Much like a bus in Canberra when you need it, Transport Minister Chris Steel didn't arrive until it was too late this week.
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A timetable for 2023 was released on Monday with no public fanfare. There wasn't a lot of good news: weekday service frequency and late-night services were cut.
The opposition got onto the story early, making a media splash on Tuesday morning.
By the time Mr Steel spoke to the media on Thursday, there'd been a string of bad press.
But Mr Steel made it worse. He said the government had been up front in October when he said the timetable would be adjusted to account for the delays on the roads caused by works related to the light rail extension project.
Except that isn't what he said.
Mr Steel on October 4: "We've been taking a significant amount of work, preparation and planning to deliver a full timetable that will fully utilise all of the workforce that we have, including new drivers and also the bus fleet."
Mr Steel on Thursday: "We were up front about that in October, that we had to accommodate that extra time for bus journeys and that has had flow-on impacts to the way that the timetable has been designed to make sure we've still got peak frequency."
Not the same thing at all. Or does "full timetable" mean full of holes?
The first suggestion that there would be any cuts to bus services came when the timetables were quietly published.
This was done, an official told The Canberra Times, because people wouldn't remember the information over the Christmas break. So not because it's a bad news story for the government?
Mr Steel let a bad issue fester this week, playing into the hands of the Canberra Liberals who have decried the Woden light rail plan because they say it necessitates cuts to other services to pay for it.
The reasoning behind the cuts is sound - a little bit of time added to each service adds up over the length of a bus driver's shift, meaning some services need to be dropped unless more drivers are brought in - but was this really the only way?
Even the Greens said more should have been done to prevent cuts.
Mr Steel needed to have done more to convince the public - and those who rely on bus services - this was short term pain for long term gain.
MORE A.C.T. POLITICS NEWS:
The argument for light rail overall is the government's to win up against an opposition vowing to stop it at the next election - but they need to turn up to make their case.
Mr Steel perhaps calculated few people would be affected by the cuts, noting on Thursday very few people caught late-night buses.
Dismissing community concern about the government's ability to deliver services shows the Transport Minister chose to get off at the wrong stop.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
