Dozens of new bus services are being introduced in Canberra, with an hourly bus service launching on Sundays. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
Transport Canberra is seeking additional bus drivers as the city expands its Sunday services to include dozens more routes from this weekend.
The much-anticipated new timetables for the expansion of Sunday services will see buses running hourly until 2 pm from 31 August.
The change was an ACT Labor pledge ahead of last year’s election.
Addressing the possibility of hourly services after 2 pm, an ACT Government spokesperson told Region that frequency would continue to be evaluated going forward.
“The staged process is to ensure that reliability is maintained, which is a function of bus driver availability. Transport Canberra will review and evaluate reliability across the day before making an informed decision to further extend the frequency of Sunday bus services.”
The last major restructure of weekend routes in 2019 proved controversial, with commuters complaining of confusing timetables and cancelled services due to a lack of drivers.
It’s something Transport Canberra is hoping to avoid this time around.
The organisation has said that its workforce of around 1000 bus drivers is ready to deliver the additional services.
At the same time, the organisation is launching a recruitment round for more permanent part-time drivers to enhance service routes and increase reliability, potentially expanding service frequency in the future.
It’s earned applause from the Public Transport Association of Canberra.
“It’s long overdue, but we do need to look forward as to when we’re able to introduce more frequent services throughout the day on both Saturday and Sunday,” Public Transport Canberra Deputy Chair Ryan Hemsley said.
The group has been pushing for this change since 2019. It still wants the government to extend hourly service past 2 pm.
Despite problems with weekend services six years ago, Mr Hemsley said PTCBR was fairly confident that the rollout would be reliable.
“Given how long it’s taken for the government to reach the point where it’s able to introduce improved Sunday frequencies, I’d be very surprised that they didn’t have enough drivers at this point in time, and given it is only until 2 pm. They are playing it very cautiously, but the proof will be in the pudding,” he said.
“We will have a look at those figures once they become available and will be able to judge whether the ACT government does actually have sufficient resources to deliver the service improvements.”
An expanded driver workforce is on the cards with the rollout of a recruitment drive that will run throughout September, starting with a ‘come-and-try’ day this Saturday (30 August) at Majura.
Transport Canberra Branch Manager Ian McGlinn said the round was crucial to the success of the city’s bus network.
“We have seen a positive increase in patronage on both local and rapid services since the introduction of hourly local bus services throughout the day on Saturdays last year,” he said.
“More bus drivers in our team will help to provide more frequent and reliable services to more parts of Canberra, more often.”
New bus timetables will be updated as of the 31 August change and can be found here. Applications for new bus driver positions will be open from 1 to 28 September.
For details about Transport Canberra’s Come and Try day, visit Eventbrite.
