Passengers have been left out in the cold in recent weeks, various buses services cancelled as the understaffed industry deals with the impact of Covid-19.
Transport manager Doug Rodgers said a reduced timetable had been designed to ensure service in peak transport times.
"The new wave of Covid illness has created a shortage of drivers in both Dunedin and Queenstown and this, coupled with the national shortage of bus drivers, is impacting the ability to deliver a full service.
"The move to a reduced service means we are offering fewer services, but those services are more reliable. This means your bus should turn up as scheduled," Mr Rodgers said.
The council threshold to trigger a move to a reduced timetable is the cancellation of 10% of trips over three consecutive workdays.
Mr Rodgers declined to say whether this threshold had been met but said an announcement on the situation would be made today.
People are advised to keep an eye on the Orbus Dunedin and Queenstown Facebook pages and on the ORC website.
"We recognise the need to provide certainty to our passengers; however, we also need to work with our operators, and to follow the process correctly before making any announcements," Mr Rodgers said.
Asked how long a reduced service timetable would be in place, Mr Rodgers said "we expect the reduced service to be running for at least a month".
The council would monitor the situation to see if normal service could be resumed before the one-month mark was reached, and recruitment of new bus drivers was under way, he said.
Dunedin Tramways Union president Alan Savell said a reduced schedule would mean more reliability.
"The main priority is to rebuild the confidence that’s been lost by our passengers. The disruption of the past few weeks has had a huge impact."
However, it was only a short-term measure and would not solve the bigger issue of critical driver shortages, he said.
