Connexxion has often left travelers out in the cold or rain lately. Buses in the IJmond and Haarlem are overcrowded, often late or rushed. And that is when they come, because more and more buses are not running (sometimes at the last minute). It causes irritation to travelers and embarrassment to bus drivers.
A lady who is waiting for the bus at Plein 1945 in IJmuiden, says: “You are actually only sure that you can travel when the bus comes around the corner.” Another woman says in the bus shelter at the same stop that the drivers of the buses that do show up drive hastily.
“This week the driver didn’t wait to start and an old woman almost fell into the aisle, she didn’t get a chance to sit down. The drivers themselves are also very stressed by the situation as it is now, I think.”
‘Please don’t scold us’
Bus drivers also see that buses are constantly canceled or, if they do go, that they are overcrowded. And they care about the problems, according to a message from a driver in the Facebook group ‘Je bent IJmuidenaar als…’. She writes: “Apologies for the poor transport over the past two weeks. Me and I think my fellow drivers are too ashamed.”
An earlier scaling down of journeys worked well, according to the bus driver: “There were fewer services and that went well, everyone was transported.”
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But now the buses have to run according to the full schedule again and that goes wrong. She writes: “The staff is just not there and so it is impossible to fill all the shifts. We hope for a solution very soon, but please, until then, don’t berate us, as we experience on a daily basis. We know it not anymore.”
“It probably won’t get much better in the near future, rather worse.”
“It is exactly as you say, you have also seen that”, says a spokesperson for Connexxion in answer to questions from NH Nieuws. The company is at a loss: “The problems are caused by a combination of factors. We have too few people and absenteeism due to illness is also increasing at this time of the year. Because with corona you can’t get on the bus as a driver. to sit.”
There is hardly any prospect of improvement in the short term. “We are not the only company with personnel problems, other transport companies are also looking for people, and we are all fishing in the same pond,” said the spokesperson.
Strategic
Connexxion does try to tackle the outage somewhat strategically, but that is not always successful, the spokesperson acknowledges. “On some routes a bus goes twice an hour, we always try to let it go. If there are six buses per hour on a route, then it is at least slightly less bad if one or two fail.”
But it is often difficult to get ad hoc bus drivers in the right place. “Sometimes things happen on the way, bad luck, or someone falls ill, so that one bus driver can’t take a bus from the right stop from his or her colleague on time.”
No improvement in sight
Rover, an organization that stands up for travelers’ interests, does not see it getting any better with public transport in the IJmond and beyond. “There are problems with personnel at all transport organizations. And NS will drastically scale down the train timetable from December. It will probably not get much better in the coming period, rather worse.”