In 2011, the NSW government decided to contract out ferry services to the private sector. Harbour City Ferries was formed as a 50/50 joint venture between Transfield Services (later Broadspectrum) and Veolia Transdev (later Transdev). In May 2012, Harbour City Ferries was announced as the successful tenderer to operate the services on a seven-year contract starting 28 July 2012.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

In December 2016, Harbour City Ferries became fully owned by Transdev Australasia after Transdev bought out Broadspectrum's 50% shareholding.^[7] As of December 2016^[update], Harbour City Ferries employs more than 650 people and its fleet consisted of 32 vessels.^[7] The government acquired six more ferries in 2017 that were added to the Harbour City Ferries fleet.^[8]

In July 2019, Harbour City Ferries commenced a new contract to operate the ferries until June 2028.^[9] To coincide with the contract, Harbour City Ferries was rebranded Transdev Sydney Ferries.^[10] Its website was updated prematurely in June 2019 to reflect the name change.^[11] Ten new River-class ferries were commissioned in 2021.^[12] 3 Emerald Class Ferries entered service in 2021 however were briefly withdrawn in 2022 due to multiple steering failures. Seven new Parramatta River-class ferries will be introduced in 2024.^[13]

•  
  Freshwater-class ferry since 1982.
  (MV Narrabeen)
•  
  First Fleet-class ferry, since 1986.
  (Scarborough)
•  
  RiverCat class ferry, since 1992.
  (Nicole Livingstone)
•  
  SuperCat class ferry, since 2000.
  (Saint Mary MacKillop)
•  
  Emerald-class ferry, since 2017.
  (Bungaree)
•  
  River-class, since 2021.
  (Ruth Park)