An upgrade to Canberra's bus fleet has been hit by another delay, with the Transport Minister expressing disappointment the delivery of 17 diesel buses had been delayed to the end of the year.
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Chris Steel said he would seek advice on what options he had after Scania Australia advised the ACT government of another delay to the arrival of the buses.
"Despite putting in place the contracts to support the replacement of noncompliant buses, revised delivery dates for the remaining buses on order on multiple occasions has meant Scania Australia has not been able to deliver the buses on time as per the terms of the contract," Mr Steel told the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
The arrival of the full fleet of 26 low-floor diesel buses has been delayed 11 times, forcing the government to continue running a small fleet of high-floor Renault buses, which entered service three decades ago and no longer meet disability access rules.
The ACT government signed a contract with Scania Australia in March 2022 to lease 26 diesel-powered buses, with a delivery date before the end of that year.
Mr Steel said international supply chain issues, a lack of raw materials, delays to components and air-conditioning units had been blamed by Scania Australia for the delays to the completion of the buses.
Nine of the 26 buses have arrived in Canberra and have entered service.
"Transport Canberra has now been advised by Scania, that all remaining vehicles will be received before the end of 2024 and are expecting to receive confirmation of an updated scheduled in the coming weeks for delivery dates. Transport Canberra will continue to monitor the compliance of Scania against this advice," Mr Steel said.
The Transport Minister said Transport Canberra was working to reduce the number of Renault PR100.2 buses, which are not accessible, in use each day.
"If we were to remove all Renault PR100.2 from service today this would significantly risk service reliability for Canberrans. However, Transport Canberra will continue to reduce the use of these buses in deploying the fleet as much as possible until all vehicles have been replaced," Mr Steel said.
"Transport Canberra is working to only operate Renault PR100.2 when the only alternative would be to cancel a service."
In October 2023, the government expected the last of the Renault PR100.2 buses - which have an orange-over-blue livery familiar to generations of Canberra public transport users - to be retired in 2024.
Mark Parton, the opposition spokesman on transport, said the delay to the removal of the Renault fleet was unacceptable and inexcusable.
"We heard the inaugural speech from [the Greens'] Laura Nuttall this morning. Let me put the Renault diesel buses into some context. The newest of the Renault diesels - bus 982 - was commissioned in June of 1993. So it's about six years older than Ms Nuttall," Mr Parton said.
"And what we all need to understand is that the retirement of these dinosaur diesel buses was foreshadowed as a priority for this government a decade ago."
Mr Parton said Mr Steel was a "buslighter", a form of gaslighting in which the minister promises one thing on the bus fleet but delivers another.
"This is 'buslighting' at its finest and it just keeps on going," he said.
Meanwhile, the government is planning to introduce more bus services at the weekend from April after drivers agreed to incentives in an enterprise bargaining deal.
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.
