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Threats to pull the plug on an NZ Bus contract if the company refuses to end its lockout of 900 bus drivers are unrealistic, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (Arta) says.

NZ Bus, which operates most bus services in Auckland, began the lockout on Thursday after drivers said they would work strictly to the rulebook in support of their wage claim.The company and four unions representing bus drivers are still in facilitation, but there has been little progress reported.No NZ Bus services have run since the n and the disruption became greater today on the first day of the fourth school term.”Like any commercial contract, NZ Bus contracts can be terminated for non-performance,” Mr Lee said.Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee today said the council would begin procedures to end its contract with NZ Bus in coming days if the lockout did not end. .”If this dispute is not settled, I will be calling on Arta to start the process of terminating the existing contracts and finding someone else who will deliver the services that Auckland expects and pays for.”We would need to find an operator that could come up with that level of service in 180 days – that’s fairly impossible.”If we terminated New Zealand Bus completely then we’d leave a 700-bus gap overnight, and we couldn’t do that to the public,” Ms Hunter told Radio New Zealand.”But at this point we’re not examining at that process,” she said.”Ms Hunter said she hoped there would be a resolution in the near future, but if there was no progress within the next few days the authority would look at intervening.”NZ Bus spokeswoman Megan McSweeney said Mr Lee’s comments were “not helpful”.”In terms of the services that we are running, with alternative operators including our train operators, we are actually managing to get people into work on time.

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