Busways is a transport solution provider that partners with Government agencies to bring innovative, reliable and flexible public transport services to Australian communities. The company provides school and route bus services along with expertise in transport operations, scheduling, customer experience, asset management and marketing and communications. A family owned Australian company, Busways has grown from humble beginnings in 1942, with one car servicing one suburb, to a major transportation service provider delivering over 22 million passenger journeys per year. A focus on customer experience, quality service and employee development, combined with an ongoing commitment to innovation, has been the driving force underpinning this remarkable journey. Busways currently operates bus services for Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW) in Western Sydney, the Central Coast and the North Coast of NSW.

Busways’ experience allows the company to identify areas where the rapid population growth of developing suburbs is creating a high probability of worsening traffic conditions or parking availability and to propose solutions to address these issues in collaboration with TfNSW. In 2017, Busways identified significant potential for introducing an On Demand bus service in rapid growth areas in Western Sydney. As the long-term provider of bus services in Sydney’s rapidly expanding outer west, Busways is keenly aware of traffic congestion and parking blackspots and the factors that influence them. Busways approached TfNSW with a proposal for an On Demand bus service. The proposal centred around the use of smaller buses that respond to individual customer travel requests to provide a viable alternative to car travel and alleviate congestion around the stations.

The introduction of any new bus service requires careful planning and must factor in a wide variety of potential variables. In partnership with Via, the leading global developer of technology for public mobility solutions, the fully dynamic Cooee Busways concept was born. Cooee Busways was designed to deliver a greater customer experience through prompt, personalised service leveraging cutting-edge technology. It was identified that making it easier for customers to see, in real-time, where they could use a regular bus service instead of On Demand would improve the customer experience for everyone.

The impact of Cooee Busways on the local community has been significant. Its popularity has resulted in a service extension to include The Ponds Shopping Centre. In addition to its community impact, Cooee Busways has had a significant effect on its parent company. Thanks to learnings from the Cooee experience, Busways has amplified its commitment to customer service excellence as a core philosophy and subsequently implemented important procedural change across its regular driver training and route services. With customer satisfaction a key metric in measuring success, Busways instituted a specialised driver selection and training program designed to deliver new standards of customer service. In addition, the success of the Cooee Busways service has further embedded Busways’ commitment to innovation and its ongoing alignment to TfNSW’s future transport vision. Busways continues to explore opportunities to develop, and implement, the innovative transport solutions of the future.