Brisbane commuters will continue to board buses from the rear door until the majority of the population is vaccinated, the bus union says.
During the first months of the pandemic last year, Brisbane City Council and TransLink rolled out COVID-safe guidelines for public transport use, ramping up sanitisation and requiring cashless payments.
Customers were asked to board buses from the rear doors unless they needed assistance in boarding.
But more than a year later and with no community transmission cases since Easter, commuters are still being asked to use the rear doors.
Public transport patronage on the city's trains, buses and ferries is still about 65 per cent of pre-COVID levels.
'Nobody's safe until we're all safe'
Asked why this was the case, the Brisbane City Council said it was still following TransLink's guidelines for safe public transport.
"Rear-door bus boarding for passengers is continuing on our buses in line with TransLink's COVID-safe public transport plan," said the council's public and active transport spokesman Ryan Murphy.
TransLink in turn referred ABC Radio Brisbane to its website where guidelines stated that the council was the only public transport provider still requiring customers to board from the rear door.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union's Tom Brown said the RTBU supported the council's preference for rear-door boarding for the majority of passengers during the pandemic.
"The union's support of that position at least plays until the vaccine rollout is much further advanced," Mr Brown said.
Drivers waiting for vaccine
About 150 of Brisbane's 2,300 bus drivers are over 70 years of age, or fall into high-risk categories for COVID-19, Mr Brown said.
In April last year, some bus drivers were temporarily stood down due to their high-risk status.
Brisbane City Council this year asked Queensland Health to add bus drivers to a high-priority group for COVID-19 vaccination, but that request was refused on the basis federal government guidelines did not include bus drivers.
