The North-West T-way is a continuous series of bus-only lanes and bus roadways between

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

Blacktown Blacktown is a suburb in the City of Blacktown, in Greater Western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Blacktown is located west of the Sydney central business district. It is one of the most multicultural places within Great ...

and

Rouse Hill Rouse Hill is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Rouse Hill is located in the Hills District, 43 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district and 19 kilometres north-west of the Parramatta central ...

Western Sydney Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US * Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that i ...

. Opened in stages between March and November 2007, the T-way was the second

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

route to be built in Sydney after the Liverpool–Parramatta T-way.

Alignment

The T-way follows Old Windsor Road north from

Westmead Hospital Westmead Hospital is a major tertiary hospital in Sydney, Australia. Opened on 10 November 1978, the 975-bed hospital forms part of the Western Sydney Local Health District, and is a teaching hospital of Sydney Medical School at the University of ...

. At Memorial Avenue, Kellyville, the route branches, with one branch continuing north along Old Windsor and

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

roads to Rouse Hill Town Centre and the other heading west along Sunnyholt Road to

. The alignment includes 10 new bridges and two new underpasses. Three of the T-way's 24 route-kilometres are bus lanes on existing roads. The Bella Vista–Rouse Hill section of the T-way runs parallel with the

Sydney Metro Northwest Sydney Metro Northwest was a rapid transit project involving the construction of a rail line through the north-western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The line included the conversion of the existing Epping to Chatswood Ra ...

rail line.

Construction

The

Government of New South Wales The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the States and territories of Australia, Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party o ...

announced the T-way network as part of its ''Action for Transport'' plan in 1998. The North-West project was approved in February 2004 and was jointly overseen by the then

Ministry of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government ...

and

Roads & Traffic Authority The Roads & Traffic Authority (RTA) was an agency of the New South Wales Government responsible for major road infrastructure, licensing of drivers, and registration of motor vehicles. The RTA directly managed state roads and provided fundin ...

. The contract was awarded to

Leighton Contractors CIMIC Group Limited (formerly Leighton Holdings) is an Australian construction contractor. It is active in the telecommunications, engineering and infrastructure, building and property, mining and resources, and environmental services industries ...

in December 2004 and construction began in June 2005. Construction took place alongside a major upgrade and widening program on Windsor and Old Windsor roads, known as 'All the way to Windsor'. The design was said to avoid many of the mistakes that had made the earlier Liverpool-Parramatta T-way so expensive to build. The T-way opened in three stages: * Parramatta to Merriville Road, Rouse Hill – 10 March 2007 * Merriville Road to Rouse Hill Town Centre – 25 September 2007 * Blacktown branch – 4 November 2007 A fourth section, continuing from the Blacktown branch and between Burns Interchange to Castle Hill, was never constructed.

Stations

The North-West T-way has 30 stations, spaced approximately every 800 metres. Stations feature

closed circuit television Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly ...

, real-time information screens, emergency help points, audio announcements and extensive landscaping. One station, Parramatta Station, also forms part of the Liverpool–Parramatta T-way. The other stations are, from Parramatta: From Burns, the Blacktown branch proceeds to: From Burns, the Rouse Hill branch proceeds to:After the opening of Sydney Metro Northwest, a number of T-way stations were renamed by

Transport for NSW Transport for NSW, sometimes abbreviated to TfNSW, and pronounced as Transport for New South Wales, is an agency of the New South Wales Government established on 1 November 2011, and is the leading transport and roads agency in New South Wales ...

, and became part of the bus interchanges belonging to the new metro stations. However, at a number of these stations, the old signage with the old station names have remained, with only the bus stop information sign and timetable containing the new names for each stop. The changes were:

Services

Busways Busways is an Australian bus company operating services in Sydney, and in the Central Coast, Great Lakes, Mid North Coast regions of New South Wales and Adelaide. It is the largest privately owned bus operator in Australia. History The orig ...

and Hillsbus operate North-West T-way services. There are many services which traverse the T-Way, either in its entirety or a section of it. The route numbering follows the Sydney Metropolitan Bus Route Numbering System with T-way specific routes prefixed with T until July 2019. (Hillsbus T6x and Busways T7x) On 28 July 2019 the remaining Txx routes were renumbered as three digit numbers. The following T services use the Parramatta - Rouse Hill T-Way *T60 Parramatta station - Castle Hill via Crestwood (renumbered 660 28 July 2019) *T61 Parramatta station - Blacktown station via

Kings Langley Kings Langley is a village, former manor and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, north-west of Westminster in the historic centre of London and to the south of the Chiltern Hills. It now forms part of the London commuter belt. The villa ...

