A NSW government taskforce report on the state's bus industry shows Hunter operators had 27 driver vacancies in April.
The bus industry taskforce report says driver shortages, particularly in Sydney, have had a severe impact on service cancellations and running times.
The Newcastle network, run by Keolis Downer since 2017, had 14 driver vacancies in April, representing 4 per cent of its workforce.
In the rest of the Hunter, bus operators had 13 vacancies, representing 5 per cent of the workforce.
The report includes Newcastle and the Hunter on a list of areas most affected by driver shortages, but the region has fewer vacancies than some Sydney contract areas.
The Upper North Shore had 25 vacancies, or 15 per cent of its driving workforce, the Blue Mountains 13 per cent and the Inner West and North Shore 10 per cent.
"While also experienced in other parts of NSW, including the Hunter and Newcastle, the level of service impact has been most prominent in Greater Sydney," the report says.
Transport for NSW figures show 96.3 per cent of Keolis Downer's Newcastle buses ran on time in June and the operator has not dipped below the TfNSW benchmark of 95 per cent since February 2020.
Two out of 12 operators in the "outer metropolitan" grouping of bus contract areas, Hunter Valley Buses and Dion's Bus Service in the Illawarra, did not meet the benchmark in June.
By comparison, half of the 16 operators in Greater Sydney missed the mark.
The taskforce, which included former State Transit Authority boss John Lee and industry, union, social services, local government and safety representatives, found in its initial report published on Monday that TfNSW had been focused on large capital infrastructure projects in Sydney "at the cost of maintaining the quality and frequency of bus services".
The former Coalition government faced criticism for its franchising of former STA services, starting with Newcastle in 2017.
Keolis Downer faced a strong backlash from passengers and local members of Parliament after restructuring bus routes across the city.
The taskforce followed an upper house inquiry last year which urged the then Coalition government to consider reversing the "disastrous" privatisation of Newcastle's bus network.
The new report does not mention bringing bus services back under public control.
The statewide report found passengers "don't feel they have enough say in where bus routes run", recommended a new dedicated division within TfNSW to focus on bus services and called for improved bus-tracking digital technology.
The NSW government offered in-principle support for the report's seven recommendations, which included increased long-term funding for bus services to keep pace with population growth and support to attract and retain drivers.
"On-time running and reliability has deteriorated over recent years, and passengers expect and demand a better service," Transport Minister Jo Haylen said at a media conference on Monday.
"We want better contract and performance management, better service planning and a thriving industry that will attract new bus drivers."
Rail, Tram and Bus Union divisional secretary Dave Babineau said commuters had been left with unreliable services due to the privatisation of the industry under the former government.
"All of the problems we're facing, like the shortage of bus drivers, the two-tiered payment system in many regions which is leaving drivers worse off financially and the poorer quality of services stem from privatisation and long-term neglect of the network," he said.
"While it is welcome that the NSW government has given in-principle support to the seven key recommendations, we need to see urgent action to fix these ongoing issues."
The former government awarded long-term contract extensions to operators in a host of Sydney regions last year and just before the March election.
Keolis Downer's Newcastle contract expires in 2027.
