Sydney Bus Network: 400 driver vacancies see delays, shortstaffing in North Shore, Inner West, Bankstown, Eastern Suburbs
Hundreds of bus driver vacancies across the Sydney public transport network are grinding services to a halt. See how many staff shortages are in your suburb.
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Sydney’s bus driver shortage has reached breaking point – with a massive 409 vacancies across the network as Transport Minister Jo Haylen reveals a hiring blitz has seen more than 590 recruits trained to hit the road since April in an effort to bridge the gap.
The latest Transport for NSW driver shortage data, seen by The Daily Telegraph, reveals a massive 491 staff shortages in April, before a major hiring and training campaign was rolled out across the state.
Ms Haylen laid blame of driver shortages a a “direct result of the privatisation of bus services across metropolitan Sydney”.
“There is no quick fix to the driver shortage, but we are working with the industry to make the situation better,” she told The Daily Telegraph.
“We will always see some churn in the driver workforce on a region by region basis, that’s why we’ve introduced measures to make it easier to become a bus driver by waiving the application fee, providing free opal cards for bus drivers, working to improve facilities and fix the two tiered wages system, and run a recruitment campaign that has seen more than 450 people receive their bus driver authority.”
There are currently 156 bus drivers in training across the state.
According to August data, released to NSW Parliament on Tuesday, Bus operators in Sydney’s North Shore and North West saw the highest number of vacancies for drivers with 95 roles reported, followed by 76 vacant positions in the Inner West and southern suburbs.
In the Sutherland Shire and Bankstown there are a further 74 drivers outstanding.
A further 60 vacant positions were reported by Transport for NSW in Sydney eastern suburbs, where local plumber Oscar Yencken, 25, said he constantly faces delays to services.
“I’ll catch the bus fairly often as I don’t have a car but I wish I didn’t, it’s normally late, meaning I can be late for work,” he said.“it’s frustrating, you’d think after all these years it would be running smoothly but I guess not.”
The reported figures, submitted to to NSW Parliament, comes just days after The Daily Telegraph revealed a staggering 28,526 services have been cancelled in the Northern Beaches and North Shore bus region this year, blamed on a shortage of drivers.
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