Hillsbus

Hillsbus was an Australian bus company that operated services in the Hills District of Sydney. Founded in 2004 when National Express merged its Glenorie Bus Company and Westbus subsidiaries, it was later part of ComfortDelGro Australia. In early 2023, the Hillsbus brand was replaced by ComfortDelGro's CDC NSW brand.

History

First use of the Hillsbus name

In 1996, Westbus established a separate Hillsbus brand to run express services from the Hills District to the Sydney CBD and North Sydney, initially via the Anzac Bridge and from 1997 via the M2 Hills Motorway. However, the Hillsbus brand seemed to have disappeared by the 2000s as these services were classified as Westbus rather than Hillsbus in early versions of the Westbus website. These Westbus services, however, were still referred to by Westbus as "Hills City Express".

2002–2023

On 11 February 2002, Hillsbus was revived as a joint venture between Westbus and National Express' newly acquired Glenorie Bus Company, and introduced a new bus route 642 under the Hillsbus brand. This service linked Dural and the City via the M2 and was therefore known as a "M2 City" express service. The joint venture also brought in five new articulated buses for the service in May that year. On 8 July 2002, Hillsbus introduced three more M2 City routes 650, 652 and 654. According to the Hillsbus timetables, these Hillsbus services were operated by Glenorie, even though neither Westbus nor Glenorie buses were used.
In December 2004, all Westbus routes operating out of Northmead and Seven Hills depots, as well as the rest of Glenorie Bus Company, were rebranded Hillsbus. At the same time, Hillsbus took over the operation of Harris Park Transport routes 620 - 630, following the latter ceasing operation. The services were transferred from Hillsbus to Sydney Buses on 28 January 2005. On 25 September 2005, after the purchase of Hillsbus by ComfortDelGro Cabcharge, routes 620, 625, 626, 627 and 630 were transferred back to Hillsbus.
Despite the rebranding to Hillsbus, the new Hillsbus website was only launched in January 2006, about a year after the rebranding. The delay could be related to the debt of Westbus and was only resolved after the sale of Westbus and Hillsbus to CDC. After the launch of the new website, it still did not show any timetables of the former Glenorie-operated timetables until May/June 2006, and during this period, customers were asked to check the Glenorie website instead.
When the Parramatta - Rouse Hill section of the North-West T-way opened on 10 March 2007, routes 730 and 735 were transferred from Busways to Hillsbus with route 718 transferred from Hillsbus to Busways.
On 30 June 2014, the Opal card was rolled out on all of Hillsbus' NightRide and Region 4 routes.
On 28 July 2019, after the Sydney Metro Northwest opened in May, bus routes in the Hills District were reorganised, with some services rerouted to stop at various Sydney Metro stations.
In November 2022, CDC was awarded the contract to retain Region 4. The Hillsbus branding on buses was gradually replaced by the CDC NSW brand in early 2023, in time for the commencement of the new contract in April 2023.

Routes

From 2005 until its replacement by CDC NSW in 2023, Hillsbus' services had formed Sydney Bus Region 4. In August 2013, Hillsbus successfully tendered to operate the Region 4 services for another five years from August 2014.
At the time of cessation, Hillsbus operated the following services:

535 from Parramatta to Carlingford
Bus routes 600 to 665 in Sydney's north-western suburbs, including
*600 from Hornsby to Parramatta
*610X from Castle Hill to Queen Victoria Building.
*66x series along the North West T-Way
*Express services along the M2 Hills Motorway and Lane Cove Tunnel to Macquarie Park, North Sydney and Queen Victoria Building
Bus routes 700 to 715 in Sydney's western suburbs
Other railway replacement bus services

Hillsbus also operated other railway replacement bus services between 2018 and 2019. Hillbus operated Station Link services between September 2018 and May 2019, while the Epping to Chatswood rail link was closed for upgrading and conversion to Sydney Metro Northwest. It stopped at Epping, Chatswood, Macquarie Park, Eastwood, Macquarie University, Beecroft and St Leonards stations. It was jointly operated with Transdev NSW. The service ceased when the Metro opened in May 2019.
Thereafter, until November 2019, Hillsbus operated the North West Night Bus to supplement the Metro North West Line on Sunday to Wednesday nights. Like Station Link, it was jointly operated with Transdev NSW.

Fleet

Depots

As of July 2022, Hillsbus operated 601 buses across four depots:

Foundry Road in Seven Hills – Head Office of Hillsbus – 204 buses
Dural – 177 buses
Northmead – 188 buses
Seven Hills - another depot also in Seven Hills, smaller than Foundry Road depot – 32 buses

Hillsbus also operated 62 buses at the Camellia depot designated for Station Link between September 2018 and May 2019, but they have since been moved to other Hillsbus, Hunter Valley Buses and Blue Mountains Transit depots after the cessation of Station Link.

Livery

Prior to 2010, Hillsbus adopted Westbus' new plain yellow livery. With the introduction of Metrobus routes, the Metrobus livery was applied to new buses dedicated to Metrobus operations. In 2010, the Transport for NSW white and blue livery began to be applied on new buses and repainted buses. Fleet dedicated for Station Link also carried the Transport for NSW livery but with "Station Link" labels and a pink body front. Most of the Station Link fleet have had the labels and pink front removed after the cessation of Station Link.