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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Jasper Lindell

Driver shortages to force bus service cuts on Saturday night in Canberra

A bus driver shortage will force officials to cut bus services on Saturday night. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong

Public transport passengers have been told to double check their bus service will operate on Saturday night, after transport officials were forced to drop routes due to a driver shortage.

A spokeswoman for Transport Canberra said disruptions were expected to some services after 5pm on Easter Saturday.

Officials were trying to fill services with available drivers but the disruptions would be sporadic across the network, the spokeswoman said.

The government-run bus network operator had earlier recommended passengers call the 13 17 10 information line or visit its real-time information service Nxtbus to confirm which services were running.

"We are currently experiencing disruptions to bus services due to driver availability," Transport Canberra wrote on Facebook.

Many night-time bus services in the ACT run to an hourly frequency, meaning a dropped service can have a significant impact on affected passengers.

Transport Canberra's staff agreement leaves the bus operator unable to force drivers to work at the weekend, which has been a long-running sticking point in negotiations.

The ACT government last year said it would again pursue changes to its agreement with bus drivers to allow more flexibility in the way staff are rostered to work at the weekends.

The issue has been the subject of repeated enterprise bargaining attempts by the government, which have been consistently knocked back by the drivers' union, the Transport Workers' Union.

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