Driver absences fuel disruption to bus services in Ipswich
First Bus are expecting one in twenty services to be cancelled this week after over 20 percent of their drivers tested positive for Covid-19
A wave of Covid-19 cases among bus drivers in Ipswich is forcing operator First Bus to cancel a number of their services this week.
Russ Smith is their operations manager for the Eastern Counties: "Over the weekend, we've lost a total of 13 percent of our drivers to the new variant, and we have 3 percent off this week anyway. We've had a further 5 percent test positive in the last two days, so we're looking at being down almost a fifth of our staff now."
They are now hoping this number stays at this level. "I'm hoping we peak around this twenty percent mark of absences and that we don't go further than that.
"We were expecting slight staff absences, up to ten percent but not to this level so quickly."
The disruptions are coming at a time when the sector is looking to return to pre-pandemic levels of business.
Mr Smith says, "We're now carrying about seventy percent of our pre-Covid-19 passenger numbers but that's sort of plateaued. So, we've been trying to work to get people's confidence in travelling by bus up again but things like this don't help.
"We're already a really stretched industry at the moment. A lot of people left during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and there's been 18 months of no recruitment, as a result of uncertainty over future funding so we haven't been able to bring in new drivers.
"So, we have ended up with quite a small workforce anyway so this is putting added pressure on us."
The operator is expecting to cancel services throughout this week and early into next week as well.
"We're going to have a look at what services can be cancelled and try to keep it to a minimum. I think we'll have to drop about one in twenty services for the rest of the week.
"I would advise passengers to check First Ipswich on Twitter, which is where the most up-to-date cancellations will go. They'll also go on the First Bus app, when you tap on a stop, it will show you if your bus is coming or not."