The ACT government is still waiting on a delivery of buses that accommodate people with a disability, more than a year after they were due.
Scania Australia has informed the government it will be unable to deliver 17 diesel buses until at least the end of the year, leaving officials to assess other options.
In March 2022, the government entered a contract with Scania for 26 buses to be delivered by the end of that year, but just nine have been delivered so far, and the timeline has been pushed back several times.
The buses were designed to replace the old Renault PR100.2 series buses, which do not meet disability requirements.
All public transport was supposed to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act by the end of 2022, unless the jurisdiction had an exemption.
The ACT does not have a formal exemption, but Transport Canberra's deputy director general Ben McHugh said the territory technically was not in breach of the Act, because no one had yet come forward with a complaint.
"You are only required to formally seek (an exemption) if there has been a complaint through the discrimination commissioner," Mr McHugh said.
He said Transport Canberra was yet to be notified of a formal complaint through that channel.
'This is an ACT government problem'
Andy Coogan has a disability and said he and his assistance dog were unable to use the old buses.
"The old Renault buses have stairs," Mr Coogan said.
"They also contain a high amount of metal barring, which is dangerous for my assistance dog."
Mr Coogan doesn't have a car or a licence, and said he often has to put two hours of planning into leaving the house, or book a flexible bus service two business days in advance.
"The bus is the only way I'm able to get around, and it's frustrating to say the least."
Transport Canberra and the ACT government said Scania cited supply chain issues, price increases, resource shortages and a lack of skilled workers for the delays in delivering the contract on time.
But Mr Coogan said the ACT government should have acted faster to replace the fleet.
"I rely on having an assistance dog and I'm not going to blame Transport Canberra management in the allocation of buses, this is an ACT government problem," he said.
"The Disability Discrimination Act has been in place since 1992 at the Commonwealth level"
"This is highly urgent, this affecting my mental health, this is affecting my physical health."
The chair of the Public Transport Association of Canberra, Ryan Hemsley, also argued Labor acted too late when it signed a contract for the replacement fleet nine months before they were supposed to be retired.
"They left it too late and now they are suffering the consequences, and it is public transport users who are suffering as a result."
Opposition transport spokesperson Mark Parton also laid the blame at the government for acting too late.
"They had 10 years to do it," he said.
"They were not serious about doing it – they put it on the backburner".
ACT government assessing other options
In a statement, Transport Minister Chris Steel said it was not feasible to remove all the old Renaults from service.
"If we were to remove all Renault PR100.2 from service today this would significantly risk service reliability for Canberrans," he said.
"Transport Canberra is working to only operate Renault PR100.2 when the only alternative would be to cancel a service."
Mr McHugh said the old Renault buses only made up about two per cent of the entire fleet, and work was being done to ensure those can be phased out quickly.
"Transport Canberra [is] extremely frustrated by this and looking at all other avenues to accelerate the replacement of these buses," he said.
The ABC has contacted Scania for comment.