As fuel prices remain high Aucklanders voice their opinions to the Government's move to halve the price of public transport. Video / NZ Herald
Auckland Transport is cutting nearly 1000 bus services a day to reduce the number of cancelled services to give public transit users “more certainty”, a decision a transport users’ group has called a cynical and terrible move for passengers.
An ongoing shortage of bus drivers has meant AT hadn’t been able to deliver the full scheduled service for “some time now,” AT’s group manager of Metro Services Darek Koper said.
“This year we have struggled to operate our full bus timetable because of the effects of the national driver shortage, which has led to far more cancellations ... than we would usually see,” he said.
He admitted the cuts, which will remove frequently cancelled services from timetables, were “not the answer” to ongoing service disruptions and would limit the growth of public transport use. The Public Transport Users’ Association has lambasted the organisation’s failure to ensure buses would turn up as scheduled.
A quarter of all bus routes will no longer operate from Sunday November 6. Those most impacted by the removal of services included the City Link, the Inner Link and the Northern Express, with between 26 and 53 scheduled busses cut for each route.
Buses operating in and around Auckland’s central suburbs would suffer the greatest number of removed services. 931 services a day would be discontinued across the city.
The decision comes ahead of a year of major disruption on several Auckland rail lines which would see buses replace trains amid the major $330 million Rail Network Rebuild.
Auckland Transport is removing frequently cancelled bus services from its timetables. Photo / Michael Craig
Ongoing and regular bus cancellations have frustrated passengers since April. Koper said the timetable changes would reduce any further cancellations and give passengers more certainty when planning their trips.
Koper said, “we’re not taking anything away that’s currently running. We are just temporarily removing them in the timetable, so they won’t show up and then appear as cancelled. We are still running 12,000 bus trips a day and we’re working on adding services back to our timetables as soon as bus operators can recruit more drivers.”
AT aimed to keep a number of scheduled services, including the first and last trip of the day and school busses and city routes with high patronage of students.
The Public Transport Users’ Association co-ordinator Jon Reeves said, “it seems like AT is just trying to cover their derrieres to make their statistics and data look better by simply wiping off scheduled services they couldn’t deliver and then saying that 100 per cent of [scheduled buses] turn up.
“I would suggest it is a cynical move, and it’s certainly not in passengers’ favour. AT is there to deliver a service, and they’re failing when the buses aren’t even turning up.”
National’s transport spokesman Simeon Brown partially blamed the timetable cuts on the Government for making it difficult for bus operators to find new staff.
“These service cuts by Auckland Transport will cause additional disruption for public transport users and are partially due to the Government keeping immigration settings so tight that it is impossible for businesses to find staff, including bus drivers,” he said.
“The Government has spent the last five years spending tens of millions on pet projects like light rail and a cycling bridge across the harbour bridge which have gone nowhere, when their focus should have been on making sure that the existing public transport services were run efficiently and reliably.”
Koper said there had already been moves to improve staffing numbers. “There have been some positive movements around bus driving as a vocation, benefiting both existing drivers and supporting recruitment drives.
“With funding support from Auckland Council and Waka Kotahi, there has been two recent increases in base remuneration for drivers with a further increase through government funding,” he said.
A spokesman for Transport Minister Michael Wood could not comment on the decision to cut services as it was an operational matter for AT. Wood did say the Government was committed to well-serviced public transport and having enough bus drivers was crucial.
“It is clear that there are currently challenges recruiting bus drivers in many of our cities around New Zealand. Our Government recognises that improving the conditions of drivers will make it easier to recruit and retain the workforce, allowing frequent and reliable bus services.”
“That’s why we are moving ahead with reforms to the public transport operating model, introducing Fair Pay Agreements, and yesterday announced [funding] to support the sector to standardise minimum base wage rates towards a target rate, which will help recruit and retain drivers,” Wood said.
Wood said the money - allocated in this year’s Budget - would be spent over four years to lift base wage rates towards $30 an hour for urban services and $28 an hour for regional services.
He said there were about 800 drivers needed across the country.
AT needed 500 of those drivers to meet the shortfall. Recruitment of drivers in east Auckland had already enabled a return to full timetabled services since their removal there in May.
Koper thanked customers for their patience and ongoing support for public transport “during these difficult times”.
However, we understand how frustrating it has been for our customers experiencing these cancellations as we hope this change will provide more confidence in their daily commutes.
