This is the woeful response I got back from the CityBuses:

"As there was no specific time frame indicated on where the service was falling down it was quite difficult to investigate the feedback about the inbound services. An investigation of the outbound services however found that there are 8 services operate between 17:00 hours and 18:00 hours through the Pyrmont area, a check of these services over 3 days from February 10-12 shows that the services all operated on or close to time. If you would like to provide me with more information about the inbound service times I will be happy to conduct an investigation.
RegardsRyde ContactSTA Customer Relations"

Needless to say, I was furious reading this. How the hell can I provide specific times when it happens all the bloody time?!

Today was the same deal. As was yesterday.

Both days, I was waiting from 8:05 on Victoria Road in Gladesville. According the printed timetable, there was a bus due at 8:10...

At 8:10 am, yesterday, nothing arrived.

Did I tell you it was pissing down rain and the bus shelter was both ironically named and devised? So, at 8:12 no bus arrived. I did see other buses come and go...

At 8:15, I went to look at the bus schedule because, obviously, the 8:10 bus was just a dummy bus printed on the schedule to fill in the blanks. There is no 8:10 bus. Anyway, reading the bus schedule and it said that the next 501 bus was to arrive at - 8:27am!

This is Sydney. This is fucking peak hour - and the fucking useless pricks at State NSW Government have decided to abolish services, so that anyone who wants to go to work in Pyrmont, Ultimo and Central has to wait 17 minutes for the next bloody bus to arrive - provided that the 8:10am bus actually exists!

Because I was there at 8:05am, I was waiting 22 minutes for a fucking 501 bus in fucking peak hour - and when the bus did arrive, you could see the frustration on people's face on each subsequent stop as they boarded the bus. Some stops has about 10 people board in one session.

How wonderful.

Anyway, I counted the buses that passed me as I waited for my 501 bus for 22minutes:

• 3 x 510s
• 4 x L20s
• 518
• 2 x 507.

City Buses can't tell me that they don't have the resources to run more services along this route. They certainly do. Remember World Youth Day? Remember how frequent, regular, and realiable the buses were? Remember thinking - wow! There really is a god and this is his miracle. First a virgin gave birth, then jesus walked on water, and then a bunch of young catholics come to Sydney and buses ran on time. This is a wake up call to all non-christians, athiests and agnostics alike - become catholic. That's the religion that works in your favour.

Today, Feb 20, 2009, i was at the bus stop at 8:02pm. Didn't get a 8:05 bus come, and didn't have much faith in store for the 8:10am bus to show up as well. Which is fine - cause i didn't have my hopes dashed. Then, at 8:27, 3 501 buses showed up together.

One bus got backed before we reached Drummoyne. My bus got pretty backed - chockers when we reached Rozelle - and i was getting the shits at the amount of people who don't use Travel 10s.

I'm going to add a calendar to this blog to provide a viusal focus point of all the times the 501 buses refuses to show up with a reasonable time period (i think 5mins is a reasonable delay).

And yes, all my complaints also go to their feedback dept so they can do absolutely nothing about it.

City buses have another word for system – chaos.

I know we're meant to allow for time tables delays on our bus route, but for the 501, bus delays are the ordinary. Unlike other city-bound buses that come regularly, and allow people to hop on any bus that goes that way - the 501 is the ONLY bus that goes to Pyrmont/Ultimo. Yet, we have to put up with multiple disruptions, ultra-frequent delays, over-crowded buses - or buses that just don't even come at all.

Why can't NSW State Government get their act together and deliver this service so it's as frequent and reliable as the 510?! Why is it that if you're at the bus stop at 8am - you have to wait up to 20 minutes for a bus to come despite their timetable (both printed and online - which you can never trust); saying otherwise? And why is it, that when they do arrive, they're two at a time. Why?! That doesn’t even make sense to the logic-impaired! One bus waits behind the other, so they both arrive at the destination at the same time. It will make more sense to have these staggered - to fill up that 20 minutes of frustration fuelled void of doing nothing while five 510s pass you by.

Let me relay this other delay that occurred last week. I walked home from Pyrmont - near the casino. On my way to the ANZAC bridge, I saw people I usually catch the bus home with leave their office at around 5.30. On my walk, I scanned the traffic to see the 501. I usually do this because sometimes I think it's quicker to just walk home, or to catch another 500 bus from the city, than it is to actually wait for the 501 bus to show up. I was on the IRON COVE BRIDGE when I saw the first 501 bus arrive; followed immediately by another, and then by two others. This is shocking. This occurs too frequently for us to consider it a one-off. A couple of days before that, a grandmother was swearing her head off at passing 443 buses because the 501 was incapable of arriving on time - just to take this elderly woman to the next suburb. I can't believe it's impossible to manage this route.

We have no other alternative but to catch this bus - we cannot bus hop on this route. We can't do anything but play a game of chance to stay and have faith that a bloody bus will arrive when it says so ,or to walk to the next suburb to catch another 500 bus home or to work. This is an issue that I’m - and a lot of other people - will take to the polls next election. It doesn't take a genius to get buses to run on time - only incompetence, which this 'system' is surely lacking in abundance!

Just for cathartic therapy - and a hope that other people will vent their frustration with me, I'm going to keep this blog and document every instance that the 501 bus just doesn't deliver.