Almost 2700 buses in Sydney and across NSW have yet to be fitted with fire suppression systems that could have avoided a blaze that erupted on a bus carrying 30 passengers over the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Thursday.
While good progress had been made on retro-fitting government-run buses with fire safety systems, Transport Minister Andrew Constance conceded on Friday that a multi-million-dollar contract to do the same with 2400 privately-run buses has yet to be awarded.
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Bus fire closes all lanes on Sydney Harbour Bridge
All lanes of the Sydney Harbour Bridge are closed due to a bus fire at Milsons Point.
The revelations about buses that operate on school routes and regular services in greater Sydney come more than a year after Mr Constance announced the program to make vehicles safer.
Two passengers and the driver of a State Transit bus were taken to hospital on Thursday night suffering from smoke inhalation, following dramatic scenes that brought traffic to a standstill on both sides of the harbour bridge in the evening peak.
It was the 36th bus fire in NSW so far this year, raising the prospect that a spike in incidents recorded in 2015 will be surpassed.
Mr Constance said a request for proposals for fire suppression systems for privately run buses had been issued in April and he defended the time it was taking to retrofit the private buses.
"We have to maintain a transport network," he said. "We have to work with private sector operators. There's 27 different bus types which are going to be required to be retrofitted in conjunction with the private sector."
Mr Constance said the tender would be issued next month and the expectation was that all buses would be retrofitted by the end of 2017.
"I'll be doing everything I can to expedite it," he said.
The two-decade-old bus that burst into flames on Thursday did not yet have a fire suppression system. The system works by detecting a fire or heat within a bus engine bay and activating a high pressure mist.
About 265 of the State Transit Authority's 2700-strong fleet still need to have fire suppression systems installed by the government's deadline of the end of the year.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union Bus said the government's timetable for fitting fire suppression systems "isn't good enough".
"It is too dangerous to have buses on the road that don't have these simple fire suppression mechanisms installed. Passengers and drivers can't wait any longer," the secretary of the union's bus division, Chris Preston, said.
"This [fire on Thursday] could and should have been avoided."
The suppression systems give more time for passengers and drivers to escape vehicles, while also increasing the chances of confining damage to buses.
Mr Preston said it was too early to draw conclusions about the cause of the latest fire but many of incidents in the past had started in the engine bays at the rear of buses.
"The buses run constantly and it gets hot. We are also now approaching summer, which makes a difference," he said.
Last year NSW had a significant spike in bus fires. According to the Office of Transport Safety Investigations, 40 bus fires were recorded in 2015, compared with 29 in 2014 and 28 a year earlier.
Of those fires last year, 40 per cent started in the engine bays of buses. Fires starting in the brakes of buses also increased markedly, rising from six in 2013 to 17 last year.
The state safety investigators are expected to provide a report to government about the latest bus fire within a couple of days.
Mr Preston said the union had been calling for the problem to be fixed for years, and the "public deserves answers as to why the government is still sitting on their hands as buses burn".
"It is beyond belief that we are still seeing our public buses catching on fire on our roads putting passengers, drivers, pedestrians and other road users at enormous risk," he said.
Mr Constance said there was "no systemically, single identified reason for the ignition of a fire in a bus".
He described the fire that engulfed the bus on Thursday as "horrendous" and thanked those involved in the emergency response, including the 35-year-old bus driver whose actions he said were "above and beyond the norm".
State Transit chief executive Peter Rowley said the bus at the centre of the latest incident had been maintained to the required standards and had its most recent major service on July 22.
It was due for a visual inspection of water, fuel and oils this week.
"There is no fault identified with this vehicle prior to the fire," he said.
Mr Rowley said fires were "extremely difficult to predict or diagnose".
"Our buses are safe," he said. "There are no systemic issues with regards to our buses that would warrant the removal of the buses [from the road]."