Bus boss demands answers

The owner of Stagecoach has demanded answers from the bus company about a flurry of complaints over the inner city Link bus. Infratil's director of Stagecoach, Tim Brown, has told Stagecoach management to find ways to lift the service after complaints to the Herald from regular users spoke of waiting for 30 minutes. The Advertising Standards Complaints Board ruled Stagecoach's claim of a bus "every 10 minutes" for its Link service was misleading.

"There are definitely shortcomings," Mr Brown said in an email to the Herald. "I'm sure those interviewed have legitimate gripes. I am following up with Stagecoach management to find out how the service could be lifted to meet expectations."

After one reader's complaint that a Wellington-based company could not effectively run Auckland's public transport system, Mr Brown said Infratil had supported many steps taken by Stagecoach to improve.

It had ordered about 20 new buses, which would probably be used on the Link routes.

Infratil was spending more on supporting Stagecoach measures such as keeping buses clean (about $1.5m a year across the whole fleet of 1000 buses) and driver training (about $300,000 a year).

"As to the time-honoured complaint 'They come all at once', I'm particularly interested to know if we can do something about this."

However, he said Stagecoach was also reliant on steps by local bodies such as the Auckland City Council and Auckland Regional Transport Authority.

"I suspect the answer will be a mixture of more bus lanes (Auckland City Council), better signs (ARTA), better shelters (ARTA), better trained drivers and cleaner buses (us), a better ticketing system (ARTA), and more buses (ARTA and us)."

Although a new, faster ticketing system was being introduced in Wellington and on Fuller ferries, its introduction to Auckland was being blocked by the ARTA.

Link service complaints have also been added to the board meeting agenda today.

TOMORROW
Stagecoach fronts up. Find out why the buses stop for so long at Victoria St Market. Why do the buses always seem to arrive in groups of three? Why do complaints to Stagecoach seem to float into the ether?