In excellent news for the night owls of Sydney’s Inner West, the Balmain peninsula will soon welcome 24-hour public transport – with buses set to start running the length of Darling Street at least every hour on Friday and Saturday nights. Hot off the heels of the Inner West council’s recent announcement that Darling Street will officially become a Special Entertainment Precinct, the updated bus routes will keep this corner of the city connected all day (and night) long.
Introduced as part of a council-wide timetable shakeup, the changes spell fun things for Balmain, and are reflective of broader aims to improve Sydney’s 24-hour economy. Currently, 34 bus routes across the city operate 24-hour services at weekends, with the government aiming to add to this list over the next few years. Balmain was chosen as the next site for 24-hour bus services for a number of reasons, with Mayor of the Inner West Darcy Byrne citing the goal of “the renaissance of Australia’s oldest and best pub culture,” as one of them.
“24 hour buses to Balmain could be the shot in the arm needed to bring our famous pub culture back to life,” Mayor Byrne explained.
(If you're keen to know what he's talking about, you can check out our guide to the best pubs in Balmain here.)
The new 24-hour routes include the 433 from Balmain Gladstone Park (which takes passengers to and from Central via North Annandale, Forest Lodge and Glebe), and route 442 which connects Balmain East Wharf to the Queen Victoria Building in the heart of Sydney's CBD. From December 8 onwards, these services will run around the clock – every 20 minutes between 5.30am and 6.30am and 8.30pm and 12.30am, and every ten minutes or less between 6.30am and 8.30pm on weekdays.
And that’s not the only news for Sydney’s bus-goers. Other updates to bus timetables across Sydney’s Inner West, set to be introduced on December 8 include:
- Route 423 from Kingsgrove Depot to Martin Place (via King Street in Newtown) will see additional services across the week – running every ten minutes on weekdays.
- Route 418 Burwood to Sydenham will see additional services, supporting Southwest Link services in place to keep the people of the Inner West connected to Sydenham Metro station while the T3 line conversion is underway
- Route 420 will see additional morning and evening services to connect passengers to Sydney Airport
- Route 526 will be upgraded to operate every ten minutes or less seven days a week
- Routes 426, 428 and 430 (towards the city along the King Street Newtown corridor) will see timetable adjustments
Transport for NSW has also confirmed plans to change the timetables on some Victoria Road services operating to Drummoyne, Chiswick and Five Dock, with further timetable adjustment plans in place for 2025 in Blacktown, Hills District, South East Sydney and the Northern Beaches.
You can learn more about what these changes will mean for your commute (or your weekend plans) over here.
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