Why do ACTION drivers have specific buses
May 7th, 2009 at 01:40pm
Is it time that ACTION bus drivers stopped being allocated shift buses and took whatever bus was available?
For the last few days, the bus which I catch in to 1WAY FM in the morning has been late, this morning by ten minutes…and why was it late? Because the driver had to move six other buses at the depot in order to pick up his preferred bus. (After I mentioned this on-air, we received a call from an ACTION driver claiming that the other driver was fibbing, as there is only ever a need to move one bus in order for drivers to get to their own bus. This doesn’t alter the validity of my point though.)
Now I can understand if his shift had required him to pick up a bus with a bike rack, but that was not the case, and with ACTION progressively rolling out bike racks to all buses, surely it’s time for the days of the designated shift bus to come to an end.
Drivers may protest, and understandably, considering that many drivers become quite attached to the characteristics of their particular bus…but they get assigned a different bus just about every time there’s a minor change to the timetables anyway, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s time that ACTION start treating the buses as public property, and not the property of individual drivers, and make drivers take whatever suitable bus is available, in an effort to keep services running on time, and improve the overall quality of the service.
And who knows…perhaps if the buses were on time, more people might catch them? Jon Stanhope, are you listening?
Samuel
Entry Filed under: Canberra Stories,Samuel's Editorials
1 Comment
1. stahmo | May 12th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Thanks for posting this. I strongly agree with what you say. I’m now in Stockholm, and am really appreciative of buses being on schedule almost all the time. They’re also very regular, every 15 mins down to 4-6 minutes ALL DAY. Granted, it’s a bigger city here. Buses here steer slowly too, they don’t throw the elderly to the side of the bus each time it makes a turn.
I will sorely miss the buses here when I go back to Canberra, where buses are very late, drivers often rude (especially to cyclists), rides rough, and the end of free rides for cyclists that help students like myself, financially.