Gold Coast bus driver shortages: State government’s surprise solution

A surprise solution has been offered to solve the northern Gold Coast’s chronic bus driver shortages after months of cancelled services which have left schoolchildren stranded.

The state government is investigating changes to working visas to plug holes in their bus driver rosters.

Services across the Gold Coast’s north have repeatedly been cancelled or curtailed in the past year because of staff shortages.

With the labour market remaining tight across Queensland and a growing population, the state government is now moving to find a solution.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey said the city’s northern suburbs continued to face a driver shortage, which had led to service disruptions.

Queensland Minister for Transport Mark Bailey. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

“While the broader network is doing well, we are facing additional challenges on the northern Gold Coast resulting in some service disruptions,” he said.

“The labour market across the Gold Coast is much tighter than the rest of the state, making it more difficult to attract and retain drivers to service the country’s fastest growing region.

“The Gold Coast’s unemployment rate is at 2.9 per cent compared to 3.8 per cent statewide.

“We are working with the federal government to investigate temporary changes to the classification of a bus drivers when it comes to working visas.”

Mr Bailey earlier this month met with bus driver representatives, Kinetic, the service provider for the northern Gold Coast and the Queensland Bus Industry Council to continue developing solutions.

Of the 500,000 trips taken on Gold Coast public transport in March, Mr Bailey said 98 per cent were on schedule.

It comes after growing issues with bus services since the pandemic.

Northern Gold Coast residents are up in arms regarding the constant bus run cancellations leaving young kids stranded on their way to and from school. The bus is the only one that covers the Norfolk Village State School area. Schoolchildren Layla Ramsey 9 and Willow Buckley 10 hope their bus will show up. Picture Glenn Hampson

Drivers went on strike twice in January over a pay rise dispute, frustrated and claiming that remuneration was behind other states.

Transport Workers Union director of organising Jared Abbott last year said that the pandemic had led to some older drivers quitting and exposing underlying issues facing the sector.

“It’s been the same problem since June. We had a number of drivers in the older demographic who left due to the risk of Covid, but the problem just keeps compounding because the more people who leave the job, the worse the job becomes,” he said in 2022.

“People are leaving for three main reasons.

“There’s the pay issue, where Queensland has been completely left behind the other states.

“There’s the massive safety issue – we’re dealing with at least one assault every single day. Our drivers do not have a secure cabin, there is no genuine security monitoring and it’s very dangerous.”

Northern Gold Coast parents in March vented their fury at the repeated cancellation on the 729 bus route between Ormeau train station and Norfolk Village State School.

They said it was causing significant disruption for young students in the afternoon once classes finished.

Kinetic blamed “driver availability as a result of nationwide labour shortages plus above average absenteeism from illness”.

The company said it was “taking steps to prioritise these services”.

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Originally published as Gold Coast bus driver shortages: State government’s surprise solution