Wellington bus boss: 'I take responsibility'

Thursday, 25 July 2019

Greg Campbell says he takes responsibility for the crisis.

Greater Wellington Regional Council's top dog has admitted the buck for the capital's bus debacle stops with him.

The regional council and Wellington City Council appeared before a select committee on Thursday over the capital's bus debacle.

Greater Wellington Regional council has twice fronted a select committee to explain controversial bus changes.

Greater Wellington chief executive Greg Campbell took responsibility for the bus network redesign.

'Can I say one more time I'm chief executive of this council and I take responsibility,' Campbell said.

WCC chief executive Kevin Lavery and Mayor Justin Lester said the city council decided to wait till Let's Get Wellington Moving plans were setlled before moving on bus priority.

It has been a tumultuous year for Wellington's bus commuters.

* 'It was a bad start': Decision-makers look back on a troubled year for Wellington's buses

* Driver shortages and city council's moves on bus priority blamed for Wellington network problems

* Council versus council in Wellington bus 'omnishambles'**

National transport spokesman Chris Bishop fished out a request for bus priority by the regional council from 2016 and asked why nothing had been done about it.

A major cause of the crisis was a GWRC 'rationalisation' which tried to address 'overservicing' in some suburbs and better spread services across the city, lowering the burden on the ratepayer and taxpayer, he said.

'Maybe we should have spent more, increased rates, and given more of a service.'

With the meeting underway, the joint councils issued a plan to increase bus reliability through the central city.

The solution goes by the name 'bus priority' - essentially giving buses greater priority through the central city with the use of more bus lanes and bus priority at traffic lights.

In an interview with Stuff a year ago one of the original designers of the network, Jarrett Walker, said bus hubs and bus priority were important to a network redesign of this type where high frequency bus lines were designed to intersect each other at 'interchanges'.

National Party list MP Nicola Willis said she was shocked the city council had taken so long to push through bus priority routes.

The regional council has fronted a select committee twice before on the issue of the capital's controversial bus overhaul.

But Thursday was the first time the city council - which has previously been sharply critical of the regional council's handling of the situation - has been summoned by the transport and infrastructure select committee to explain itself over the controversial bus network redesign.

Regional council chairman Chris Laidlaw said both councils were 'in this together' with the bus network and the service was improving.

He also pointed the finger at delays to Let's Get Wellington Moving - an overhaul of the capital's transport - which he said caused bus priority measures to be set aside 'until there was clarity on the whole picture'.

But Laidlaw said few of the delays in putting through consents for bus stops required for the new network were due to the city council.

Wellington Mayor Justin Lester told the committee no attempt was taken on creating bus priority lanes for the new network when a request made two years ago.

National MP Chris Bishop asked: 'You're not listening to what I'm saying: the regional council asked you in mid-2016 to consider public transport only spines what happened to that request?'.

Lester and Wellington City Council chief executive Kevin Lavery told the committee they wanted to wait until the network changes had been done – and future Let's Get Wellington Moving plans were approved - before pushing through the bus priority requests.

'We had an election and a change of government … so that Let's Get Wellington Moving decision took a greater period of time to be implemented,' he said.

Fellow National MP Nicola Willis said she was shocked at the delay in approving bus priority routes where buses could flow faster through the city.

'[That] was not a wise decision it has lead to massive disruption in our capital.'

BUS BREAKDOWN - THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WCC & GWRC

* Greater Wellington Regional Council runs the buses and operates the bus network for Wellington city and the greater Wellington region.

* Wellington City Council is responsible for bus stops, bus lanes and bus priority signals at traffic lights for buses within the city area.