Where Sydney’s bus driver shortage is causing the most delays and cancellations

Bus services across Sydney have been plagued with delays and cancellations, leading to long queues of frustrated commuters after a shortage of drivers led to cuts to services.

The eastern suburbs, inner west and north shore are the hardest hit by the driver shortage. One in 10 B-Line buses to the northern beaches have also been cancelled during the morning peak in the past six months.

A reduction in bus services triggered by a shortage of drivers has caused disruption to commuters across Sydney.Credit: Louise Kennerley

Lane Cove Council has established a reporting system for late and cancelled buses after complaints from teachers and parents about children being late for school.

The driver shortages prompted the NSW government to make temporary service changes in January by cutting bus services across Sydney.

The NSW government blames the lack of drivers on Australia’s low unemployment rate, but the bus union and Labor say privatisation has led to a deterioration in bus services.

On Tuesday morning last week, every third bus scheduled to arrive at Lane Cove interchange heading towards the city was cancelled or extremely delayed. On real-time tracking apps, Transport for NSW advises buses “may operate a reduced service level”.

Bus services in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, inner west, north shore and northern beaches are the hardest hit by the driver shortage.Credit: Louise Kennerley

Jane Weller’s 12-year-old daughter now walks 20 minutes from their Lane Cove home, past their closest bus stop, so she can fit on a service to Riverside Girls High. Weller said the bus disruption had been a frustrating way for her daughter to start high school.

“In the first week, the [over capacity] bus passed the children at the bus stop without explanation. It changed its route destination to ‘not in service’,” she said.

“We were only alerted to the issue when we walked to the bus stop ourselves to catch the city bus and found our daughter still waiting.”

Lane Cove councillor Rochelle Flood said many parents were now driving their children to school every day because they could not rely on the bus.

A Transport for NSW spokeswoman said the reduction in bus services had led to an increase in “negative comments” to operators and on social media.

“Adjusted timetables enable operators to offer more reliably predictable route services, rather than cancelling services ad hoc, giving greater certainty to commuters when planning their trip,” she said.

The spokeswoman blamed Australia’s low unemployment rate of 3.5 per cent for the driver shortage, which has led to more than 500 vacancies out of a workforce of about 7000. It is expected to continue throughout 2023 – despite efforts to recruit drivers with free public transport and subsidised training.

The ongoing bus service cuts add to the frustrations caused by Sydney’s train meltdown earlier this month, which led to the entire rail network grinding to a halt.

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW’s tram and bus division secretary David Babineau said the state government had axed thousands of trips from the timetable because it could not deliver a quality service to commuters.

“We’re seeing incredibly large queues at bus stops and bus drivers are being abused because of the government’s decision to axe services,” he said.

Babineau said the privatisation of buses was worsening driver shortages: “In addition to all the other issues caused by privatisation, they’re now struggling to attract and retain bus drivers, which means operators are axing hundreds of services every day.”

Lola Sharp has been late for many appointments since new timetables were introduced at the end of January, waiting up to half an hour for buses from Coogee that generally run at 10-minute intervals.

“On questioning bus drivers, some have said ‘There is no timetable’,” she said. “Others have said ‘We just do as we are told’. Others have just shrugged.”

Sharp also expressed annoyance that her bus service terminates at Museum station instead of Circular Quay: “As an elderly person, I can do without accessing [and] exiting two buses instead of one.”

Orla Burke usually catches a bus from Bronte to Bondi Junction where she transfers to a train into the city.

But unreliable buses and inaccurate timetables have forced Burke to ask a neighbour to walk her children to school, so she can leave at 8am to ensure she is on time for her meetings.

“It is possible to make a 9am meeting if everything runs to time,” she said. “However it’s currently not feasible to have 9am meetings as I’m frequently late, which makes me look unreliable.”

Labor transport spokeswoman Jo Haylen also blamed privatisation for the deterioration of bus services.

“[A cancelled service] forces passengers back onto our roads and reduces confidence in our public transport system.”

Haylen said a Labor government would set up a taskforce to address the driver shortage, and work to return services cut due to bus privatisation.

“This is about putting the needs of passengers at the centre of our bus network after years of Liberal neglect,” she said.

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