Oatley Electorate Bus Services

Hansard ID: HANSARD-1323879322-133378

Hansard session: Fifty-Eighth Parliament, First Session (58-1)

Oatley Electorate Bus Services

Mr MARK COURE (Oatley) (20:21:29):

I voice my community's frustration and anger towards the new bus operator in my electorate, U-Go Mobility. Since it took over the contract and began operating on 1 July, my community has experienced buses running late, not stopping at bus stops, going in the wrong direction or completely off route. In many cases, they do not show up at all. But the situation only gets worse. As school resumed two weeks ago, reports began to emerge that the operator cancelled several services that are mainly used by schoolchildren, leaving many of them stranded and without a way to get to or from school. One student wrote to me on the matter, outlining that the persistent lateness caused by the unreliable service this month has affected their school attendance and, in turn, impacted their academic standing, lowering their chances of securing an apprenticeship opportunity next year.

Those issues were non-existent under the previous operator, Punchbowl Bus Company. Many times in this Chamber I have praised the Punchbowl Bus Company. It operated in my community for over 75 years and provided a safe, reliable service that I—and I believe the Premier—used growing up. Those impacts are not limited to school students; they affect the entire community. It has been particularly distressing to the most vulnerable, including seniors and people with disabilities, who cannot drive or pay for rideshare and taxi services on a daily basis. Over the past few weeks I have received over 100 emails and phone calls from people right across the Oatley electorate who have shared their stories about the impacts this disruption is having on their lives. It is truly appalling.

I share a few more stories with the House. One constituent called my office to advise me that the 944 service between Mortdale and Peakhurst did not show up at 4.13 p.m. or 4.43 p.m., leaving them stranded for over an hour until a service showed up. In another particularly distressing example, one of my constituents who has a disability finished work late at night and was left stranded outside in the dark because their usual bus did not arrive to take them home. It is disgraceful that an operator has been able to get away with this day after day for the past month. Although I am glad that the Minister for Transport has listened to calls from me and my parliamentary colleagues to intervene and fix the situation, it has come far too late. An explanation of what went wrong is needed from the Government. The member for Wollongong can laugh as much as he wants.

Transport for NSW and U-Go Mobility have had since the beginning of the year to prepare for the handover and knew well in advance the required services they would need to manage. If they knew they could not maintain those services, there should have been ample notice and proper communication with my community. I understand that an investigation is now underway to find out exactly where this went wrong, and the results need to be made public. At the very least, my community deserves to know what went wrong.

A number of my colleagues and I raised those concerns directly with the Minister's office, her staff and Transport for NSW prior to the new operator starting. At the time we were told that everything was okay because a handover from Punchbowl Bus Company to U-Go Mobility had taken place. They indicated they would be ready to take over the routes with minimum disruption to services. It is clear now that was not the case. No-one should be subjected to school services being suspended and school communities being notified about it on the first day students return from holidays. No-one should be put in a situation where they miss doctor appointments or arrive late to work. As soon as someone knew the operator was unable to maintain the regular timetable, there should have been immediate intervention to prevent the situation from getting worse. Ample notice and proper communication should have been provided to the community. I sincerely thank everyone in the Oatley electorate who has taken the time to meet with me, write to me or phone my office about their concerns. I will continue to advocate on behalf of every single one of them and will not stop until our community has the level of service and reliability it had under the Punchbowl Bus Company.