Bus companies are incentivised to cancel bus services under their contracts, says the new transport minister, who is seeking urgent advice about what can legally be done about it.
A surge in the number of bus cancellations across Sydney over the past two years is being partly blamed on government contracts with private operators failing to penalise bus companies for all cancelled services under performance targets.
“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,” she said. Government figures show that about 28,000 bus services in Sydney were fully or partially cancelled last August, which Haylen said equated to “about a million passengers left on the side of the road”. Last August was the worst month over the past two years for cancellations.. Timetables were temporarily adjusted for reduced services in the inner west, the eastern suburbs, the northern beaches and an area in and around Ryde.
Labor pledged during the state election campaign to set up a bus industry taskforce to improve services across NSW. A parliamentary committeeLoading NSW Rail, Tram and Bus Union divisional secretary David Babineau said performance targets had become the game for bus companies and not the delivery of services.
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