Some now have extensions, extra services, changed times or minor diversions but just one cancelled route has been reinstated.

Bus company management was not available for comment at press time and has not clarified the number of routes it originally modified or cancelled.

Many of the major network changes affect the most vulnerable people: school pupils and the residents of four retirement villages.

Residents at Mountainview Retreat Retirement Village at Round Corner, Dural, feel their safety was compromised by the cancellation of route 637 from Glenorie to Castle Hill. The bus has always picked up residents, many whom needed to get to the shops or medical appointments, from the village bus stop.

The secretary of the residents' association, Beryl Russell, said since the cancellation, passengers have had to walk 300 metres up a steep hill, with no marked footpath, to Old Northern Road.

They then crossed ``horrendous traffic'' to the opposite side of the road without the safety of a marked pedestrian crossing.

``Some of these residents are elderly and frail and have poor hearing and vision,'' she said, adding others couldn't walk up the hill because of knee and hip problems.

Ms Russell, 81, said some had given up driving, making them ``more and more dependent on buses''. ``We're only asking for one service a day,'' she said.

Adding insult to injury, Hillsbus used the village's cul-de-sac as a waiting area for their city services but after ``two weeks of misery'' and a letter to the Transport Minister, the residents were told the cancellation had been an ``oversight'' and the service would be re-instated from yesterday.

In a similar case, a minor change was made yesterday to the popular route 632 service.

For 18 years, Castle Hill residents and retirees David and Beryl McKellar have caught the route 632 bus from Castlewood to Pennant Hills from the Oakhill Drive shops bus-stop.