Fix bus row or lose contract, council says

The deadlock between drivers and their employer NZ has taken 700 buses off the road. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The Auckland Regional Council has delivered an ultimatum to the bus company at the centre of the industrial dispute - either fix it up or lose your contract.

Council chairman Mike Lee said Auckland has had enough.

"Auckland will not be held to ransom. If you can't deliver the services that the people of Auckland rely on, then we will have to find someone else who can," he said.

He said despite meetings over the weekend, it appears NZ Bus and the unions representing drivers have not made any meaningful progress.

"The Auckland travelling public have run out of any patience or sympathy for this on-going nonsense," said Mr Lee.

He said NZ Bus had breached its contract with the council to provide bus services around Auckland and the contract can be terminated for the company's failure to carry out their side of the agreement.

"Terminating NZ Bus contracts would be a drastic step. However, it is clear that the company is not responding to other normal commercial pressure, nor in my view does it take seriously its service obligations to the public.

"Perhaps the threat of NZ Bus's entire Auckland business being terminated will sharpen the minds of the negotiators and deliver the break through that is required," Mr Lee said.

NZ Bus general manager of operations Zane Fulljames said Mr Lee's comments were "not helpful".

"In fact, unwittingly, his comments may have exacerbated the issue. However we will not be entering into a slanging match with him via the media," Mr Fulljames said.

He re-iterated that NZ Bus would continue the lock-out of its drivers until they remove their work-to-rule notice.

This morning traffic was flowing as normal while trains were packed to capacity as the bus lock-out coincides with students returning from school holidays.

More than 9000 Auckland children started their first day back at school today without buses to get them to classes.

New Zealand Transport Agency acting Auckland State Highways manager Sumi Eratne said the traffic on Auckland's motorway was typical for a first day of term.

He said traffic volumes on the northern motorway were a little higher than normal but with the northern busway operating as normal, congestion was only slightly higher than normal.

Auckland Regional Transport Authority spokeswoman Sharon Hunter said the western train lines were 50 per cent busier than usual. She said the figures are still coming in but train staff reported huge increases in passenger numbers.

She said some of those on the Western line had to wait for the next train because of the passenger numbers.

Ms Hunter said it was only about a five minute wait because the trains were coming one after the other.

She said the Southern and Eastern lines also reported a 40 per cent increase.

Ms Hunter said the skeleton bus services have also been "packed to capacity". She said the Airport Bus has been picking people up who have been waiting at stops that they don't usually stop at.

Talks between NZ Bus and unions representing its drivers continued throughout the weekend, but ended last night without agreement.

As a result, 9289 children from 145 schools - from a total of about 80,000 daily passengers - will have to make other arrangements.

The unions had offered to provide school bus services from today, free of charge.

But NZ Bus rejected the offer, dismissing it as "at best misguided and is at worst mischievous".

Auckland Regional Transport Authority spokeswoman Sharon Hunter said last night commuters should check maxx.co.nz for affected and alternative routes.

"Tomorrow will be a crunch problem with schools going back," she said. "We are going to squeeze everything out of our operators."

School bus routes run by other bus services, such as Ritchies and Howick and Eastern, will operate as usual, but NZ Bus provides the bulk of services.

Ms Hunter said if parents found a school bus was cancelled, they should find the replacement bus service running closest to their school.

Another option was to use one of the 200 walking school buses in the Auckland region. Details were on the Maxx website.

"They are a safe way of getting to school for young kids," she said.

Other forms of public transport - such as trains and ferries - had covered for the curtailed bus services, but Ms Hunter urged commuters to turn up early and be patient.

Replacement peak-time services have been set up for the Hibiscus Coast, New Lynn via Great North and Sandringham Rds, Dominion Rd, Mt Eden Rd and Manukau Rd.

Pay negotiations between NZ Bus and the four bus driver unions have been going for five months, and hit a deadlock last week.

Drivers were locked out after the unions issued the company with a work-to-rule notice, and 700 buses have been off the road since Thursday.

Union spokesman Karl Andersen yesterday said the offer to work still stood, but it was too late for today.

Mr Anderson said the offer of free school services had been repeated through the Employment Relations Authority on Saturday.

"They know the offer is a bona fide offer. I fail to understand why they would reject it."

The union's original work to rule notice would not have stopped children getting to school, and the matter could be resolved by NZ Bus lifting the lock-out, he said.

NZ Bus's general manager of operations, Zane Fulljames, said the union offer to make school runs without pay was a "media stunt" and "designed to be inflammatory".

"The unions know it's not logistically possible."

NZ Bus had contacted each school affected by the lockout and responses had been "generally understanding, but concerned".

- With NZHERALD STAFF