Light City Buses v Torrens Transit

[Brucetiki]

AdelaideNow seem to be making quite an issue out of Torrens Transit losing the Outer North East (St Agnes depot) and North-South (Morphettville Depot) contracts to Light City Buses (Transfield). In addition to the usual complaints about late buses/buses not turning up and lost drivers, there are now claims of Sabotage from Torrens Transit.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/bus-chaos ... 6166663057

Have Light City Buses been this bad, or is this just another Adelaide Now beat up?

[RustyCage]

Well it's not like TT were any good themselves!

[Ian]

There was always going to be teething problems when a new player takes over 1/3 of the city's bus fleet, give them time to settle in before you bag them too much.

[Barto]

There was always going to be teething problems when a new player takes over 1/3 of the city's bus fleet, give them time to settle in before you bag them too much.

Isn't one of the points of winning a tender is that you're supposedly able to do a better job? One thing that always crapped me off when TransAdelaide was opened up to contractors.

[tipper]

There was always going to be teething problems when a new player takes over 1/3 of the city's bus fleet, give them time to settle in before you bag them too much.

Isn't one of the points of winning a tender is that you're supposedly able to do the job more cheaply?

fixed

[RustyCage]

Will be interesting to see how it goes tomorrow when school starts up again

[gossipgirl]

well so far buses are still late but atleast they are turning up. still a pretty big balls up though.

[tipper]

i had to lol this morning on the bus. to be honest i dont particularly pay attention to the time it rocks up. i get to the bus stop and get on the next bus coming along. but this chick this morning gave the driver an earful as she got on. complaining that it has been late every day since the changeover etc. demanding to know if the route had changed prior to her stop etc. doesnt she realise that A) the driver has extreemely little to do with the scheduling, and B ) the longer she complains the later she will be!

[Sojourner]

I had to catch a bus yesterday arvo and it pulled up at the stop and the driver got up and apologised and said that he had come to the end of his shift and that everyone was to disembark the bus and wait for the next one, 20 mins later it turned up and we continued on to the city!

[Gozu]

Gotta love privatisation

[gossipgirl]

yesterday afternoon the bus turned up on time. The first time ever under the new providers. So I figured at last the bus drivers have either been given glasses to read the bus timetables or been given the bus timetables in the first place. Then this morning at the paradise interchange before 8 am I saw the longest queues ever since i have been taking public transport. What a #$#%$$$#$ balls up, so the government increase prices of tickets, oursource to a new company and provide less bus services. Seriously no wonder people get fed up with trying to use public transport.

But the people in charge say its just teething problems .. .easy for them to say as they are provided with free cars and free car parking.

NOT HAPPY JAN

[Columbo]

Have found the quality of the service since the changeover to be very poor and unreliable. Find it difficult to understand how a company that is providing services from Port Adelaide/Mansfield Park/Arndale area to the city and vice versa have their depots located at St Agnes and Morphetville. I've given up following the timetables at the moment, just lob at the stop and see what happens, if a half hourly service cant lob within 45 minutes of when its supposed to be there on a Saturday what hope do we have of them being on time on a weekday. Dont recall the change from Serco to Torrens Transit being as problematic when it happened

[gossipgirl]

Its like a mystery bus ride. You just dont know when buses are going to appear and where they are going to take you.
Yesterday afternoon taking the bus home (pretty much on time WOW) but then missed the turnoff to go on the Obahn ... by this much .................... so we had a lovelly tour around melbourne street.

Also at 7.30 this morning at the Paradise Interchange huge queues waiting for buses. I believe there are less services and also using less of the double buses.

Well done SA Govt on another great outsourcing contract.

[Sojourner]

People were queued up at the bus stops all the way down Grand Junction Rd today, according to a workmate that takes one of those buses there had been an hour delay and two buses not turned up at all. Really professional way to run a bus service, good to catch I suppose providing you do not actually have a specific time to be somewhere!

[Q.]

This all reminds me of catching a bus at 4am in the middle of nowhere in Northern Ghana. We stopped at a village and the previously empty bus was loaded up with people and all manner of goods and suddenly I was squeezed between two well-proportioned and magnificently dressed women. Shortly before departure, a thin man stands at the front of the bus and makes an announcement.

"PLEASE! Do not beat the bus driver!" he yells "If you have somewhere to be and you want to get there on time...

...buy your own car".

[Q.]

Apologies for the Psyber-moment.

[gossipgirl]

yesterday afternoon another bus service is missed. WOW after 3 weeks you would think it should be getting better by now

[Brucetiki]

I'm surprised Transfield even got a look in given their track record of other contract work they do is appalling. I remember dealing with them for my previous job and describing them as incompetent is an insult to incompetents.

[gossipgirl]

I'm surprised Transfield even got a look in given their track record of other contract work they do is appalling. I remember dealing with them for my previous job and describing them as incompetent is an insult to incompetents.

its no big surprise considering who is managing the contracts

[gadj1976]

The bus service out to the Nth Eastern suburbs, along the O'Bahn has been a joke - especially coming home from work. 45 minutes between buses, duplicate buses coming at the same time, then nothing for 40 minutes.

I used to be able to set my watch by the bus in the morning, now it's all over the shop.

A mate of mine works for Transfield and said that recently they had 40 jobs up for grabs and filled only 4.