Wellington travellers say their buses are so hot they’re often forced to get off early and walk. Shanti Mathias explores the impact of non-functioning air conditioning on public transport.
When Bella, a young professional living in Wellington, thinks about taking the bus, her first thought is “Ugh”. The bus might be an affordable and convenient way to get through the city without a car, but the reality, no matter the season, is sweaty, often far hotter than the outside.
“On Saturday, I got the bus home from the airport. Outside it was 21 or 22 degrees,” she says. “Inside, hot air was blasting, like a heater was on. I was sweating and feeling sick; as we got closer to my stop, I wanted to get off early and just walk with my bags.” By the time she disembarked, she felt light-headed.
Since December 1, 2024, Wellington’s Metlink has received 140 complaints about high temperatures on buses. That’s a small percentage of the 250,000 bus trips that have taken place in the last two and a half months. Many of the complaints were particular to a specific bus model whose aircon system is now being repaired, says Fiona Abbot, Metlink’s senior manager of assets and infrastructure. “Like any mechanical system, even with regular servicing things can go wrong, but Metlink is committed to the comfort of its passengers and resolving any issues as soon as possible,” Abbot said in a statement.
Bella found the experience of catching regular buses so unpleasant that it was a key reason she moved into central Wellington, where she could walk to work. Her friend Lucy, who has to catch Wellington’s number 2 bus to and from work, can’t avoid the heat. “I get motion sick really easily, and the windy roads combined with the heat make me feel sick,” she says. “And if I feel that hot, how hard is it for the bus drivers?”
Kevin O’Sullivan, secretary of the Tramways Union, which represents bus drivers, has been hearing a lot from drivers suffering in the heat. “Ever since we started having hot days [this summer], it’s been bad,” he says. O’Sullivan says that many of the electric buses, and the capital’s ageing fleet of diesel buses, have recurrent problems with the air conditioning.
While bus drivers can see the internal bus temperature on their dashboard, they can’t adjust the temperature. Most buses don’t have windows that open, since windows shouldn’t be open if the air conditioning is functioning correctly. O’Sullivan has heard from drivers whose buses have regularly had temperatures in the mid-30s. “I heard that a bus driver in Wainuiomata, with no other health conditions, had to stop the bus due to the heat last week,” he says. “When he got out, he collapsed due to heat exhaustion.”
Overheating buses don’t just make commuting a sticky misery for passengers and present a work safety issue for drivers: they also circumvent a legal requirement for new buses in New Zealand’s major cities to have effective cooling and heating. According to section 4.12 of NZTA’s bus quality standards, this temperature needs to be within two degrees of 20 degrees Celsius when the temperature outside is between 0 to 30 degrees, and the system must be independent of the driver changing the settings. All new buses are required to have air conditioning to heat or cool the bus as needed.
Previous versions of the standards justify this specifically in relation to cars: “in order to compete with the attractiveness of the private car and encourage more patronage, all urban buses should have air conditioning,” reads the 2014 edition of the same document. Clearly, this isn’t working for some passengers. “The temperature of the bus is one reason I prefer to drive,” says Lucy.
In Auckland, train temperatures are generally set at 21.5 degrees Celsius. “This gradually increases the warmer it is outside, so that the difference between the inside and outside isn’t too extreme,” said Rachel Cara, AT’s group manager of public transport, in a statement. On buses, temperature is kept in the 18-22 degree range, but may be affected by having more passengers on board, thanks to the reality of human body heat. “It’s important we get the balance right to make sure that buses aren’t too hot when there are more passengers or too cold when there are less passengers,” Cara said. Operators are required to take buses with identified issues out of service until they are repaired.
If drivers can’t change the temperature, what can they do about an overheating bus? “There’s an electronic system where people log a bus number and the fault, and the AC is supposed to be repaired,” O’Sullivan says. “But often those buses are on the road the next day, with nothing being done about it.” The union has asked drivers whose buses are malfunctioning to head to the bus terminal and wait for a replacement bus. In emails seen by The Spinoff, the Tramways Union has told Greater Wellington Regional Council that this may cause service disruption, saying “safety must take priority over service failures”.
What happens in summer also applies in winter. Bus drivers are asked not to leave their engines running while waiting at the end of a line. “If you’re parked in a suburban area, waiting to start your route, what are you supposed to do? Sit in the cold bus for half an hour?” O’Sullivan says. He sees the issues with heating and cooling on buses as due to “cost cutting”, noting that Wellington’s more expensive airport bus doesn’t have the same issues as other electric models.
Discomfort for travellers isn’t the only issue with rising temperatures and public transport. Heat can cause railway tracks to expand, meaning trains have to go more slowly or be cancelled. Responding to heat while keeping public transport operating is a challenge faced by cities around the world: research shows hotter outdoor temperatures mean people move around less, cutting down on non-essential travel. While it’s important to make sure public transport is comfortable for travellers, people who don’t have a choice to travel suffer particularly in heatwaves – like in Mumbai, where the urban poor often have to walk to work, increasing their heat exposure. Solutions like planting trees at bus stops have been trialled to make public transport safer when it’s hot, which is especially important given that car traffic can generate additional urban heat.
Summer or winter, overheated buses can seriously discourage people from taking public transport. “In winter, you get on and have to take your jacket off, you’re still melting. At some point you can’t take any more layers off,” says Bella. Lucy finishes the thought. “It’s as if they’re expecting you’ll get on the bus naked.”