New Report Finds Sydney Bus Complaints Double Since 2022

A report from NSW Auditor-General Bola Oyetunji has criticised Transport NSW for failing to manage its multibillion dollar bus contracts across Sydney, with customer complaints doubling since 2022.

The report found that private bus operators were failing to meet on-time running targets regularly, sitting below a target of 95 per cent on-time running most of the time between January 2023 and May last year. Throughout the 17-month period, operators met or beat the target in only 15 per cent of the time.

“TfNSW has worked with individual operators to try to improve OTR at all of the timing points and has levied abatements (penalty payments resulting from an operator’s failure to meet contractually specified performance levels) where appropriate. However, OTR across the GSBC regions is below target in most months since the contracts began,” the report reads.

Although the rate of cancelled and incomplete bus trips did improved since 2023, Oyetunji noted that some bus operators failed to meet performance targets over the 17 months, with more than the expected 0.5 per cent of services cancelling or failing to finish their trips each month.

The report found a clear link between the percentage of cancelled or incomplete trips and the shortage of bus drivers, with the number of failed trips increasing as available drivers dip.

Transport NSW failing to manage customer complains

The number of customer complaints in May 2024 was almost double that in April 2022, with almost 29 complaints per 100,000 boardings, compared to more than 14.

The report also alleges Transport NSW is failing to carry out systematic analysis of customer complaints, and has not been properly directing operators to resolve continuous problems.

Six private operators are contracted by the NSW government to provide bus services across 10 regions in Sydney, with nine of the contracts totalling more than $8 billion.

“TfNSW has not responded strategically to ensure bus contracts are delivering effective services in the context of an evolving transport system and changes in work and travel patterns,” the report read.

“There are gaps in TfNSW’s contract management specific procedures and delegations. These gaps mean that the risks of inappropriate exercise of delegations, non-compliance with contractual requirements and/or inappropriate use of public funds are not fully addressed.”

The report recommends TfNSW increase the strategic contract management capacity of the bus contracts team by June 2025 to address gaps in the system, as well as starting regular audits of company responses to customer complaints.

Transport for NSW secretary Josh Murray said in a letter to the auditor-general that he recognised that “ongoing, targeted action” was required, and that measures to resolve driver shortages had had a “real impact”, citing a drop in vacancies from about 600 in September 2022 to 149 this month.