Mount Druitt Standard -Online Edition 'Western Sydney Commuters Feel THe Heat' - Support from Transport Workers Union and Member for Mount Druitt

Commuters forced to swelter on hot buses in Sydney’s west

Marissa Georgopoulos, Mt Druitt-St Marys Standard

February 27, 2017 12:01pm

COMMUTERS are being forced to travel on swelteringly hot buses that do not have airconditioning.

While experiencing the hottest summer on record, many bus users across Mt Druitt got no respite while travelling the region.

A report compiled by Mt Druitt Commuters Improvement Group found of the 166 non-airconditioned Busways buses in NSW most were “allocated to the three Sydney depots (Blacktown, Mulgrave, Penrith),” the report read.

Resident John Svoboda said he understood “more than 30” were based at the Blacktown depot.

Mr Svoboda, former president of the commuters group, said all buses needed airconditioning, considering full fares had to be paid. He has started a Change.org petition to call for the non-airconditioned buses to be replaced as soon as possible. He said he started it after speaking with a driver who was fed-up with working in a hot bus all day.

“He told me there were a lot of bus drivers not wanting to return the buses back to the depot because it was so hot,” Mr Svoboda said.

Transport Workers Union NSW State Secretary Richard Olsen said unairconditioned buses “bordered on being unsafe for the elderly and the very young’’ in extreme heat.

There have been at least two serious incidents this year including a pregnant woman passing out and a driver who fainted on return to the depot.


“It is our view that all buses should be air conditioned in this day and age,” Mr Olsen said.

“I would estimate the (temperature) inside of a bus fully loaded with 60 passengers on a 40C-day would be quite high.”

Mt Druitt state Labor MP Edmond Atalla has backed Mr Svoboda’s call because of recent heatwaves.

“Many of the users of public transport are elderly people and the lack of airconditioned buses is a major health issue for them,” he said.

A Busways spokesman said 80 per cent of its western Sydney services were airconditioned but there were plans to upgrade them.

“Through our fleet replacement program older buses are being replaced with brand new airconditioned buses and by 2022 all services ... will be air-conditioned,” he said.

Mr Atalla said the time frame was “too long”.

Mr Svoboda said: “We are in an age where we shouldn’t have non-airconditioned buses.”

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