U-Go Mobility fails to provide timetable services leaving Sutherland students stranded

School children as young as kindergarten have been told to get off a bus and walk home, while other buses have not turned up. The bus service operator has spoken for the first time after a horror week.

Parents and school children are fed up with the bus service they have received this week from U-Go Mobility. File Picture

School children as young as kindergarten have been told to get off a bus and walk kilometres home, while other buses have sailed past students, some have not turned up and passengers are directing drivers.

These are the horror stories school children and their parents have endured from a new bus service operator in the Sutherland Shire, Hurstville and Bankstown regions the past week.

Now the bus operator U-Go Mobility has been issued with a notice to justify to the state government before Tuesday why it should retain its contract, with fines to be issued until it fulfils its requirements.

U-Go Mobility has suspended more than 330 trips as part of the temporary timetable, which is 13.9 per cent of total trips and they are short 76 bus drivers.

A U-Go Mobility spokeswoman said: “we acknowledge we have not met our contractual obligations to provide satisfactory services to the community, and would like to apologise to all of our passengers”.

File picture John Grainger

“U-Go Mobility are suffering from a chronic and unprecedented bus driver shortage which has impacted our ability to provide timetabled services,” she said.

“We have worked with Transport for NSW to implement a temporary timetable to give passengers more predictability, taking care to avoid suspending consecutive trips or last trips, and prioritising dedicated school services.

“We are committed to returning services as soon as we have the drivers to do so, including back to a full timetable as soon as possible.”

U-Go Mobility won the tender back in the beginning of the year and took over the service from Transdev on July 1.

Christina McVean, who lives in Loftus, has two children at high school and one in primary school and had a nightmare of a week.

“On Monday, the high school bus didn’t show up in the afternoon and the teachers had no idea what was happening. The kids had to wait about an hour and I picked them up,” she said. “My son caught the bus from Engadine town centre on Tuesday to meet his sister but the bus drove past the school.”

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She said on Wednesday her children caught the bus together and the children had to direct the driver to the stops.

On Thursday, an independent bus, organised by U-Go, travelled past the school three times and teachers would not let students on the bus because the driver didn’t know where to go.

Ms McVean has driven her children to school all mornings to ensure they will get there and had to leave work early to pick them up.

“My youngest was beside himself because he thought he would have to spend the night at school,” she said.

Ms McVean said she was “appalled” and “disappointed” in U-Go Mobility for not only the terrible service but also the complete lack of communication with parents and schools.

NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen said U-Go Mobility’s transition as the new bus operator had “been nothing short of appalling”.

She said the contract was signed under the previous government before the election and she established the Bus Industry Taskforce to look at solutions.

Ms Haylen said U-Go had been given a show cause letter which asked them to explain why they should retain their contract.

“It‘s evident that U-Go has not met its contractual obligations to provide a satisfactory level of public transport services to the community,” she said.

“I have the contract at my disposal and have also instructed Transport for NSW to impose fines and contractual penalties to the operator until they meet their contractual obligations.

“My expectation is that U-Go Mobility improves services as quickly as possible, and Transport for NSW are working with the operator to make this happen.”

Holsworthy MP Tina Ayyad said the service currently provided was “completely unacceptable” and her office had dozens of emails and calls from concerned parents about bus delays and cancellations.

“It poses a significant safety risk to kids and the elderly,” she said. “There has been a lack of communication with the bus company and patrons. People have been left in the dark.”

Ms Ayyad wrote a letter to Ms Haylen encouraging her to make this a priority and wants to work with the minister to find a solution and has also requested a meeting with U-Go Mobility.