Paddington (un)explained: the 388

Everyone in Paddington knows the 389, the long-running — if increasingly unreliable — Bondi Junction to Pyrmont bus service that runs, well, whenever it feels like it through Hargrave St and Five Ways, along the suburb’s old tram route.

But how many people know the 388?

This eccentric service runs once daily, Monday to Friday, one way, starting in Paddington at the corner of Lawson St and Vialoux Ave. The service sees buses chug uncomfortably up Cambridge St in a 14-minute journey of 10 stops. It departs daily at 9:20am.

Why does this service exist? Nobody seems to know.

The Australian Transport Discussion Board (an online forum for discussing buses) describes the 388 as “the least frequent service in Australia or New Zealand”.

One online pundit speculates elsewhere that it could be “a weird shopping service to get some belligerent resident to Bondi Junction … but there’s no return bus so that seems unlikely”.

The 388, we salute you.