Manly’s popular Hop Skip and Jump bus service was again recommended for the axe by Northern Beaches Council staff – the service having already lost 80 per cent of its routes in a previous round of cuts – in a meeting closed to the public and media last Tuesday night. But a majority of elected councillors were having none of it.
The discussion and vote, which required Manly Observer to leave the chamber because it involved sensitive information and “staff implications,” was a service review of the long-standing transport service recommending it be shut down from November 30.
Manly ward councillors led an impassioned plea to the chamber, we are told, which argued the value of a service is not always captured by its operating cost.
With the express support of fellow Manly Ward councillors, Cr Sarah Grattan, who also heads Lifeline Northern Beaches, successfully diverted its closure with an amendment to continue the service, look for improvements, and revert in three years. Cr Grattan shared her prepared speech with us:
“Frankly, I never expected that I would have to stand here and defend it again. But here we are. Because the question before us tonight is not simply whether we can afford the Hop Skip Jump. It is whether, having already achieved $450,604 in operational savings since the 2024/25 financial year, we are really prepared to remove a service that our community relies on, without consultation, rather than take the next step to make it more sustainable.
This amendment… recognises something that can get lost when we look at a spreadsheet:
The value of a service is not always captured by its operating cost.
The Hop Skip Jump is not just a bus. It is community infrastructure. It connects people to shops, services, the pool, reserves and to each other. And for some residents, it is the difference between independence and isolation. We have heard these stories before. Older residents who have given up driving and depend on the bus to remain independent. People with disabilities or temporary mobility problems who simply cannot navigate the hills and distances of Manly easily. Children learning to travel independently. People who would otherwise be isolated.
And community organisations have told us directly that the service is important to some of the most vulnerable people they support. These are not just transport stories. They’re stories about dignity and independence. It’s the older woman who can get to the shops herself rather than having to ask her daughter to drive her. It’s the son who doesn’t have to rearrange his working day to take his mother to an appointment.
It’s the person who can get out of the house, see a friend, go to the pool, or simply remain connected to their community. And that matters. Because once people become disconnected, the consequences are much bigger than a transport inconvenience. I live the consequences of that every day at work.
“The Hop Skip Jump is not just a bus. It is community infrastructure. It connects people to shops, services, the pool, reserves and to each other. And for some residents, it is the difference between independence and isolation.”
This is why the Hop Skip Jump aligns so strongly with the strategies this Council has already adopted.
Our strategies talk about reducing car use, improving public transport, accessibility and inclusion, social cohesion, resilience and reducing transport emissions. We wrote those strategies. We adopted them. The Hop Skip Jump actually delivers them.
So we should be very careful about removing one of the few services that does so in practice. And we also need to understand why this service is particularly important in Manly.
Manly is not simply another suburb. We have some of the highest population densities on the Northern Beaches, steep terrain, chronic parking pressure and enormous visitor numbers.
More than two million visitors come to Manly each year. Our local streets and parking infrastructure are already under enormous pressure. The Hop Skip Jump provides an alternative to another car trip in a place where we desperately need alternatives.
And if we remove the service, people don’t stop needing to travel.
Some will walk. Some will ride Lime Bikes. But some will get back into their cars. And that means more congestion, more parking pressure and more emissions. So we need to ask not only what the bus costs. We need to ask what it costs us not to have it.
And I want to address the process as well. There has been no community consultation in the preparation of this report.
And because this matter was contained in the confidential section of the agenda, the community has not had the opportunity to properly understand the proposal, consider its consequences or have a say before Council is asked to make a decision.
That matters. We are talking about a service that has generated an extraordinary level of community support in the past. So surely the community should have a voice before we make a decision about its future.”
Councillors voted in favour of continuing the service for another three years and exploring the potential for a bus service that extends to the Warringah Aquatic Centre for residents in the Frenchs Forest ward, too.
The Hop Skip and Jump Service
In 2025 the service was gutted and reduced to only one route — its most popular Route 1 which begins at Condamine Street, potters past the Andrew Boy Charlton Swim Centre and Little Manly before looping back to where it started for interchange.
The motivations behind the decision to cut back the services were financial. Over the past seven years patrons of Hop Skip and Jump have dropped significantly with passenger numbers almost halving from 318,037 in 2018/19 to 174,316 in 2023/24 and, since Council can’t charge for the service, it was deemed ‘financially unsustainable,’ leading to Council axing 80 per cent of the routes behind a closed-door meeting.
The Hop Skip Jump began as a complimentary service sponsored by Stockland Balgowlah, for customers, particularly the elderly, to travel to Stockland Shopping Centre (now Balgowlah Village) with ease. Manly Council took over the service after Stockland Balgowlah bowed out, then it was inherited by Northern Beaches Council following the amalgamation of Manly, Pittwater and Warringah Councils in 2016.
Council resolved to note the report regarding the Hop, Skip and Jump bus and the $450,604 in operational savings achieved since the 2024/25 financial year; to acknowledge that no community consultation was undertaken in the preparation of the report and that its inclusion in the Agenda’s confidential items precluded the community from being aware of, and having a say upon, the matters contained therein; to apply for grant funding to undertake additional improvement works to bus stop accessibility as outlined in the report; to encourage additional donations, in lieu of fares, by placing the payment device in a more convenient location on the buses; to promote the service via the Manly Swim Centre and other Council facilities in Manly; to undertake a further review in three years, including community consultation, and report back to Council; and to provide a high level report on the potential for providing an equivalent service for Warringah Aquatic Centre.
Here was the community response to the removal of the services last year:
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