The council acknowledged earlier this week that, since reintroducing its full timetable on February 1, an average of about 100 trips had been cancelled in Dunedin each day.
The council has apologised for the cancellations, saying progress is being made and that it is better to have 90% of a full service than the reduced timetable.
The flood of cancellations has caused complaints to stream in, including from a mother who told the Otago Daily Times the "appalling" bus service had left her daughter anxious about getting to school.
It was not good enough that children were being left waiting on the street for buses that never arrived, including at the Dunedin bus hub, which was not a safe place for them to be, she said.
“They don’t realise the anxiety they’re causing these kids."
Each morning before school she checked the council’s website for cancellations, knowing there was a good chance the bus would — yet again — not make it.
The frequent cancellations had caused her daughter to be late for school and on other occasions she had been forced to make an hour-long round trip to drop her daughter off at school, which had made her late for work.
The number of cancellations left her questioning whether driver illness was a legitimate excuse.
She questioned the return to a full timetable, given the current situation.
“Why did you come back to the full time schedule if you don’t even have the resources to run it?" she said.
ODT readers were also scathing on social media, one saying the whole system was a "complete disaster".
Another said she was left waiting two and a-half hours in the sun after her bus failed to show up.
"Otago Regional Council need to sort this crap out," she said.
Another said the state of the system meant it was bad value for money, even taking into account the reduced $1 fares.
"You simply cannot rely on buses at present to get you anywhere on time."
ORC interim chief executive Pim Borren said he had made a personal pledge to get the full timetable back by February 1.
It had not been achieved in Queenstown, but in Dunedin there had been a "fantastic effort", despite 10% of trips being missed.
Driver shortages were a national issue and further timetable reductions were happening everywhere else in New Zealand.
Mr Borren stood by his decision to return to the full timetable.
"We did not anticipate the level of further reductions caused by current spike of illness and further Covid ... It is better to have 90% of our service running rather than a weekend service only," Mr Borren said.
This year, bus patronage had exceeded pre-Covid levels and it was clear Dunedin residents valued public transport.
He asked users to remain patient and respectful of bus drivers, as many had worked long hours over the last six months.
The council had been more proactive than any others in solving the issues, and work was continuing to recruit enough staff.
He apologised to all those who had been made late to school or work because of an unreliable bus journey.
"This is not the service we wish to provide ... We’re getting there, but we are not there yet," Mr Borren said.
The council was not looking at reintroducing the reduced timetable.
"We hope to reduce the number of missed trips in Dunedin over the coming weeks but some missed trips are unavoidable at this time," Mr Borren said.
