The boss of Auckland Transport has announced 150 jobs will be cut as he promises to get chaotic ferry, bus and train travel in the Super City back to pre-Covid-19 levels in just eight months.
New Auckland Transport (AT) chief executive Dean Kimpton made the job cuts announcement on Monday night, shortly after speaking to RNZ’s Checkpoint, when he said that with extra government funding the organisation was negotiating for, they could revive the region’s public transport services by the end of the year.
In a statement after the show, he said about 150 roles would be cut. And that this followed Auckland Council’s Letter of Expectation and its annual budget for 2023/2024, which had made it clear the organisation should plan to receive less funding from the council.
“To meet these obligations for the new financial year, we need to make changes before July 1,” Kimpton said.
“These changes include embedding significant operational efficiencies and subleasing property. It also means a reduction of roles and changes within some divisions. We anticipate a reduction of approximately 150 roles.”
Kimpton has hopped on board the organisation at a time when more than a thousand bus trips a day have been cancelled or suspended, with some services so overcrowded they simply do not stop for those waiting.
The problems are mainly due to an acute driver shortage.
It is the same story for Auckland’s commuter ferries, with operator Fuller360 saying it’s been cancelling up to 30 per cent of weekly services because there are not enough skippers or crew hands.
Kimpton said he understood Aucklanders' loss of confidence in Auckland Transport. Photo / NZME
Kimpton told Checkpoint they were in discussion with both Auckland Council and the Government toward lifting bus drivers’ pay.
“To do that, though, we need additional funding ... in the order of $25 million,” Kimpton said.
He said there had been good discussions with the Government on the extra funding needed.
Last year Transport Minister Michael Wood announced $61m for increasing driver wages and improving working conditions across the country.
Kimpton said the current level of services was “deeply challenged”, which was a problem created both by conditions arising from the pandemic and by the driver shortages.
“The good news is that we’re really clear on what we need to do to address that gap, and I’m grateful to both Auckland Council ... but [also] to the Government for addressing immigration constraints, so we can now bring the drivers and their families in, and recently you’ll recall the same message around ferries.
“So between that, the training of them and the funding - which we’re finalising - I expect that we’ll achieve our target of 20 to 25 per cent increase by the end of this year or early next year.”
Kimpton said he understood Aucklanders’ loss of confidence in Auckland Transport.
“I really get it, because when you’ve got maybe 1000 trips a week cancelled, you’ve got buses turning up, not turning up, and maybe they’re late, maybe they’re not, you lose confidence.”
Kimpton said it was “a difficult and challenging time” for AT staff, and the organisation would not go into detail about the changes being made to cut costs until after consultation and the final decision-making.
