Daily Telegraph: Blunders on buses taken to new level

BUS drivers are complaining the new $500 million northern beaches double-decker services are proving inferior to their older bendy counterparts, with the two-tier design taking longer to load and unload passengers, leading to delays.

The new B-Line buses were brought into service a week ago amid the biggest shake-up of NSW transport timetables since the Olympics.

“Not only do the doubledecker buses fail to adequately increase passenger numbers, but they also take longer to load and unload passengers, meaning increased running times,” bus union boss Chris Preston said.

“Their height also means they won’t be able to run on many of the backstreets in the northern beaches area, should they need to in the future.

“We’ve said from the beginning that these double-decker buses are an inferior option compared to bendy buses, which actually carry more passengers. The NSW Minister for Transport, Andrew Constance (pictured) didn’t think this through at all.”

Read the full story in Saturday’s paper on The Daily Telegraph.