10% of Auckland public transport cancelled because of staff shortages

Monday, 7 March 2022

Long queues at Auckland's Balmoral testing centre as RAT rollout fails to dampen demand.

Around 10 per cent of Auckland public transport services have been cancelled because of Covid-related staff shortages.

Auckland Transport (AT) has confirmed Omicron-related cancellations were being seen across all modes of public transport.

“Bus, ferry and train services [are] all affected as increasing numbers of staff are infected or become household contacts,” an AT spokesman said.

On Monday, train services were reduced to a 20-minute frequency on Southern, Western and Eastern lines, with Pukekohe and Onehunga trains operating every 30 minutes.

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Auckland’s rail operator Auckland One Rail (AOR) had 54 staff in isolation, AT said.

Train services have been reduced to a 20-minute frequency on many Auckland lines.

“Our operators are working hard to maintain full timetables as best as they can, although for our train services we have reduced frequencies this week because of significant staff shortages.”

It was not AT’s intention to keep reduced train services for an extended period, and it would review the effect of staff shortages later this week.

“We will need both sufficient staff numbers and confidence in workforce stability to resume full train timetables without having a large number of unplanned cancellations.”

Most bus services, including for schools, were running to regular timetables, except West Auckland bus services and Route 66 (Point Chevalier) where some had been temporarily suspended.

“Although we’re working hard to update cancellations in our systems, there may be some occasions when these are last-minute and can’t be communicated in time.”

Passenger numbers last week were about 31 percent of pre-Covid levels, with 572,534 bus trips, 101,792 train trips and 18,864 ferry trips taken.

To help reduce disruption AT had helped operators take part in the Government’s Close Contact Exemption Scheme.

It had also supplied some RAT (rapid antigen test) kits, meaning more staff would be able to return to work after a negative test, the AT spokesman said.

On Monday there were 17,522 new community Covid-19 cases and 696 people in hospital with the virus. Of these, 7639 were reported in Auckland.

“We’re also asking our passengers to please treat our drivers and other public transport staff with respect over coming weeks.

“This is a stressful time for Aucklanders, but our staff are doing their best to keep services running at a difficult time and would greatly appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding.”