Auditor-general needs to step in

Now that we know the minister and Ministry of Transport knew about the risks of the change to Wellington bus services before the event, and Greater Wellington Regional Council went ahead regardless (Minister’s early bus worries, Sept 12), isn’t it time for a formal investigation. The auditor-general should be called in to examine the whole project, how it was managed and who should be held responsible.

GWRC councillors and management seem to admit the ‘‘big bang’’ implementation of farreaching changes has not worked as planned but all they are doing is putting Band-Aids on the wreckage. It’s inevitable that ratepayers will end up paying for this management disaster but we need the auditor-general to examine, and report on, what happened so that it never happens again. Peter D Graham, Island Bay

I was amused to see Dave Armstrong’s Memo to Bustrastrophe HQ and Liz MacPherson’s Weapons of math destruction . . . on facing pages (Sept 11) because I believe the articles are related.

When MacPherson quotes from Cathy O’Neil’s book on the less obvious consequences of the use of algorithms – ‘‘businesses have moved away from a predictable 40-hour week for their staff, with some asked to work more or shorter shifts, at strange hours, and without much notice’’ – I thought of our Wellington bus drivers.

MacPherson also quotes O’Neil [who] ‘‘highlights the impact of this change on workers who must juggle childcare, and other commitments, around such changeable working hours’’. The bus drivers are experiencing exactly those consequences, and thus our Wellington bus users who suffer with Bustrastrophe.

Will Greg Campbell, chief executive of GWRC, now use better algorithms and apply more adequate safeguards on the use of data used to design the ‘‘improved’’ network and timetable, to get rid of Bustrastrophe?

Or is he going to blame it all on the Public Transport Operating Model?

Nick Lambrechtsen, Khandallah