City braces for bus ‘mayhem’
Public transport users are being warned to brace for another rough Monday on buses across the Wellington region as 50 striking drivers and students returning to school put more pressure on the network.
Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), which runs Metlink, warned some services may not run to schedule today.
Spokesman Peter Thornbury said they were confident there would be enough staff to manage demand but with the new network still in the early stages of bedding in, there may be delays.
‘‘Every effort will be made to keep these to a minimum.’’
It was unclear yesterday exactly how the strike would affect services but Metlink would try to deliver services ‘‘as close to timetable as possible’’.
‘‘Our actual response will depend largely on how things play out.’’
Bus users, including students, should plan their journeys in advance and take in to account the possibility that buses may not be on time. ‘‘While it is expected the disruption will have the greatest impact on the Hutt Valley, it is possible that other services in the region may be affected.’’
Train services were expected to run to normal timetables.
In today’s industrial action, which was to begin at 5am, 50 Hutt Valley drivers were to cut their daily hours to a standard eight-hour day with breaks, instead of as much as 14 hours, which some were doing, said the Tramways Union.
Their new rosters were introduced by bus company Tranzit, which recently began operating about 60 per cent of the Wellington region’s bus routes.
Tramways Union secretary Kevin O’Sullivan said there
would likely be significant disruption to services and people should consider alternative transport. ‘‘The intention is to force Tranzit to start talking to us about a collective agreement and stop running illegal shifts,’’ he said. ‘‘This isn’t something that’s come out of the blue. We’ve been trying to tell the regional council this for 18 months, and it’s just fallen on deaf ears.’’
The strike comes a week after a complete revamp of bus routes and public transport timetables in Wellington, which was plagued by problems that included buses not showing up, drivers asking passengers for directions, and commuters being overcharged.
But Tranzit said it ‘‘couldn’t be prouder’’ of the way its team had pulled together thus far.
Managing director Paul Snelgrove said the Hutt Valley union action would not have a significant impact.
‘‘Monday was always going to be a big day,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve got the drivers we need and they’re 100 per cent committed to doing what’s required to get everyone to where they need to go. This is a trumped-up action based on false claims.’’
Everything the union was claiming had been proven untrue, Snelgrove said.
‘‘Our drivers are paid and treated well. No driver works 14 hours. It has been independently verified that we offer some of the best hourly rates and terms and conditions in the country. The union is punishing commuters – and its own members – for no good reason.’’
On top of the staffing and route challenges, the bus payment Snapper Card system has also been malfunctioning by not allowing passengers to tag off, hitting them with penalty fees in the process.
The company said it would be issuing refunds.
‘‘Snapper is working in the background to make sure [people] are not disadvantaged by events that are out of their control.’’
A council spokesman said it was not clear how much money was refunded to customers in the first week of the new network.
‘‘There is a new Snapper system that’s been deployed across the network, so we are still ironing out a few glitches.’’
The Public Transport Users’ Association, a voluntary organisation that represents commuters, said those in Wellington were wearing the brunt of poor planning and implementation by the regional council.
‘‘It’s all good for Greater Wellington Regional Council to say issues over bus driver pay and staffing are out of its hands. The truth is they selected the new bus network operators,’’ co-ordinator Jon Reeves said. ‘‘GWRC are fully implicated in the shambles currently affecting bus passengers.’’
The association suggested bus passengers be offered a month of free travel while the council sorted out the ‘‘mayhem’’.