Canberra's bus passengers have suffered through almost two years of an underperforming network, with punctuality targets met just twice out of 90 weeks since mid-2016.
Buses are considered 'on time' if they depart between one minute before and four minutes after a scheduled time, with performance reported weekly.
In the 2016-17 financial year, the target of 80 per cent punctuality was not met in any week.
"Largely that was to do with the number of key road upgrades across the region," Transport Minister Meegan Fitzharris said.
In light of those works, the target was reduced to 75 per cent in 2017-18.
But the network has only met that lower target on two occasions, in the weeks around Christmas and New Year — when far fewer people caught buses.
Ms Fitzharris said the Government had tried to communicate with passengers that delays were possible through this busy period of construction.
"Given the considerable roadworks in Gungahlin … Ashley Drive in Tuggeranong [and elsewhere], we have really sought to respond to that," Ms Fitzharris said.
The only year of recorded data in which targets were consistently met was 2015-16, with an average result of 78.17 per cent.
Extensive roadwork blamed for underperformance
Transport and City Services, which runs the ACTION bus network, has a long-term on-time target of 85 per cent by 2020-21.
But since the Directorate started recording on-time data in 2014-15, the network has only peaked above 80 per cent on two separate weeks.
Ms Fitzharris said the addition of light rail, new buses and increased Rapid services would improve reliability for passengers.
"We're doing a lot of work at the moment to redesign the network … that will coincide with the introduction of light rail," she said.
"[We've got] an increase in the number of buses, the increase in the Rapid network … as well as the introduction of new ticketing."
