Tourists get buses, not commuters

‘‘If we could get them to drive urban five days a week, we would love it.’’

Tranzit Group managing director Paul Snelgrove

Wellington bus operator Tranzurban says the drivers who ferried cruise passengers into the city on a day it cancelled 72 commuter bus services are not willing to drive the regular routes.

The Westerdam cruise ship with 1964 passengers docked in Wellington yesterday morning.

Metlink has two companies – NZ Bus and Tranzurban – that run the majority of Wellington’s commuter bus network but both have been hampered by driver shortages. Only Tranzurban runs the cruise ship shuttle service.

Greater Wellington Regional Council figures show Tranzurban had cancelled 72 services by 1pm yesterday while NZ Bus had cancelled 124 services.

Greater Wellington Regional Council chairperson Daran Ponter asked questions of staff on Sunday after seeing a photo of a Metlink-branded bus on the Wellington wharves while about half of all number seven buses were cancelled.

He was meeting the bus company this week and planned, among other things, to ask if it could get some part-timers to plug holes in the commuter bus services.

Tranzurban runs multiple Wellington services including the number one from Island Bay to Johnsonville and nearby suburbs, the number seven to Brooklyn and around. The number one had 16 cancellations on Monday, while number seven buses had three.

But Tranzit Group – the parent company of Tranzurban – managing director Paul Snelgrove said the cruise bus drivers came from a different pool to regular drivers.

They were mostly brought in from out-of-town and many were semi-retired and willing to work only a few days per month, he said.

‘‘If we could get them to drive urban five days a week, we would love it.’’

Metlink general manager Samantha Gain said there was an agreement with Tranzurban that meant it could use Metlinkbranded buses for cruise passengers if it did not disrupt regular services.

Metlink was looking into the situation yesterday morning, when there were multiple bus cancellations at the same time cruise passengers were being ferried around, she said.

‘‘We were notified of a high number of uncovered shifts due to absenteeism by both larger operators.’’

Regional councillor Thomas Nash said there needed to be ‘‘absolute assurances’’ that bus companies were not prioritising cruise work over public transport services they were contracted to deliver.

‘‘People are rightly frustrated with bus cancellations and if there’s a perception that cruise ship passengers are getting priority over local bus routes then that risks undermining confidence in our network.’’