Public bus passengers in Dunedin and Queenstown are being asked to be patient as driver sickness impacts services in both areas.

ORC’s General Manager Regional Planning and Transport, Anita Dawe, says “Unfortunately, there’s a lot of sickness around at the moment and like many businesses, we have high numbers of drivers calling in sick in Queenstown and Dunedin, noticeably affecting our services,” Ms Dawe says.

“We’re very aware of the significant disruption this causes for people, who rely on our services. We appreciate people for being patient and ask them to be kind to the drivers who are keeping services running as best we can,” she says.

We encourage people to check the Orbus website for any changes to services before starting their journey. Our team is working closely with the operators to ensure all cancelled services are updated as early as possible, to enable people to better plan their journeys.

Ms Dawe says ORC is working closely with both its bus operators to continue as many services as possible.

She says area’s being prioritised include routes where there is no alternative services, and trying to ensure we can keep as many peak services on the roads as possible.

“We’re in constant communications with our operators to find some alternative ways to minimise disruptions as best we can,” she says.