(renumbered 661 28 July 2019) *T62 Parramatta station - Castle Hill via Bella Vista and Tuckwell Road (renumbered 662 28 July 2019) *T63 Parramatta station - Rouse Hill Town Centre via Glenwood and

Stanhope Gardens Stanhope Gardens is a suburb of Greater Western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Stanhope Gardens is located 31 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of City of Blacktown. ...

(renumbered 663 28 July 2019) *T64 Parramatta station - Rouse Hill Town Centre via

Norwest Business Park The Norwest Business Park is a business park in the suburbs of Norwest and Bella Vista in the local government area of The Hills Shire in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Norwest Business Park is bordered by Windsor Road to the east, and ...

and Kellyville (renumbered 664 28 July 2019) *T65 Parramatta station - Rouse Hill Town Centre (renumbered 665 28 July 2019) *T66 Parramatta station - Rouse Hill via Rouse Hill Town Centre (amalgamated with T65 as 665 28 July 2019) The following T services use the Blacktown - Parklea T-Way *T61 Blacktown station - Parramatta station via

(renumbered 661 28 July 2019) *T70 Blacktown station - Castle Hill via Glenwood and Norwest Business Park (renumbered 730 26 May 2019) *T71 Blacktown station - Castle Hill via Stanhope Gardens, Rouse Hill Town Centre and Kellyville (renumbered 731 and curtailed to Blacktown - Rouse Hill Town Centre 26 May 2019) *T72 Blacktown station -

Quakers Hill Quakers Hill is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is westnorth-west (WNW) of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Blacktown. Quakers Hill is part of the Gre ...

via Pye Road (renumbered 732 26 May 2019) *T74 Blacktown station - Riverstone via Stanhope Gardens and The Ponds (renumbered 734 26 May 2019) *T75 Blacktown station - Riverstone via Rouse Hill (renumbered 735 26 May 2019) Hillsbus and Busways also operate other routes along the T-way.

Criticisms

The T-way and its operations has come under criticism in several areas. Even before its opening, the

was criticised for its lack of planning and broken promises on the T-way's construction. Parramatta Council complained during construction that noise walls had not been built next to the homes of residents who lived along the T-way route, causing them distress. The planned cycleway alongside the T-way was not built in its entire length, and included a large deviation which Council complained would erode the cycleway's effectiveness. After the opening of the first stage of the T-way, a local cycle advocacy group identified a large gap in the cycleway, potentially compromising cyclists' safety. Some local residents had their backyards destroyed. On the opening of the initial route several other problems were raised. Comments were made concerning the initial patronage of the T-way. While the

State Government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

refused to say how many people used the T-way in its first week, a local newspaper discovered that the commuter carpark attracted as few as ten cars a day in the first week of operation. Another local newspaper reported a traffic barrier separating vehicles from the busway at

Westmead railway station Westmead railway station is located on the Main Western line, serving the Sydney suburb of Westmead. It is served by Sydney Trains T1 Western Line and T5 Cumberland Line services and NSW TrainLink Blue Mountains Line services. History ...

was causing accidents. On 12 April 2007, the Roads & Traffic Authority quietly scrapped the

bus priority Bus priority or transit signal priority (TSP) is a name for various techniques to improve service and reduce delay for mass transit vehicles at intersections (or junctions) controlled by traffic signals. TSP techniques are most commonly associat ...

system that would have given buses priority at all at-grade intersections. The decision was criticised as eliminating the main advantage of the T-way and not entice commuters back to public transport. Bus operators expected better patronage once the toll on the Lane Cove Tunnel came into effect.Baker, Jordan,
"New tunnel sums: 17 minutes less, $25 more in toll"
',

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

, 23 March 2007. Accessed 16 April 2007.

References

External links

transportnsw.info: public transport timetable and fare information

Busways maps and timetables

Hillsbus maps and timetables
{{DEFAULTSORT:North-West T-Way Bus rapid transit in Australia Bus transport in Sydney The Hills Shire Transport infrastructure completed in 2007 2007 establishments in Australia