'
Express bodied
Iveco Metro in
Transport for NSW livery in September 2013 The OSMBSC was initially made up of ten bus system contract regions, OSMBSC 1 to 10. These regions were declared and appeared in the NSW Government Gazette on 1 August 2008. Unlike the
Sydney Metropolitan Bus Service Contracts which are put out to open tender, the government has indicated it does not intend to go down this path with the OSMBSCs, but negotiate with the incumbent operators. Like the bus contracts in Sydney, a requirement of the OSMBSC contracts is that operators cease using their own liveries and adopt a standardised white and two blues livery as prescribed by
Transport for NSW. This livery was first implemented from 2010. As of 2014, the transition to the standardised livery is ongoing. Originally, regions OSMBSC 6 and OSMBSC 9 each had two operators. In 2013–2014, each of the operators in OSMBSC 6 and OSMBSC 9 were offered separate individual contracts, resulting in the creation of two new regions OSMBSC 11 & 12 from OSMBSC 6 and OSMBSC 9 respectively. This gives a total of 12 regions, with each region having one operator. There was no change of operators or takeover of services between operators. However, Coastal Liner (now
Hunter Valley Buses) continues to operate some trips on routes 78, 80, 91 and 98 in Busways region OSMBSC 6. All OSMBSC contracts were renewed between 1 July 2014 and 2 January 2015, including the
Newcastle Buses & Ferries contract for region 5, which was renewed for three years from 1 July 2014. At the end of the three year renewal, region 5 was replaced by NISC 001, with
Keolis Downer operating as
Newcastle Transport taking over bus and ferry services from Newcastle Buses & Ferries in July 2017. It was announced in July 2021 that OSMBSC regions 6 and 7 would be put up to tender. OSMBSC region 7 was put out to tender in September 2021. The incumbent operator for OSMBSC region 6 (Busways) retained the contract, with the new contract commencing on 6 July 2024 for eight years. The incumbent operator for OSMBSC region 7 (Red Bus Services) formed a joint venture with CDC NSW to retain the contract which commenced 28 July 2024 for seven years. ==Regions==