Why privatisation won’t make Sydney’s buses run on time

There is a twisted piece of logic at play in the New South Wales government’s plans to privatise bus routes across Sydney’s inner west.

The excuse for this move was the 12,000 complaints the government said it had received over a four-year period, mainly about buses running late or not leaving their depots on time.

Leaving aside the fact that other regions have higher levels of complaints – ananalysis by the Guardian showed the solidly blue-ribbon Liberal seats in the inner north fared the worst for reliability – we should doubt the central proposition that because buses are running late, we should privatise them.

I’ve been a Sydney bus driver for more than 21 years and I am just as frustrated as everyone else with the traffic and delays across Sydney. But every Sydneysider knows that traffic in the city is gridlocked during peak times and buses are “late” because they are stuck in the very same Sydney traffic that everyone else is. Visitors are advised to add an extra half an hour to the normal travel time if they want to be anywhere near on schedule. Many commuters try to avoid peak hour completely, instead attempting to leave very early or very late.

If you go to Leichhardt depot in the inner west for the morning shift, you will see buses backed up trying to get out of the depot on to Balmain Road, which is equally jammed with traffic.

What’s the Liberal party’s solution to this? Blame the drivers and privatise the bus network, as though a private operator will be able to part Sydney traffic like Moses parting the Red Sea.

We love and care about our jobs and we take pride in doing them well. And despite the frustrations of Sydney traffic, it’s still a wonderful job.

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