New Zealand / Transport

Sickness cancelled 100 Wellington bus trips this week - Metlink

14:27 pm on 26 February 2021

More than 100 Wellington bus services have been cancelled this week alone due to drivers calling in sick.

Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas

Metlink general manager Scott Gallacher has apologised to customers for the frustration and inconvenience caused.

He said there have been 118 cancellations from Sunday to Thursday, compared with 17 for the same period last year.

He noted it still represented less than 1 percent of the total number of 12,309 scheduled trips in that time.

He said the company was hoping to recruit an extra 50 drivers to deal with higher levels of unplanned sickness and fatigue in the wake of Covid-19.