrong there are bad routes out there, the famous 370 for its on time running, the former route that was requested by a MP and the shopper hoppers but after some quiet reflection up at Berowra Waters, out comes this route I’ve never heard off.

You know that train up in nowhere land Outback Queensland, The Gulflander? The heritage route famous for serving two towns often quoted as a service to nowhere, see this is a bus to nowhere and its been running the same route for over a decade now. Why? Because Transport for NSW suffers a gerontocracy curse where every feedback or comment comes from someone who is over on Facebook now complaining about 5G towers and property prices. That NSW Bus Taskforce? All the public submission meetings are being held in the day for only those over 60 to attend.

Actually, go read the submissions report on the cycleway ramp for the Sydney Harbour Bridge, see this Gen-Z, this is who actually determines your transport network for the next decade. (Let’s be real, they’re not reading this, more so distracted looking at pretty colors or vaping at the back of the bus).

Route 640 Kenthurst Cadwells Rd to Kenthurst Pitt Town Rd (Apple Maps)

So the 640, Porters Rd to Pitt Town Rd operated by CDC NSW has been running in the current form since 2009. Originally the route use to run a 6 day route extending to Castle Hill but then Hillsbus and the then Department of Transport and Infrastructure decided to cut it back (and the services) to Kenthurst although someone made somewhat of a error because the route doesn’t even service Kenthurst, more it stops just short at the corner of Porters Rd and Pitt Town Rd forcing people to walk an extra 650m on a non-DDA-compliant footpath to get to the local pharmacy, school, really everything.

All off, the last stop just short of Kenthurst (Google Maps)

In addition, even CDC NSW have to run a separate school bus route (3591) for the students needing to access Kenthurst Primary School and The Hills Grammar. The transfer point is a true staple of transport funding, non-accessible, no lighting shelter from the 70s, the northbound stop doesn’t have a shelter at all, just satisfies the notion of a car-only district of Sydney.

Honestly, I doubt the service gets anyone at all, pensioner going shopping or commuter going to work. Going from Porters Rd to Castle Hill is 2 transfers, the Sydney CBD 3 transfers spinning a luck wheel every time that the bus transfer is guaranteed to be there every time as it’s timetabled as a 0-min transfer.

And while South West Sydney gets gripped with cancellations with new operator U-Go Mobility, a driver has to operate this sad state of a bus route every week day for the benefit of nobody but to meet a contract obligation. Thing is, in the NSW Bus Network 2009 reviews, the review then recommended the old Castle Hill – Porters Road route to remain as is.

The final network map as published in 2009. Route 640 is shown extending to Dural and Castle Hill (not shown) – CDC NSW

The section between Castle Hill and Rogans Hill will be discontinued and replaced by new route 644 during peak periods and routes 638, 639, 640 and 641 at other times.
There will be no change to routes 639 and 640 in Kenthurst.

NSW Bus Network Region 4 Summary of Changes (2009, NSW Transport and Infrastructure )

Route 640 reminds me of the parliamentary trains in the UK, an area of Sydney that has to have an essential bus service but CDC and TfNSW decided that extending a bus route an extra 3km and five minutes down the road to Round Corner and Dural and the bus depot was too much, hurting that farebox recovery ratio or some bus operator comment. So I honestly think this route is one of the worst ones in Sydney, the worst routes don’t have to be the most busiest or well known, just a little oddity. Route 640 is one of the worst because its a loss-loss for everyone, expect for the car.