Auckland Traffic Gridlocks As Bus Chaos Continues

Industrial action by bus company Stagecoach drivers has pressured Auckland's commuter traffic today.

Around one third of Stagecoaches' drivers began a wildcat strike and staging pickets outside bus depots. The wildcat strike has hit Auckland four times in the past month. The dispute remains over a new collective employment contract.

Only the North Shore escaped cuts to its bus service, all other parts of Auckland were affected.

West Auckland's Swanson and south Auckland's Manukau had services cut, while only limited services operated from the central city and Mt Roskill.

Auckland Regional Council has been redesigning its transport plan for the greater Auckland region. This has effect on bus companies like Stagecoach. And drivers want to have their rights respected when changes are orchestrated.

Meanwhile, Auckland commuters can expect continued disruption on roads as more bus commuters take to alternative forms of transport when the buses stop rolling.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>