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A new general access bus network for North West Tasmania commenced on 17 January 2021. This includes urban services in Devonport and Burnie, and intercity services between Devonport, Launceston and Hobart.

North West residents now have better access to jobs, education and services.

The changes follow an extensive community consultation period from September to October 2019.

Change summary

The new North West Express service links Burnie and Devonport via Penguin and Ulverstone seven days a week.

It operates hourly in each direction on weekdays and Saturdays, and two-hourly on Sundays.

This means your appointments can be more flexible and you have more travel options. You can travel when you need to because there are 30 services a week in each direction, which is 19 more than before.

Services between Devonport and Launceston/Hobart have increased. There are now six services a day on weekdays and four a day on Saturday and Sundays.

There are new Sunday services to towns including Smithton, Wynyard, Latrobe, Port Sorell, and Sheffield, and on key urban routes.

Bus stop changes

To support the new North West bus network, we invested in many new bus stops, particularly in Burnie and Devonport.

As part of this process we consulted with Councils, bus operators and adjacent land owners on the bus stop location and design.

All these stops are accessible (DDA compliant). This makes public transport easier for people with disabilities or travelling with prams.

See maps of new, upgraded, and removed bus stops in the North West.

Consultation

We engaged consultants to undertake a detailed review of Devonport and Burnie urban bus networks. This included community workshops held in Burnie and Devonport in 2017. After the workshops, Phillip Boyle and Associates developed a report recommending a new network.

View the Phillip Boyle and Associates report.

Following the release of the report, we did further planning. We worked with bus operators and local councils to refine the network and develop new timetables and routes.

An extensive public consultation process was undertaken from September to October 2019. This invited feedback on network and intercity services between Devonport, Launceston and Hobart.

As part of the consultation process we received a total of 297 responses.

Feedback showed a high level of support for proposed changes.

After listening to feedback from the community, we made some changes to refine routes and timetables.

For example we:

  • changed routes in east Wynyard
  • maintained an Ulverstone to Burnie service so Penguin residents have more opportunities to shop in Ulverstone
  • adjusted timing to better align Wynyard and Devonport services with work finish times
  • maintained a general access school days only service between Mole Creek and Launceston

See the North West public consultation report.