95bFM Auckland's bus cancellation crisis
3 April, 2023
Interview by Jessica Hopkins, adapted by Athena Li-Watts
National Public Transport Users Association Coordinator, John Reeves, says people who rely on public transport are struggling due to mass cancellations and delays. Photo: Canva.
Cities across Aotearoa have been experiencing a public transport crisis this past month, particularly our biggest city Tāmaki Makaurau.
Issues of congestion, as well as thousands of weekly cancellations and delays, have been affecting users of Auckland’s bus, train, and ferry services.
Auckland Transports's solution was a tweet asking patrons to avoid using public transport during peak hours.
This tweet was met with significant criticism, including from the National Coordinator of the Public Transport Users Association, John Reeves.
Reeves told 95bFM’s The Wire that many people do not have the option of driving to their destinations and rely on the public transport system to access essential needs like healthcare.
“If public transport doesn’t show up when you are meant to get to that appointment, that can delay your healthcare by another few more months.”
Reeves argued that alternative transport options such as Uber are costly and inaccessible to those with low incomes.
“That is an issue if you are, say, working in the hospo industry and relying on a late-night bus to get home, and it is cancelled. What do you do? Do you catch a forty or fifty dollar Uber ride home? It has a financial implication for workers.”
The bus driver shortage is the main reason why so many buses are cancelled, which Reeves argued is due to drivers being underpaid.
He said that earning $30 an hour before tax is barely enough to sustain a person amidst Auckland’s cost of living crisis.
“We need to look at either increasing pay for drivers, or perhaps say to bus drivers ‘join us, become a bus driver, and if you serve 12 months, you’ll get a couple of thousand dollars bonus."
The Public Transport Users Association has been making recommendations to Auckland Transport on this issue.
They urged people to email photos to ptusers@outlook.com of how public transport issues are affecting them. The photos will be presented to Auckland Transport and the Auckland Council to support their recommendations.
