WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE WE

Games bus driver takes Grenada beach volleyball team 98km AWAY from their competition venue

GAMES officials have again been left red-faced by a transport bungle after a bus driver took beach volleyball athletes up the M1 to the wrong venue — nearly 100km from Coolangatta where they were supposed to go.

BEACH volleyballers bound for Coolangatta instead ended up at the cycling velodrome in Brisbane in a staggering Gold Coast Commonwealth Games bus bungle.

The Grenada women’s beach volleyball team needed a police escort back to the Coast, and their match had to be delayed, after an out-of-town bus driver took them to the Anna Meares Velodrome at Chandler, 100km from the golden sands of Coolangatta.

Sources said the driver, from Bowen in North Queensland, was using a sat nav device that was not authorised by the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC), and headed north from the athletes village at Southport instead of south. “Something’s the matter when you don’t know where Coolangatta is,” a transport insider said.

It’s the second controversy to embroil the country Victorian bus line controversially awarded the Games transport contract, after thousands of spectators heading to Wednesday night’s opening ceremony were left stranded without buses.

“When they realised that the bus was a little off course, and time was running down, they immediately rushed to our aid and sent an escort,” a Grenada team official said.

The bungle meant the Grenada team arrived late for their 12.45pm match against Scotland and they lost 2-0.

Team members blamed their loss on the fact they had no time to warm up.

A GOLDOC spokeswoman said the players “arrived in enough time to warm up and take the field of play”. “GOLDOC consulted with both the teams and the beach volleyball technical director to ensure both teams were comfortable with the match taking place as scheduled.”

Games chairman Peter Beattie said: “We will review of our systems to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Gold Coast LNP MP Jann Stuckey said last night it was another example of why an interstate bus company should not have been given the job.

Shadow transport spokesman Steven Minnikin tweeted to Transport Minister Mark Bailey: “Do you think athletes are ‘lunatics’ for expecting buses to turn up to the right venue and on time.” He was making reference to Games boss Mark Peters, who on Thursday said people expecting perfect transport at a major events were lunatics.

The GOLDOC spokeswoman said “marshalling support” was being increased at the athletes village “to ensure that transport users and drivers are all aware of their destination and have this verified before departure”.