The survey showed that only 2 per cent of lower north shore and northern beaches passengers felt frustrated by bus reliability. Sydney's tardiest bus is the 370 from Leichhardt through Newtown to Coogee. The bus copped more than 500 complaints in the year to June 2016, according to the latest figures obtained by Fairfax Media. Almost 950 people follow its timeliness on a Facebook page called: The Universe Would Cease to Exist if the 370 Bus Arrived on Time. Martin Cooper catches the 370 bus to work. Credit:Cassandra Morgan So entrenched is the 370's lateness that software engineer Katie Bell collected real-time bus data every minute for four months from late 2017 to early 2018 on 3.7 million trips to see if the 370 is the worst bus in Sydney. Ms Bell, who created a website using real-time bus data, found 3 per cent of about 5000 buses ran more than 20 minutes late.

The worst buses, measured at least 20 minutes late at some point in their route, were the Castle Cove to Chatswood route 277, which was late about 25 per cent of the time; the 370, late about 23 per cent of the time; and the 281 Davidson to Chatswood bus, late about 22 per cent of the time. Alison Turner is frustrated by how unreliable the 370 bus is. Credit:Cassandra Morgan Martin Cooper catches the 370 bus from Newtown to work in Leichardt. "I catch the 370 bus every day and it's been late every time. Every single time," Mr Cooper, 43, said. "It's terribly annoying. I have to catch an earlier bus just to make sure that I get to work on time. That's half an hour [and] I have been late because of it." Alison Turner catches the 370 from Newtown station to Prince of Wales Private Hospital where she works as a student nurse.

"I want to catch the bus that comes at 12.45pm but because it's always late I have to catch the one that comes 15 minutes, 20 minutes or sometimes half an hour earlier," Ms Turner said. "It's also frustrating because there's only one, like, every half an hour. "If there weren't so many cars on the road, perhaps the buses would be able to run on time." Sydney buses are held to a lower standard than those in Melbourne. Falling behind schedule by five minutes at any point or leaving early from a bus stop is considered tardy in Melbourne. But in Sydney, bus delays are only measured at the start, middle and end of trips. Sydney buses also have an extra 59 seconds before being classified as late and can leave a bus stop two minutes early.

Transport for NSW said it closely monitors the network in real time and uses "smart technology to plan bus routes that match customer movements and demand". "We also have a raft of traffic devices – such as diversions, clearways, tidal flow and bus indented bays – that can be rolled out as required to help manage disruption so buses can navigate congested areas," a Transport for NSW spokeswoman said. The number of people taking bus trips has grown rapidly, with about 1.2 million more trips taken in January, February and May 2018 compared with the corresponding months in 2017. In April 2018, bus trips increased by 2.3 million compared with the same month last year.