NEW ZEALAND
In a clear sign that post-pandemic driver shortages have affected the industry worldwide, New Zealand operator Metlink has announced the reinstatement of 113 suspended journeys to the timetable in Wellington over the next two months that were suspended following what it says has been a successful driver recruitment campaign.
The operator says it will be able to almost fully restore its timetable, re-introducing 59 weekday services from 18 December, before 54 weekend services resume on 28 January 2024. Operated by Tranzurban, the services were put on hold in November 2022 because of the national driver shortage.
Greater Wellington Transport Committee chair Thomas Nash said the reinstatements are a positive sign of network health. “Rebuilding the bus driver workforce has been a priority for council, Metlink and our operators. We’ve lifted driver wages to drive recruitment and restore public trust in our network. We know we have more to do to improve driver pay and conditions and I want to thank drivers for all their work to make our region function,” he said.
“Metlink bus patronage is now at 100% of pre-Covid levels, whereas patronage in most of the world’s major cities has only bounced back to about 80%. That shows just how much Wellingtonians value public transport.
“We’re pleased our passengers will soon see almost all of the remaining suspended services returning to timetables, and we hope the world class reliability we are now providing will encourage more people to catch the bus.”
A total of 181 journeys were suspended in late 2022 to give passengers greater certainty during the driver shortage. As recruitment ramped up, one Tranzurban service was restored in March and 67 Kinetic services were reinstated in August, joining the 3,600 Metlink bus services that run each weekday.
Thanks to investment in local and international recruitment campaigns by operators, as of 1 November Metlink said that only 25 driver positions needed to be filled to reach the 685 required to operate the full Metlink timetable.
Tranzurban Wellington General Manager Samuel Stairmand said that recent years have been challenging for operators across the country, as they worked to resolve the driver shortage. “In 2022, we made the difficult decision with Metlink to reduce frequency on some of our routes to enable more consistency across services for our passengers,” he said. “We then launched domestic recruitment campaigns to attract new talent and future proof the industry, including our successful ‘Put the U in BUS’ campaign. We brought in drivers from the Philippines and Fiji after the government changed immigration settings last December, but 73% of our workforce recruited since February are locals.”