‘Extreme’ delays as Auckland’s NX bus services missing 80 drivers

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Auckland bus passengers faced long queues for Northern Express buses in Tuesday’s peak travel times.

Ricky Wilson/Stuff

Auckland bus passengers faced long queues for Northern Express buses in Tuesday’s peak travel times.

Auckland’s bus driver shortage might be improving, but passengers faced delays on Tuesday that one Auckland councillor has called “extreme”.

North Shore councillor Richard Hills said he had never seen the queue of passengers waiting for NX1 services in Lower Albert Street as long as it was around 5.20pm Tuesday.

Such “extreme delays” would make bus users doubt feedback that the driver shortage is improving, he said.

“People are still turning up (to catch buses), but if it continues like this, people are going to turn around and go back to their cars. It might be a long drive for them, but they will have certainty.”

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Auckland Transport’s group manager metro services Darek Koper said exact cancellation numbers weren’t available on Wednesday due to a system outage, but there are around 390 NX1 trips on week days and 138 were not recorded in AT systems for Tuesday.

”Most of those would have been cancelled,” Koper said.

The two operators who run Northern Express services – Ritchies, which runs NX1 services from Albany, and Tranzurban, which runs NX2 buses from Silverdale – are together short 80 drivers, he said.

That is 23% of the region’s bus driver shortage, which is currently 341, down from around 550 in late 2022.

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Auckland buses are required to be painted a uniform dark blue

“While we’re making progress in other parts of Auckland, those companies are having trouble recruiting,” Koper said.

The NX operators have recruited new drivers, but they aren’t yet fully trained, he said.

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown responded on social media, saying he was “seeking answers” to the cancellations.

A spokesperson from the mayor’s office said they had been advised “there is no clearly apparent reason for the NX cancellations last night, and AT has asked the operators to report back”.

The Auckland region is short 341 bus drivers, down from a peak of 550 in late 2022.

Ricky Wilson/Stuff

The Auckland region is short 341 bus drivers, down from a peak of 550 in late 2022.

The mayor is concerned the driver shortage is seriously impacting the reliability of services and is considering options such as lifting driver wages and increasing services where there is demand, the spokesperson said.

“At the Mayor’s request, Auckland Transport is trialling the use of bus transponders and is investigating how dynamic timings for road lanes can be used to improve road productivity.”

Councillor Hills said a solution is to ensure enough money is set aside in the forthcoming annual budget to roll out additional services as driver numbers increase.

Bus services to the city’s west were also disrupted on Tuesday when a four-car crash on the northwestern motorway caused congestion in suburban streets that meant buses were unable to return to their starting points, Koper said.

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