Organisers woo drivers with better bonus

Sydney: Games organisers promised better bonus pay and conditions on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to avert a walkout by angry drivers that threatens the Olympic bus system. Some 200 government buses and drivers will reinforce a fleet of 3,500 vehicles operated by private company Bus 2000.

An appeal will also be issued for volunteer navigators to help direct out-of-town drivers around Australia's largest city after a string of complaints from athletes, media and officials about meandering journeys and late pick-ups.

A spokesman for the Olympic Roads and Transport Authority (ORTA) said an agreement to pay drivers a retrospective bonus of A $ 4 an hour was reached in an emergency late-night meeting on Wednesday with the Transport Workers Union.

'The Sydney Morning Herald' reported 70 drivers "went home in disgust" on Tuesday after 40 of their colleagues walked off the job on Monday.Drivers are furious over cramped dormitory-style accommodation and long journeys home at night.

Some complain that at the end of gruelling shift they have to make do with a light snack instead of a hot meal. The ORTA spokesman, Wayne Geddes, said media reports of walkouts were grossly exaggerated and no more than 10 drivers had quit.

"When you put that in the perspective of 5,000 drivers it's a pretty small percentage," he said. Nevertheless, organisers have been jolted into action by the alarming prospect of a rerun of transport chaos that blighted the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

The top transport official of New South Wales, John Stott, has been drafted in to sort out the troubles before they overwhelm the Sydney Games.

IOC chief sympathetic to city's transport woes

International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch appeared sympathetic to the plight of a city that strains to keep its transport system moving even under normal conditions.

"Every Games is the same," Samaranch told a news conference. "In the beginning we have transport problems." But he added, "I think they are solving the problems."

'The Sydney Morning Herald' described one hair-raising bus journey during which the vehicle stalled, bounced over curbs and took wrong turns before crashing into a post in a business district with its woman driver in tears.

On Tuesday, a bus carrying members of the British archery squad crashed in the athlete's village. One archer suffered a grazed chin. In the most embarrassing moment for transport supervisors, Samaranch himself was left stranded on the pavement outside his hotel when a bus booked to take him to the Games' television centre failed to show up.

ORTA is now looking for Sydney volunteers - ideally retired taxi drivers or police officers - to hop aboard the buses and talk out-of-town drivers through the city's road grid.

Transport union leaders appeared confident the deal struck on Wednesday night would cheer up the drivers. Union official Tony Sheldon was quoted as saying he hoped the new arrangements "will go some way to allaying drivers' concerns, convincing existing drivers to stay and encouraging more drivers to make themselves available".



(c) Reuters Limited.