Wellington bus bugbears

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#2070176 8-Aug-2018 19:16

KiwiSurfer: Not a great time to be a bus operator and given the difficulties it is to maintain a healthy market of bus companies who can contract to regional councils, I am even more convinced that the only way to operate a decent service in the long run is for the councils to own and operate the services themselves (or operate a mixed model where they operate core services and sub-contact only the less frequent routes).

Darren Ponter has told us that the regional council legally cannot operate a bus company. However he said it is theoretically possible for the city council to operate a bus company and for the regional council to tender routes to that company. That’s currently happens in Christchurch.

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jonherries

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#2070201 8-Aug-2018 20:18

Interesting question about availability of network performance data? Found a report on performance from 16/17:

http://www.gw.govt.nz/assets/2016-17-Annual-Monitoring-Report-for-RLTPWeb.pdf

but can’t see publically available regular data on the measures - there is this:

https://www.metlink.org.nz/customer-services/public-transport-facts-and-figures/

which is much more comprehensive for trains - wonder what the speed to update will be now and whether reporting requirements have changed.

Wasnt sure there were any publically stated benefits, other than it will be “better”.

Jon

allan

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#2070294 8-Aug-2018 21:10

alasta:
KiwiSurfer: Not a great time to be a bus operator and given the difficulties it is to maintain a healthy market of bus companies who can contract to regional councils, I am even more convinced that the only way to operate a decent service in the long run is for the councils to own and operate the services themselves (or operate a mixed model where they operate core services and sub-contact only the less frequent routes).

Darren Ponter has told us that the regional council legally cannot operate a bus company. However he said it is theoretically possible for the city council to operate a bus company and for the regional council to tender routes to that company. That’s currently happens in Christchurch.

You mean how it used to be prior to 1991 when most NZ cities had local council owned bus services, which in the case of smaller locations (hello New Plymouth), were decimated following the deregulation that occurred.

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#2070722 9-Aug-2018 14:37

The GWRC staff report presented yesterday to the Councillor's Sustainable Transport Committee is available online at Report 18.323. They obviously don't feel the same sense of frustration and urgency that the commuters are feeling

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#2070826 9-Aug-2018 16:35

allan:
The GWRC staff report presented yesterday to the Councillor's Sustainable Transport Committee is available online at Report 18.323. They obviously don't feel the same sense of frustration and urgency that the commuters are feeling

To be fair, I am impressed at the level of detail—I would love to see this sort of report from Auckland Transport. Hope they can get on with fixing the service delivery issues sooner than later though.

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#2070828 9-Aug-2018 16:38

KiwiSurfer:
allan:

The GWRC staff report presented yesterday to the Councillor's Sustainable Transport Committee is available online at Report 18.323. They obviously don't feel the same sense of frustration and urgency that the commuters are feeling

To be fair, I am impressed at the level of detail—I would love to see this sort of report from Auckland Transport. Hope they can get on with fixing the service delivery issues sooner than later though.

Although, its close to flaming torches and pitchforks down here at the moment..... the Regional Council needed to at least appear to be concerned... If things don't improve over the next month, the Council's name will be mud for a long time to come.... ( not that it has been flash until now anyway)

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#2070843 9-Aug-2018 16:54

allan:

The GWRC staff report presented yesterday to the Councillor's Sustainable Transport Committee is available online at Report 18.323. They obviously don't feel the same sense of frustration and urgency that the commuters are feeling

That report infers the electric double decker buses are in service. Does anybody know when they started? Last week nobody seemed to know when they were doing to start.

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#2070849 9-Aug-2018 17:04

sbiddle:

allan:

The GWRC staff report presented yesterday to the Councillor's Sustainable Transport Committee is available online at Report 18.323. They obviously don't feel the same sense of frustration and urgency that the commuters are feeling

That report infers the electric double decker buses are in service. Does anybody know when they started? Last week nobody seemed to know when they were doing to start.

The only electric anything I've seen is the NZ Bus converted trolley bus with the big black battery packs on the roof. Not a sign of any electric double deckers.

alasta

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#2070882 9-Aug-2018 18:53

I rode on one of the electric double deckers when Tranzit were doing a demonstration but last I heard it wasn’t actually in service.

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#2070886 9-Aug-2018 19:08

allan:

You mean how it used to be prior to 1991 when most NZ cities had local council owned bus services, which in the case of smaller locations (hello New Plymouth), were decimated following the deregulation that occurred.

Yes, most public transport operations were decimated immediately following deregulation, and particularly the smaller operations in cities like New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Hamilton, Dunedin etc.

Some cities owned and operated the bus fleet (New Plymouth/Palmerston North/Dunedin/Invercargill etc.), other jurisdictions owned the company, but leased the buses from a private company on a per km basis (Whangarei). Others contracted a private company to operate the services (Hamilton/Whanganui/Napier/Hastings/etc.).

Following July 1st 1991 all cities were flung into chaos, including the main centres, with routes cut and private operators moving in. Local buses moved around the country (e.g. New Plymouth's Mercedes, Leyland, Volvo and MAN's were used in Christchurch, Hamilton and Wellington), all having different colours, running different routes and not accepting each others tickets.

Some cities opted to form a Local Authority Trading Enterprise (LATE) which was a corporate entity that allowed the city to continue owning and operating services. Auckland's Yellow Bus Company is a prime example of a LATE.

The ability to form a LATE still exists within the legislation, and would allow a council to own and operate the service, however a better balance is to contract the services on a gross or nett contract basis, passing the day to day fleet operation on to a private provider (e.g. GoBus, NZBus, Tranzit)

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#2070896 9-Aug-2018 19:54

alasta: I rode on one of the electric double deckers when Tranzit were doing a demonstration but last I heard it wasn’t actually in service.

Yeah I saw a discussion last week where people were asking when they were due into service and Metlink couldn't provide an answer.

Here's the quote from the report

- 100% new fleet of buses for Tranzit, including 3 electric double deckers in service (with the remaining 7 entering service in coming weeks)

alasta

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#2070914 9-Aug-2018 20:35

sbiddle:
alasta: I rode on one of the electric double deckers when Tranzit were doing a demonstration but last I heard it wasn’t actually in service.

Yeah I saw a discussion last week where people were asking when they were due into service and Metlink couldn't provide an answer.

Here's the quote from the report

- 100% new fleet of buses for Tranzit, including 3 electric double deckers in service (with the remaining 7 entering service in coming weeks)

They surely won’t replace any existing diesel buses since Tranzit’s fleet is entirely new. That would imply that the current fleet is insufficient to deliver the required service level.

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#2071404 10-Aug-2018 15:39

With all the talk about blue light from mobile devices and TV sets being bad, it was a strange decision for Metlink to use blue LED for bus interior lights... Now scientist discovered why and how blue light leads to macular degeneration.

Sure, keep those crappy blue LED Metlink.

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#2071441 10-Aug-2018 16:41

freitasm:
With all the talk about blue light from mobile devices and TV sets being bad, it was a strange decision for Metlink to use blue LED for bus interior lights... Now scientist discovered why and how blue light leads to macular degeneration.

Sure, keep those crappy blue LED Metlink.

Looks like blue lights are going

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/106167009/one-less-headache-for-wellington-public-transport-users-as-buses-lose-blue-lights?cid=app-android

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#2071445 10-Aug-2018 16:56

There was a great interview on RNZ nine to noon today that's well worth listening to

https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018657493/what-s-next-for-the-capital-s-under-fire-bus-network

Interesting to hear about the current model and it's design in 2012.

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