On this bus the classical music’s a bonus

Village to Village is two free bus services for City of Sydney residents that operates on Thursdays and Fridays from Woolloomooloo to Redfern and Redfern to Broadway. The 21-seat white buses are run by South Sydney Community Transport (www.ssct.org.au ), a not-for-profit organisation based in Redfern that provides transport services to the frail aged, younger people with disabilities and their carers.

SSCT receives funding from the NSW Ministry of Transport, Department of Ageing Disability and Home Care, City of Sydney Council, NSW Department of Health and the AIDS Council Of NSW.

Jane Rogers, the manager of SSCT, invited the SSH to get on board for a journey from the bus stop near the Mary McDonald Activity Club in Woolloomooloo winding through the Cross and Surry Hills to Poets Corner in Redfern.

It is a bleak August morning but our driver, Brad, enjoys his job, greeting regulars warmly and treating newcomers with informative courtesy. At first, Keith is the only other passenger and “cannot speak highly enough” of the service which he uses each week to visit St Vincent’s Hospital and to pick up shopping.

Jeannette, who gets on in Wylde Street where she has been waiting for a 311, had not known of the service and takes a timetable with her when she gets off, declaring it “one of the best ideas they have had”. Letitia, also elderly and lively, is delighted to be picked up by a free bus, “I’m always waiting for a bus. Sometimes I have to catch a taxi because I can’t stand up”.

The bus is cosy on a cold morning and a classical music station plays on the PA beneath the conversations that are shared as the numbers swell.

A bloke gets on in Oxford Street, happy to get a free ride to Railway Square. He confesses that he works as a trains planner “trying to make a soufflé out of mud every day” and reveals that railways staff no longer synchronise their watches at 1300 hours each day.

Our bus is running a couple of minutes behind time, just as Brad likes it to be, so that those who depend on the service are allowed a little leeway.

The route zigzags near Paddy’s Market, a change that Brad suggested for the benefit of passengers who struggle to carry their shopping far. The service, which is fully funded until February, is still being developed. There are plans for it to run Mondays as well. (Brad tells me they are looking for drivers with appropriate licences – call 9319 4439.) A daily service is a significant funding grant away.

There is no doubt that SSCT, which originated under South Sydney Council last century, is providing a much appreciated service to those people who are aware of it. There were 106 passengers the previous Friday.

According to Meredith, another devoted and voluble regular who cannot be denied the last word, the service “is clean, well-run, has excellent drivers, and the classical music’s a bonus” she enthuses before warning, “If you don’t use it you’ll lose it”.

Photo: Ali Blogg - South Sydney Community Bus passengers heading for the shops

Source: South Sydney Herald August 2008 www.southsydneyherald.com.au