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The CircleRoute is a pair of circular Transperth bus routes through Perth's suburbs.

History

The CircleRoute was introduced in two stages. On 16 February 1998, the first stage of the CircleRoute commenced operating between Fremantle and Oats Street stations via Murdoch station. It was operated by Swan Transit with Mercedes-Benz O305 buses in a special livery with purple bands blended into the green blocks of the standard colour scheme, with an elliptical shaped logo featuring two arrows in white.

On 22 February 1999, the route was extended to become a 133 stop, 84 kilometre circular route. All four Perth contractors; Path Transit, Perth Bus, Southern Coast Transit and Swan Transit, operated services. In December 2000, the services began operating daily with the introduction of a Sunday service.

Prior to the CircleRoute's introduction, Perth had limited cross-suburban routes, with most of the network focused on transporting people towards the Perth central business district, and to a lesser extent, regional centres such as Fremantle. Projected patronage on the CircleRoute before its introduction indicated significant patronage over most of its route, aside from the section through Belmont, which had only modest predicted patronage.

The CircleRoute was designed so that for each section of the route, the route distance is less than 10% over the shortest road distance between two points. The CircleRoute is a limited stops route, meaning it does not stop at every bus stop along its route. The average stop spacing is 500 metres (1,600 ft).

The routes were renumbered from 98 and 99 to 998 and 999 on 31 January 2016, as to signify being a part of Transperth's premium, high-frequency services.

From April 2016 to March 2017, each direction of the CircleRoute had two million to three million yearly boardings, making the CircleRoute the second and third most used Transperth bus route, after the 950 bus route from Galleria bus station to QEII Medical Centre.

In the middle of 2023, the CircleRoute operated on a temporary alignment to serve Meltham Station whilst awaiting the completion of the new Bayswater Station. This change has since between reverted following the station’s reopening.

Fares

Since 25 November 2007, fares have been determined according to the same Transperth zonal system used by other bus routes and trains in the region; prior to that date, the CircleRoute used its own distinct zones. Since 2021 all fares have been capped at 2 zones.

Route

Major bus stops

Location	Zone	Serving suburbs	Transfers
CircleRoute
Fremantle station	2	Fremantle	,      Fremantle line
Stock Road		O'Connor, Samson
Murdoch University		Murdoch
Murdoch station			,      Mandurah line
Southlands Boulevarde		Willetton
Curtin University bus station	1	Bentley
Oats Street station		Carlisle, East Victoria Park	Armadale line,      Thornlie line
Belmont Forum		Belmont, Cloverdale
Ascot Racecourse		Ascot
Galleria bus station		Morley
Bayswater station		Bayswater	,      Airport line,      Midland line
Dianella Plaza		Dianella
Stirling station	2	Stirling	,      Yanchep line
Churchlands Green	1	Churchlands, Herdsman
Shenton Park station		Shenton Park	Fremantle line
QEII Medical Centre		Nedlands
University of WA		Crawley
Methodist Ladies College, Claremont	2	Claremont
Fremantle station		Fremantle	,      Fremantle line

Route 998 read up, route 999 read down.

See also

• Buses in Perth

References

1. Launch of first stage of Transperth Circle Route bus service at Murdoch Uni Minister for Transport 16 February 1998
2. Figures show new Circle Route bus service is an outstanding success Minister for Transport 18 March 1998
3. Transperth News Rattler issue 307 March 1998 page 8
4. Freo-Oats St stn commenced 16/2/98 Australian Bus Panorama issue 13/6 June 1998 page 33
5. Official inauguration of 50km extension to popular Circleroute for buses Minister for Transport 22 February 1999
6. New cross suburban Circle Route bus service gains popularity Minister for Transport 16 April 1999
7. Services Transit Australia April 1999 page 95
8. 4 operators, 1 route = success Australasian Bus & Coach June 2000 pages 36-40
9. Western Australia Fleetline issue 270 January 2001 page 8
10. ^ Better public transport : ten-year plan for Transperth 1998-2007. Transperth. 1998. pp. 25–26. ISBN 073072400X.
11. Transperth. "Bus, Train and Ferry - Major Timetable Changes". Government of Western Australia. Archived from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
12. Transperth News Rattler issue 341 January 2001 page 7
13. "Planning and Management of Bus Services" (PDF). Office of the Auditor General. November 2017. p. 33. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 March 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
14. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 April 2023. Retrieved 11 April 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
15. Transperth Zone Boundary changes Transperth

External links

• Route 998 timetable Transperth
• Route 999 timetable Transperth

• Bus routes in Australia
• Bus transport in Perth, Western Australia
• Circular bus routes
• Bus transport brands