Council happy to back bus time zone changes says Orange Traffic Committee chair Cr Tony Mileto

As part of its 16 Cities program to improve accessibility to public transport, Transport for NSW has approached Orange City Council to extend the time zone at 13 bus stops.

At present the bus stops identified offer 270 daily services. The proposed changes, which were adopted at last Thursday's Orange City Council meeting, will increase the number of services to 423.

Traffic Committee chairman Tony Mileto said Orange City Council was happy to comply with the state government's roll out, which identified priorities for improvement late in 2020.

"They obviously see a need for it, there's been a business plan put forward for it which we've agreed to," Cr Mileto said.

Recommended were extending the bus zone times outside Orange High, James Sheahan High School, Anson Street School and Calare Public School from school hours to full time.

A north Orange stop on Farrell Road before Diamond Drive, which is also marked with school times, will also be extended to full time as will Summer Street stops after Sale Street, heading west and approaching Sale Street heading east.

Times will also be changed for the stops outside the Orange City Centre and Orange Central Square to extend the hours from 6am to 9pm Monday to Saturday and on Sunday, from 8am to 7pm, or convert the stops to full time.

TfNSW will foot the bill for signage changes.

Currently the first and and last bus in the existing service within Orange is 6.40am and 7.40pm respectively. The network changes will extended those times to 6.15am and 8.15pm.

The report from TfNSW also identifies a time sensitive network stop on Peisley Street near the railway station for which council has sought funding.

The traffic committee recommendation was that Council approve the changes, with the exception of a zone on Coronation Drive outside of Orange High, which is no longer a bus zone.

None of the time zones are near residential area meaning the impact would be minimal.

Dubbo, Bathurst and Parkes have also been included in the 16 cities identified with work also in the planning stages.

TfNSW has completed the zone changes in Wagga Wagga and Tweed Heads with the remaining centres expected to have implemented the changes by late 2023.

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