The state's Transport Minister ruled out a free shuttle bus service for the Illawarra's southern suburbs but guaranteed the Wollongong service would remain "forever more" due to strong patronage.
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Minister Gladys Berejiklian's office yesterday produced data to make the case for axing or charging for nine of the state's lesser-used free shuttle services.
Only the three most popular services would be retained, including Wollongong's "Gong Shuttle", which collects 7.4 boardings per kilometre.
"Can I assure you that the Wollongong service will continue forever more," said the Minister, in the region to announce planning approval for Shell Cove railway station and to inspect progress on a new commuter car park at Kiama.
"The reason is, we want to make sure people use services where they're provided and obviously, the Wollongong shuttle has good patronage."
Sydney and Parramatta shuttle services collected 8.8 and 12.1 boardings per kilometre, respectively and would also be retained.
Services at Blacktown, Bankstown, Cabramatta, Campbelltown, Liverpool, Penrith and Newcastle would be discontinued. The services collected fewer than 4.5 boardings per kilometre, with the Liverpool service taking just 0.6 boardings per kilometre.
Shuttle services at Gosford and and Kogarah would be transformed into paid services and retained for a six-month trial.
"These nine discontinued or amended routes were introduced either three months or less than one month before the last state election by Labor in a clear election stunt, all without proper planning and with little logic - in many cases they duplicated services that already existed," Ms Berejiklian said.
"The Wollongong shuttle service was established some years ago, so it was planned properly."
Responding to calls for a shuttle service to the Illawarra's southern suburbs, Ms Berejiklian said: "I think the shuttle bus program's demonstrated that it does not work outside of the three major CBDs that we've got them in. So obviously, it works extremely well in Wollongong, it works in limited parts of the Sydney CBD and also works for Parramatta but outside of that, we don't think the model works. What I'll be doing instead is putting those resources into extra bus services ... we're also rewriting the train timetable, so we're investing all those extra resources where people use them."
Meantime, construction contracts were to be issued for Shell Cove railway station after it got planning approval.
Ms Berejiklian said a 2014 completion date was "definitely the target we're aiming for".
