page_title: Metrobus (Sydney)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Metrobus (Sydney) / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Metrobus liveried (mo 9867), operated by Hillsbus, Volgren 'CR228L' bodied Scania K280UB 14.5m at Castle Hill Interchange in Castle Hill, New South Wales.
context_page_description: Metrobus is an Australian high frequency, high capacity bus network in Sydney that links key employment and growth centres. Metrobuses run every 10 minutes during peak periods, 15 minutes during off-peak weekday periods, and 20 minutes on weekends, with the intention of making timetables obsolete. All buses were initially painted in a distinctive red livery but recently, the standard Transport for NSW livery of blue and white has been adopted. All Metrobuses are wheelchair accessible. All route numbers were prefixed with an "M" followed by 2 numbers.
context_section_description: The network originally operated along bus trunk routes through the inner suburbs, but passed through the CBD rather than terminating there. This reduced overcrowding on the trunk routes without needing to layover extra buses in the CBD. This concept was later diluted with the network's expansion to include long distance routes servicing major activity centres in outer suburbs.
  The first route, M10 from Leichhardt to Kingsford, began operation on a 12-month trial basis on 12 October 2008. During this period nine regular and six high-capacity buses with different seating arrangements were dedicated to the route.
  In March 2009 an expansion of the Metrobus network with the addition of four further routes serving the inner suburbs (M20, M30, M40, M50) was announced.
  In July 2010 it was announced a further eight new Metrobus routes were to be rolled out in 2011 to service suburbs in Sydney's west, north, north-west, south and south-west (M41, M52, M54, M60, M61, M90, M91, M92). This saw Hillsbus and Veolia Transport (now Transdev NSW) become Metrobus operators.
  Routes M10, M20, M30, M41 and M50 were included in the transfer of region 6 from State Transit to Transit Systems on 1 July 2018.
  During April and May 2019, as part of the opening of Sydney Metro, a number of Metrobus services were renumbered to 3-digit numerical routes, dropping the "M" prefix. while two others were renumbered in February 2020. As of February 2020, only six Metrobus services remain.
caption: Hillsbus Volgren bodied Scania K280UB in July 2013
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