Transport Minister Chris Steel has vowed to continue negotiations with bus drivers to strike a deal on weekend work, while also revealing a fleet of old, non-accessible buses would remain in service longer than planned.
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Mr Steel said the government wanted to continue discussions with the Transport Workers' Union on delivering improved weekend services.
"Since 1995, when the incentives were removed for drivers to work on the weekend, there have been availability issues for drivers that has meant that it is very difficult to increase the number of services delivered on a weekend reliably," Mr Steel said.
Bus drivers who were members of the Transport Workers' Union last week met to informally vote on the government's offer, rejecting a weekend work package but endorsing the core offer, which included a 13.31 per cent pay rise over three years.
The Transport Minister said bargaining was not over and the government would continue to engage with the union in good faith.
"[The union] had put forward a proposal of a 15 per cent penalty rate for drivers working over 12 shifts a year on the weekend," Mr Steel said.
"And then we had also put forward another proposal which works together with the union proposal, which was to have a weekend worker classification which would provide certainty of work, particularly for casuals, but also provide them with better conditions of work."
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Klaus Pinkas, the Transport Workers' Union's NSW/ACT sub-branch secretary, last week said the proposed weekend package was unacceptable to the members and the weekend worker classification was the most contentious element of the proposal.
Mr Steel on Wednesday also revealed the date by which Transport Canberra's fleet of high-floor diesel-powered had been pushed back.
"The ageing Renault orange PR2 buses are being replaced with some leased diesel buses. Unfortunately, due to supply chain issues, some of those buses haven't been delivered in the timeframe that was originally contracted, and so we now expect those buses to be completely off the road by the end of the year in November," Mr Steel said.
The Renault buses - which entered service in or before 1993 - no longer meet disability access requirements and were due to be retired by the end of 2022.
Mr Steel in February said the government expected the Renault buses to be withdrawn from services by the middle of the year.
Mr Steel on Wednesday announced 106 battery-powered buses would enter service in the government-run public transport network by the end of 2026.
The government has previously committed to a completely zero-emissions bus fleet by 2040 or earlier.
The contracts for the electric buses would be worth $83.5 million, Transport Canberra official Sarah Taylor-Dayus said.
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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.
