Working mum finds walking beats bus

By JASON COLLIE

Auckland mother Roberta Eykholt has given up taking the bus because, like thousands of others, she has been let down too often by Stagecoach's lack of drivers.

The multinational bus giant has cancelled more than 800 trips since March because it does not have enough drivers to meet its timetable, leading to fears it will have a bad effect on the push to get more people to use public transport.

Ms Eykholt, who lives in Three Kings, used to rely on being able to catch any one of four afternoon buses over a 45-minute period in Symonds St to get home in time to meet her three young sons after school.

But, she said, after being let down at least once a week she now walked the 6km home from work at the Auckland University Medical School.

"I have given up taking the bus because it's so unreliable," she said. "I can walk from the hospital area to Three Kings in 45 minutes.

"I constantly read articles in the Herald, City Scene and Region Wide telling Aucklanders how we must start using public transport. But how do you expect to get that result when the buses are so unreliable?"

Stagecoach, called before the Auckland Regional Council's transport committee on Thursday to explain its problems, is still almost 70 drivers short.

Last month alone the company - paid $23.5 million a year to run subsidised services - missed 411 trips, including 55 on one Monday.

Campaign for Public Transport spokesman Steve Doole, let down himself by no-show buses, said the number of missed trips was "calamitous."

"Public confidence in public transport is fragile," he said.

"Cars are consistent, and if public transport is not aiming to perform at the same level we are missing the boat with all the bus lanes and other initiatives councils are putting in."

Stagecoach New Zealand executive chairman Ross Martin said the company had been working hard to get more drivers.

It had even tried to borrow drivers from other Auckland companies, but they were too stretched for numbers to help.

It had taken some from its Hutt Valley operation and was set to advertise in other centres, including Invercargill, Dunedin, Christchurch, New Plymouth and Gisborne, for more drivers for Auckland.

Mr Martin said the company had got the number of missed trips down to five a day, but it would still take a couple of months to get enough drivers.

He blamed the shortage on the new driver licensing regime, which he said was taking too long to pass new drivers, and on resignations, which ran at up to nine a week in March and April as drivers looked for other jobs around Auckland and overseas.

Stagecoach had started its own training school, he said, where novice bus drivers would be paid by the company while they were getting their licences. Many had been giving up because of the wait, he said.

"For us it is a disaster and we do apologise. It had us flummoxed to get a driver through the new system."

Services on the Auckland isthmus are the worst affected.

Councillor Mike Lee said at Thursday's meeting that it was no secret that the split shifts which drivers worked were unpopular with staff.

Transport director Barry Mein said Stagecoach would not be paid for the subsidised services it had missed.

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