Thousands of Sydney bus drivers refuse to take fares in Government protest

IN A peak hour perk for commuters, bus drivers have turned off smartcard machines as part of a Government protest.

IN A boon to commuters, thousands of bus drivers are refusing to take fares from Sydney commuters in protest at Government privatisation plans.

Up to 3500 State Transit bus drivers from 12 depots across Sydney haven’t turned on Opal machines on Thursday and have donned ‘loud and colourful’ shirts in protest at the transport minister’s plan to privatise services in Sydney’s inner west.

Inner west bus drivers are protesting today with a fare free day for passengers pic.twitter.com/1rMfOBfLM2

— Cath Dwyer (@cathdwyer) May 31, 2017

The privatisation plans, announced by Andrew Constance a fortnight ago, have already resulted in angry drivers taking last-minute strike action which created commuter chaos during peak hours.

“This ‘Fare Free Day’ is about telling commuters that Andrew Constance is selling their local buses without their consent or approval” Rail, Tram and Bus union, bus division president David Woollams said in a statement on Thursday.

NSW transport minister Andrew Constance has announced plans to privatise parts of State Transit: Picture: John Grainger

“The ‘expressions of interest’ period for private bus operators has been brought forward and closes today 1 June, after only being open for just one week,” he said.

The NSW Government directly runs all train services and bus services in Sydney’s inner city, eastern suburbs, inner west, lower north shore, northern beaches and also in Newcastle.

All other buses as well as ferries and the Sydney light rail are contracted out to the private sector with the Government setting timetables and fares including the mandatory use of the Opal smartcard.

On Wednesday Mr Constance said had not ruled out further privatisation of Sydney bus services, saying they would start with privatising inner west bus services, and “see how it goes”.