Meet the driver who saved a life

When a women collapsed on the 466 route Amar Wahid was driving he didn’t hesitate to put his long term first aid training to use.

Amar said the woman had run for the bus and was breathing heavily when she got on, but after a while on the bus she didn’t look very well and suddenly collapsed.

“Her face started changing colour,” he said, “and you only have a few seconds in that situation to choose to do something or not. I just jumped in.”

Amar got his first aid certificate when he worked as a personal trainer before becoming a bus driver. “I have just kept renewing it every three years. It’s a short day of training but you can really help people if you keep it up to date,” he said.

Despite having his first aid certificate for a long time, he had never put it to use in a serious situation. He had looked after small burns and cuts, but had never performed CPR.

“After she collapsed I checked her airways, and there was nothing, so I just started the CPR. And those 12 or 15 minutes before the ambulance arrived were the longest in my life.”

Amar has been a driver for about two years now and says he doesn’t have much spare time between work and looking after his young family. “I like driving buses, it’s a good job. We work hard and we do our best to look out for the wellbeing of passengers, but it can also be long hours in heavy traffic, I just hope people recognise that.”

The Hot Topic

Dollars and sense at STA

Tell us what is REALLY going to make STA more efficient.

All members will be aware that STA CEO Peter Rowley has done a tour of depots trying to convince drivers to accept changes to the Enterprise Agreement he negotiated with drivers not one year ago – all in the name of “efficiency”.

Mr Rowley says drivers must accept cuts to wages and conditions to stop the future privatisation of State Transit. But some drivers have their own ideas about what would actually make STA more efficient.

At one of the depot meeting a member asked what Mr Rowley would be doing to stop the huge amount of money lost to STA through fare evasion every day. The member wanted to know why  drivers were being asked to take a hit while this continued to happen. All Mr Rowley could say was it shouldn’t be drivers’ concern.

It’s true, it shouldn’t be drivers’ concern, but when they are being asked to accept cuts to hard fought wages and conditions to “save” themselves from privatisation it becomes their concern.

We know slashing wages and conditions is no way to make bus services better or more efficient. This is just short term thinking.

Drivers know the bus network better than anyone. And we know how it could be improved. Actually improved.

So give us your ideas! We have already received information from a member on how much could be saved if STA dealt with fare evasion on buses, but what else could be done?

Comment below to have your say.

Love for Christmas buses

State Transit Christmas buses have hit the streets and the public loves it!

Twitter has been full of photos and people talking about their ride on a Christmas bus.

Competition is now heating up on who will take out the prize for best Christmas bus. Send us photos of your depot’s Christmas bus and we’ll put them up on Bus Express for you to compare and contrast.

Bus drivers bring the Christmas spirit

It’s time of the year again when STA employees volunteer to spend many hours decking out buses at each depot with beautiful decorations, all in the name of bringing Christmas cheer to the travelling public. 

These thoughtful and energetic volunteers use a successful combination of skill, artistry and imagination to turn our buses into a Christmas spectacular for everyone, drivers and passengers alike, to enjoy.

Hamilton bus driver, Margaret Pannell, who started decorating a Christmas bus back in 1996 says the response from the community has always been incredibly positive. In fact, it was the positive feedback from her passengers that eventually got STA on board to support the initiative. Read more »

Drivers left exposed as late night abuse continues

Two more drivers have come under attack on the job in the past week.

One driver has undergone abuse at the hands of a disgruntled passenger in the early hours of Sunday morning. Ryde member, Warren Graves – known to everyone as Barney – was spat on and called a f***ing c***. Luckily for Barney his glasses copped most of the spit otherwise it would have ended up straight in his eye. Read more »

Randwick driver raises reflection issue on new buses

When a reflection started appearing in the nearside mirror of the new 2400 series of Scandia’s and Volvo from a poorly placed new sticker on the buses at Randwick, a quick thinking member had the foresight to photograph the problem and report it.

The problem after investigation occurs when the sunlight hits the bus on the right had side causing a reflection off the sticker to occur in the nearside mirror.

STA placed the stickers there and when a complaint was put in said that no one was allowed to move the sticker but themselves.

As such, drivers began booking up the entire 2400 series at Randwick for maintenance. Read more »

More action needed to ease CBD congestion

Plans to redirect buses coming into the Sydney CBD from the Hills District to the Cahill Expressway is a good start towards dealing with huge congestion issues in the city but much more is needed.

Division Secretary Chris Preston said any sensible initiatives to ease traffic congestion in the city, particularly around Wynyard and down George St would be welcome, but there is much more that the government could be doing.

“Every morning drivers and commuters find themselves in a conga line of buses across the Harbour Bridge as they battle their way off the bridge and through to Wynyard.” Read more »

Bus goes up in flames on Oxford St

The back of a bus caught fire yesterday morning while it was travelling along Oxford St into the city carrying 30 passengers.

This incident is reminiscent of the explosion of a gas bus last year which prompted the union to call for increased safety measures on gas buses to protect drivers and passengers.

On site shortly after the bus caught fire Divisional Secretary Chris Preston called for all buses to be fitted with fire suppression systems to avoid any further fires occurring.

“These incidents simply should not be happening. We have the technology to stop these fires from happening and we should be using this on all buses. Nothing should be more important than safety on our public transport services”

Click below to see the story covered on Channel 7:

The Hot Topic

Government announces CBD congestion cure

Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian announced this week that the NSW Government would implement a number of initiatives to reduce congestion and improve reliability for buses coming into the Sydney CBD from the north.

The Minister says the changes will be implemented from early next year and that work was already underway to see some of these delivered.

To begin with the Government will re-direct more than seven per cent of current morning peak bus services coming across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and entering the city by York Street.

This will see around 60 morning peak buses from the North West enter the city by the Cahill Expressway and travel down Bridge, Pitt, Hunter and Castlereagh streets before terminating at Market Street.

Other initiatives already in progress to deal with congestion include:

• The formation of a dedicated Police motorcycle team for the CBD of Sydney, to specifically deal with congestion and avoid traffic stopping in intersections
• Sydney Harbour Bridge toll booth removal
• Double decker bus trial
• Introduction of bus marshals
• Traffic signaling and parking changes.

What do you think of these initiatives? Will they work? What else needs to be done?

Plans for bus exchange a long time coming

The Sydney Morning Herald today reportsthat plans outlined in the recently released Transport Masterplan to turn around thousands of bus commuters at the edges of Sydney’s CBD remain some years away. The Masterplan states:

A redesign of the bus network will focus on Sydney CBD. The reconfigured bus network will be planned around the principles of ‘near-side’ termination and some through-routing, rather than ‘far-side’ termination. Instead of the current arrangement under which many bus routes enter the CBD, travel through and terminate at the opposite side of the CBD, creating congestion and layover challenges, the future network will see additional cross-city Metrobus-style routes that traverse the CBD, terminating at destinations beyond. Local routes will terminate just inside the CBD (the ‘near side’), allowing passengers to connect to other high-capacity modes such as rail or light rail, or to walk a short distance to their final destination. This more efficient use of Sydney’s bus fleet will result in more frequent, more reliable journeys for bus customers and relieve congestion for pedestrians, cyclists and other road users. 

As we have said – it’s great to see the government looking at possibilities for improving bus services and reducing the time drivers spend on congested CBD streets. But how long do we have to wait for some action?