Bus performance improving after challenging start

Bus services were now becoming more reliable and arriving on time more often as service levels improve, Greater Wellington Regional Council Chief Executive Greg Campbell told the Transport and Infrastructure Select Committee at an update at Parliament today.

Invited to address the Committee on activity since the introduction of Wellington's new bus network, Campbell said that each route and customers' feedback was being reviewed in detail to identify issues and opportunities to improve.

"That data shows that as many people are taking the bus now as they did prior to the new network beginning. We are committed to growing passenger numbers further.

Campbell said that work was well underway to complete construction on the remaining bus "hubs" which were essential to make connections between services more comfortable. The digital Real Time Information service at bus stops was also operating more effectively.

"There is no doubt the new network had a more than challenging and disappointing start, said Campbell. "But we're constantly monitoring, putting fixes in place and, what we do know from the data is that the network is able to operate effectively under the current design."

Campbell was presenting the update alongside GWRC chair Cr Chris Laidlaw, Cr Barbara Donaldson, and General Manager, Public Transport, Wayne Hastie.

"Commuters were disappointed and inconvenienced with cancelled and late services, issues with bus size and capacity, and were not happy with transferring on some routes. I have taken personal responsibility for overseeing the performance and improvement programme, increasing the dedicated team, and boosting resources from across the organisation to fix problems."

"Constant management of the performance of the network with our operators means that we are able to understand where the problems are and to resolve issues which were affecting our customers.

"We appreciate that there are some things customers don't like. We hope to minimise these.

"Meanwhile, we've worked hard to achieve fewer bus cancellations and a marked improvement in punctuality of services.

"We want to provide the standard of service that Wellingtonians expect and deserve. My focus right now is to embed this new network fully, resolve outstanding problems, and then look at further network improvements to meet customer expectations," Campbell said.