Fury with Auckland Transport after bus delays make schoolgirl late for first day

The AT bus schedule app showing cancelled buses at the height of commuting time - 5.30pm - from central Auckland to the inner-west suburbs. Photo / NZME

One father says he’s lost trust in Auckland Transport after a string of cancelled buses hampered his daughters’ first day back at school today.

The North Shore father-of-two said one daughter was 30 minutes late and he had to drop the other at school after she was left waiting for a bus that never arrived.

He told the Herald when his eldest daughter’s bus did eventually arrive the driver “forced everybody off” 2km into her journey and didn’t continue on to her destination.

“Why do we continue to trust (and fund through rates) AT to run our buses, trains, roads, general transport, parking and speed limits when they continue to prove that they are incompetent?”

“What is the Council and our mayor doing about it?”

The Murray’s Bay father, who did not want his name published, said he had practised taking the bus with his daughter over the weekend.

He said he had made sure his daughters knew where to get on and off along their routes and they knew how to use the AT mobile app.

“We know how unreliable AT are so we got her to the bus stop 2 buses early, so when the 1st bus was cancelled at the last minute we didn’t panic.

“But after the 2nd bus was cancelled we knew that she would be late,” he said.

Auckland Transport said they were unaware of any significant issues this morning.

The transport board did not provide any further information or respond to claims passengers were made to get off one bus that had not completed its route.

A statement from AT said the organisation was “pleased ... the road network operated well this morning with the increase in traffic volumes associated with schools returning for the year.

“Parents will be pleased to know no children missed out on getting to school,” the statement said.

“The morning peak went well today overall for public transport services” according to feedback from bus operators,” an AT spokesperson said.

But the father questioned how the city’s transport board measured its network’s performance.

“How can I respond to their [response] without ranting?” the father told the Herald.

“Cumulatively how many hours are our kids missing from their education [due to transit delays]?”

An AT spokesperson said there would still be some last-minute bus cancellations due to the ongoing driver shortage.

“We appreciate this is frustrating for our passengers. We’re asking for their ongoing patience as we work with our bus operators to get more drivers recruited and trained as quickly as possible so that we can more reliably run our scheduled services.”

AT said there were “only a few congestion events” on Auckland’s main roads this morning despite the number of streets still closed due to last week’s weather.

The father said he had “no choice” but to continue putting his daughters on the bus.

“A public transport system has to be reliable or it is worthless and only the desperate or those with no choice will use it.

“We certainly can’t afford a taxi or Uber for each of them and I normally work on the other side of the bridge,” he said.

AT also did not respond to questions about whether this would be an ongoing issue as pressure on the transport network picked up.

The return to school comes ahead of the city’s busiest month of the year in March - with school and university students returning to classes and better weather encouraging people onto public transport.

Deemed “March Madness” - it could be a perfect storm of an already strained transport network and high demand. AT did not provide any details about its expectations for this year.