"No-one should be left on the side of the road when the timetable says there is a bus coming," Bus Users Support Group Otepoti co-president Alex King said.
Cancellations were common and frustrating, he said.
Services were again afflicted by a series of cancellations at the weekend and the Otago Regional Council attributed this mostly to driver illness.
Mr King said if the bus companies could not keep to their schedules, they might need to be adjusted in the short term to make them more realistic.
This was preferable to "having buses not turn up randomly".
Bus passengers could use an app for alerts, but not everyone had it and real-time information was not provided on display screens at the Great King St bus hub, he said.
Mr King suggested a requirement to bring in transport such as taxis, to ensure that no-one was stranded.
The council has not said when it expects services to return to normal.
"Unfortunately, we do not know how long the disruptions will last, but we do wish our drivers well in their recovery," council transportation spokesman Julian Phillips said.
Mr King said the lack of a date for when people could expect normal services to resume was not good enough.
Mr Phillips said the situation was exacerbated by a national shortage of bus drivers.
"Bus operators are doing their best to manage the disruptions with their available staff."
Dunedin Tramways Union secretary Philip Matthews confirmed there was some driver illness.
"The odd driver is getting Covid," Mr Matthews said.
"We don’t deny that.
"The biggest problem is we’re so short of drivers."
Mr Matthews said drivers were not paid enough.
Changing that would help, he said.
"We’re massively short of drivers," Mr Matthews said.
"When one or two go down sick, we can’t replace them."
He doubted everything possible was being done to find drivers to cover routes when staff were off sick.
Cancellations were harming the reputation of the service, he said.
"It’s been happening for about two months.
"I know customers are peeved."
The council contracted Go Bus Transport and Ritchies Transport to run services in Dunedin.
Mr Phillips said disruptions were affecting the network as a whole and notifications were updated regularly on the council’s communication channels.
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Comments
Buses need to owned and run by the City council.
Private companies have failed, & the fact this is all overseen by the Regional council is the icing on the cake.
It won't matter who owns the infrastructure, sick drivers during a global pandemic will be a fact of life.
And why can’t they fill the void of a few sick drivers? Because they refuse to adequately compensate any driver who picks up the extra hours. Once again, profit trumps public service. Has to end.
Buses need to be under the control of the city council. The Otago Regional Council has failed, repeatedly, for decades. This current fiasco is just the latest fiasco. Where is the Plan B? Cancelling timetabled services shows scant regard for their users. Or no regard, to be precise. As Alex King says, why not provide taxis. Or taxi mini vans? Anything?
How many people have been left at bus stops, waiting for a bus that doesn't come? It's hard to imagine a better way of discouraging bus use.
I hope that neither the ORC nor the bus companies get any money for not running services.
City bus services need to be handed over by the regional council. Or taken from them. This is election year, so Dunedin residents need to make this a priority when considering candidates for both the city council and the Otago Regional Council.
Why is it that every industry complaining about staff shortages are talking about jobs that are either minimum wage, or close to it.
The council should not accept this argument from the contractors, and should be writing penalty conditions now, for the next iteration of the contract. Nor should they be so obsessed about getting the cheapest bid for a route.
If this level of service continues, the management incompetence should be sought out and dealt with - both soon and publicly.
Expecting ratepayers to put up with this service - and weak argument - is offensive. We deserve much, much better.
Retention is big problem. Companies seem to train bus drivers very well, but pay them little over minimum wage then wonder why they leave as soon as a better paid job turns up. Australian bus drivers get paid around twice as much and they are still short. Where do we suppose they’ll look to make up the shortfall? The hourly rate for a bus cleaner is in many cases, almost the same as for a skilled driver, but without the stress of punting a bus through city traffic with the added responsibility of passenger care and safety. And it is a skill. Try it. I can’t do it … in case you were thinking this comment was written by a self-interested bus driver.