Buses stop for staff meeting

Christchurch bus users face a morning of disruption while a major operator briefs its drivers on future route contracts.

Services will be cut back between 9.45am and 1pm today so Red Bus drivers can attend an ‘‘important staff meeting’’.

Environment Canterbury (ECan), which manages the bus service, is making an announcement about service contracts immediately afterwards.

The purple line, which runs west to east between the airport and Sumner, and routes 17, 28, 100, 120 and 135, will run about half as often as usual during the meeting. More details are available on the Metro Canterbury Facebook page.

An ECan spokeswoman said it was hoped disruption to passengers would be ‘‘limited as much as possible’’.

ECan called for tenders for operators to run many of its services, including major routes such as the Orbiter, Blue Line and Yellow Line, last November. The new contracts will start from November. As a major operator, Christchurch City Council-owned Red Bus was able to directly negotiate with ECan for some of its existing routes and will continue to run at least five routes, including the purple route, according to tender documents. Go Bus also directly negotiated for some routes.

Councillors and authorities approached by The Press have been tight-lipped on what possible changes will come from the new tender agreements.

Red Bus chief executive Paul McNoe said the meeting was to tell staff the results of the tender in person. He would not comment on what those results were.

According to a union source, drivers working for Red Bus did not know why the meeting had been called but were speculating it was because the company had lost out on urban routes in the tender process. In 2010, the company lost six routes to other operators, leading to major job losses.

ECan was criticised during this tender process because it would not accept bids from operators wanting to use only electric vehicles, despite the council calling a climate emergency just months before.

Applicants had to submit three proposals: one with diesel powered vehicles, an alternative using all EVs, and another showing a transition to lowemissions vehicles.