Greater Wellington Regional Council chief executive to focus solely on fixing bus issues
Thursday, 6 September 2018
Greater Wellington Regional Council's chief executive has been pulled from other duties to focus exclusively on fixing Wellington's new bus network.
Sustainable transport committee deputy chairman Daran Ponter said councillors agreed earlier this week to request chief executive Greg Campbell to put all his efforts into rectifying the Wellington city bus system.
'This underlines how seriously we're taking this issue,' Ponter said.
'We want the chief executive to have a sole focus for the next four to eight weeks, and longer if necessary, on buses in Wellington city.'
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Meanwhile, extra services have started on three Wellington bus routes, while seats removed from some buses to increase capacity could be put back.
The council said recently seats were taken off the buses as a way of increasing capacity without putting more vehicles on the road.
But from Thursday, extra peak-time services were added to the No. 2 service between Karori and Seatoun, and numbers 3 and 36 between Lyall Bay and Wellington.
There will be a total of 10 additional services each day across the three routes, using buses sourced from Mana Coachlines.
Ponter has questioned whether the seats needed to be removed at all.
'My view is I'm not actually seeing, when we've taken eight seats out, that we've actually got eight people standing there.
'So there is a real question in my mind about whether it's serving the purpose that it's intended to, and I would like to have an explanation from the [council] officers about just how much more capacity we have generated by removing those seats.
'And if we can't get a fair answer on that, put them back.'
The three routes to get extra services were identified by the regional council in August as the most problematic, mainly because of operator NZ Bus using buses which were too small, but also because of timetable and scheduling issues.
NZ Bus chief executive Zane Fulljames and general manager of operations Claire Neville did not reply to requests for comment.
Ponter said the decision to add extra buses on the routes was a fast-track solution.
'We've had to work with other operators to bring buses in to put on that route and, if we can, we will do that in other areas of the city.'
When asked whether more buses would add to the congestion the council had been trying to avoid, Ponter said that was a fair question.
Ultimately, he would like to see the 10-minute peak-time service on the Karori route reduced to seven minutes.
'Once we've been able to work with the bus operator and they've been able to confirm additional drivers and buses, I would like to see us moving to a seven-minute frequency.
'When we start to do that, we will see the loadings on the buses reduced, and then [there will be] a real question about why do you need to remove the seats.
'Get civilised again and put the seats back.'
Ponter said the network was generally improving, but as it improved it had exposed areas still with issues, such as Karori, Northland, Vogeltown, and Mornington.
ADDITIONAL WELLINGTON BUS SERVICES
Number 3 (Lyall Bay-Wellington)
8.12am, 8.22am from Hutchison Rd Stop A
5.05pm from Wellington Station Stop B
Number 2 (Karori-Seatoun)
7.55am, 8.30am from Karori Park
5.05pm, 5.20pm from Courtenay Place Stop A
5.15pm from Lambton Quay North End Stop D
Number 36 (Lyall Bay-Wellington)
7.50am, 8am from Kibirnie Shops Stop B