Passengers need to brace themselves for more than two months of “travel chaos” as tourist sightseeing buses take priority over scheduled routes.This is the prediction of bus drivers who say “a severe shortage of buses” will create “huge gaps” in the Island’s bus timetable.Several drivers have spoken to us to say there are an average of 25 to 45 out of 119 buses off the road at any given time.And they say this is “just the tip of the iceberg” as the shortage looks set to get even worse as the cruise ship season is now underway. They claim about 15 buses a day are used for sightseeing and beach tours when a cruise ship is docked.Bus drivers say there will be “no relief” until the end of June when they switch to their summer roster, which takes cruise ship visitors into account.It is only then that buses currently used on school routes can be transferred to the tourist routes. On an average day last week The Royal Gazette was told there were 82 buses in service; 36 in Hamilton, 23 in St George’s and 23 in Dockyard.This meant there were 37 buses out of service and 22 out of the 104 daily scheduled driver runs could not be completed.This will be seen as another blow for public transport after Government recently made massive cuts to the ferry service to try to save money.The Department of Transport has had its budget reduced by $1.3 million, down seven percent from last year.One bus driver, who did not want to be named, said some drivers didn’t even have a bus to drive when they turned up for work.He said: “We have 119 buses but they aren’t all on our roads. They are being serviced instead. We have 30-plus buses off the road.“The number of buses off the road changes day by day but we don’t even have enough buses to cover the rosters.“If there’s no bus for a driver to operate, there’s no bus for a driver to operate, it’s as simple as that.”Bus drivers told us that buses were often pulled during school term times and rush hour but the busiest time of the year was always the early tourist season.Drivers told us “tourists take priority” as buses were made available to transport them back and forth to Horseshoe Bay and on three- and five-hour sightseeing tours.As soon as a cruise ship docks at Dockyard, the special excursion buses can be seen lining up and no other passengers are allowed to board them.This year’s situation is predicted to be worse than previous years as an overtime ban is now in place, so drivers cannot do extra shifts and mechanics are taking longer to repair the buses.A bus driver said: “It’s absolutely going to get worse now the cruise ships are in. There’s going to be a severe shortage of buses and there will be no relief until the end of June.“There are going to continue to be huge gaps in the timetable. As soon as a bus is cancelled it leaves people waiting by the side of the road.“Passengers have every right to grumble and complain because it’s not fair. Tourists take preference.”Bus drivers say the only solution is to “get more buses on the roads” but the Island last received 15 new vehicles in 2009.A bus driver said: “We haven’t had any new buses for two years and we are crying out for some. But it doesn’t look like we are going to get any.”A series of questions addressing this issue were put to Transport Minister Terry Lister, but he did not respond to our requests for comment.