Making a virtue of Wellington's bus failings

Monday, 26 September 2022

Wellington's regional and city councils were hauled before a parliamentary select committee to explain the failings of the city's new bus network.

Dave Armstrong is a playwright and satirist based in Wellington.

OPINION: While Wellington’s mayoral candidates have been enduring a rugged schedule of meetings to convince locals they are the right person for the job, the schedule for candidates for the GWRC (Greater Wellington Regional Council) hasn’t been quite as arduous. While I’m familiar with most of our mayoral and council candidates, there were GWRC candidates I hadn’t heard of.

This greatly contrasts with the 2019 election. At the height of the Bustastrophe, all sorts of people put their name forward for the high-profile election. The manifesto of almost every candidate was that they were going to fix the buses. Even some Wellington City Council candidates were going to fix the buses, even though the council is not responsible for their running.

Three years on and our bus system is still munted. The greater part of an evening has been cancelled on some routes, with some commuters facing waits of over 90 minutes. Photos of a whole board of cancelled services have frequently appeared on social media.

* Like Monty Python's parrot, Wellington's bus system is definitely deceased

* Wellington council lobbying for buses to come back in public ownership

Cancelled services have been frequent with some commuters facing waits of over 90 minutes.

* Wellington's Regional Council chairman Chris Laidlaw skirts bus-pocalypse in final speech

* Greater Wellington councillors standing for re-election face up to bus network debacle

We now have an efficient and popular airport bus service thanks to the GWRC, writes Dave Armstrong.

* Let's Get Wellington's Buses Moving: Wellington councils team up to enact long-awaited bus route fixes

The GWRC got an easy ride with the Covid lockdown and reduced patronage due to people working from home. The problems of the previous term didn’t seem to apply. But more recently staff shortages have kicked in. That is not the fault of our regional councillors, though I do note that when right-wingers were in charge, people like me criticised them for blaming everything on staff shortages whereas now, with a more progressive regime, we sagely nod and sympathise.

Dave Armstrong: “Rather than complain about the situation, perhaps we need to embrace our dreadful bus system. Make it a tourism feature.”

But even though a recent survey surprisingly showed satisfaction with our public transport, things have become a little ridiculous of late. Someone recently tweeted that at 3.20pm, six little primary school kids were stranded in the rain at a bus stop waiting for a bus that never came. Who knows how long they would have to wait?

Once alerted, the few regional councillors who regularly engage with social media sprang into action. One was very sorry and promised to raise it with the team. Another appeared to be even more sorry and suggested the parents carpool as a last resort.

We are blessed with councillors who will profusely apologise, look into it, ask the team for clarification and do their best to note that service is lacking. They will correctly blame the driver shortage, neo-liberalism, the Public Transport Operating Model (PTOM) and the need for central government to help more. They will hope that upcoming fair pay agreements will mean that drivers get paid more and that local bodies will be allowed to directly run public transport again.

But if you think they have the power and ability to make our bus system run frequently and efficiently then think again. They can only dream of 1990s levels of service. Don’t believe any candidate that says they will miraculously fix the buses.

Not that this current regional council has done a bad job. We now have an efficient and popular airport bus service thanks to them. Okay, getting something back which should never have been lost in the first place may hardly seem cause for celebration, but it’s a small victory. And the bus fleet is become increasingly electric.

Unlike their counterparts on the WCC, there have been few public disagreements or bickering. Any debate has tended to be about the degree of change, and consensus has largely been achieved. Labour, Greens, Independent and gas-guzzling councillors have worked together, just like many of us wished the Wellington City Council would.

This should mean that most incumbents are re-elected, although many bus commuters are angry. So, do our regional councillors have any options apart from apologising, looking into it and talking to the team?

When multinational finance companies lobby the government about taxes on KiwiSaver, things change overnight. Yet when regional councillors complain, the pace is glacial. That’s why fair pay agreements and council-run transport services seem years away.

If anecdotal evidence I heard from bus drivers is correct, then the staffing problems are not only due to illness. Staff morale at one company is rock bottom, many drivers are highly stressed, and it doesn’t help when long-serving drivers are apparently dismissed for minor misdemeanours.

Thanks to PTOM, there’s not much that councillors can do, but I wonder how aware they are of the situation. Could they blow the whistle on bad corporate behaviour? Could they do more to hassle the Government? It’s difficult when you’re already aligned with them, and if you’re not, you might be replaced by a commissioner.

Rather than complain about the situation, perhaps we need to embrace our dreadful bus system. Make it a tourism feature. Give visitors a free ride on the cable car if they have to wait more than an hour for a bus. Perhaps WellingtonNZ could create a big C_NCELLED sign on the waterfront and tourists could have photos taken with their hands splayed out to fill in the missing A. Definitely something to talk to the team about.