NSW Minister for Transport, Jo Haylen, today joined Member for Coogee, Dr Marjorie O’Neill, to expose a key root cause of the massive number of bus cancellations that have plagued Sydney bus passengers in recent times as a result of privatisation.
In briefings since taking over the portfolio, the minister has learned that when the previous government sold public bus services off to private operators they created contracts that gave these companies financial incentives to cancel services.
- The contracts imposed financial penalties on the companies for failing to meet ‘on time running’ targets.
- Bus services that are cancelled do not count as late.
- There are penalties for cancellations also, but only up to a certain number.
- Once that threshold is reached the companies make more money if they cancel a bus that might run late.
- Since privatisation, these provisions have left millions of passengers stranded at bus stops waiting for buses that never come.
- In August last year alone, 28,000 buses were cancelled across Sydney.
- Assuming each cancelled bus would have been only half full, that is more than a million people abandoned at bus stops in a single month.
Minister Haylen has sought urgent advice about what can legally be done to rectify this situation and permanently improve bus services across Sydney.
Quotes attributable to Jo Haylen, NSW Minister for Transport:
“In their rush to sell off our publicly owned assets, the former Liberal government created contracts with these private companies that actually give them financial incentives to cancel bus services.”
“They created penalties for not hitting ‘On Time Running’ targets then let them off if they just cancelled the bus rather than let it be late.”
“In addition, private bus companies are now paying many bus drivers less for doing the exact same job as other drivers – a two tier pay system.”
“They created an utterly demoralised workforce. Now we can’t recruit enough drivers to keep the system going.”
“Contempt for the workers who make the system run. And complete indifference to passengers queued up at crowded bus stops in the rain, dreading telling their bosses why they are late again.”
“My whole focus is on the people. Our transport workers who make the service work and passengers who depend on it so much, will be at the heart of every decision I make as minister.”
