The Greater Wellington Regional Council is looking to cut University bus routes, including the popular number 18, in a move VUWSA says will add to student travel time and CBD congestion.
Under the Draft Regional Public Transport Plan, currently in the process of consultation, new “hubs” will be created at the Railway Station, Karori Tunnel and Courtenay Place.
The number-18 route will be cut in favour of “frequent direct connections from hubs” which will “enable access from across Wellington.” The 17, 20, 22, 23 and 47 routes will also be replaced by new University bus routes, L and M, which would operate seven days a week.
The M will go from Wellington Station to Kelburn Campus, via the Terrace, every 7.5 minutes, down from the current interval of 5.7 minutes for the multiple routes which access the University.
The L will go from Karori to Mount Victoria via Courtenay Place. It would go from Courtenay Place to Kelburn Campus every ten minutes, an improvement on the current 12-minute interval.
VUWSA’s Welfare Vice-President Rick Zwaan said that the cuts will add time to students’ commutes and cause stress.
“The changes would mean that most people travelling from Newtown would go along the ‘Golden Mile’ route before having to transfer to travel up the Terrace from the Railway Station end. This would add 3.3 km to the route, increasing the travel time by at least five minutes in off-peak travel – a 25 per cent increase. Congestion along the Golden Mile during peak hours would increase this even further,” Zwaan said.
The Plan also proposes introducing a 25 per cent off-peak concession, while removing the current disability concession.
The concession would apply to travel from 9 am to 3.30 pm and after 6.30 pm Monday to Friday, and 5 am Saturday to midnight Sunday. However, this proposal is in the long-term plan, so if approved would not be enacted for more than ten years.
The GWRC says that an across-the-board off-peak concession is “fairer and more equitable” than a discount targeted towards tertiary students.
“An across-the-board concession for all tertiary students would mean that everyone studying at a tertiary institution – regardless of their economic circumstances – would pay cheaper fares. However, young people on the minimum wage or jobseeker allowance would pay the full fares.”
“These changes would also benefit many tertiary students, with Victoria University reporting that two-thirds of student travel is in off-peak periods.”
The GWRC is also considering introducing a fare-capping regime and investigating the introduction of a “bulk purchase product” which would initially be targeted towards tertiary students.
Mayor Celia Wade-Brown supports the concessions, saying that “affordable fares are critical in getting more people onto public transport. This is a good step forward.”
Paul Bruce, Councillor on the GWRC, said that he was happy with the discount but thought that it was primarily based on traffic reduction. He said there should be a specific student discount but that it should be funded by central government, like the Gold Card.
Bruce also said there was a “democratic deficit” as there had been only three public meetings about the proposal, which he found “deeply disturbing.”
The Plan also proposes integrated ticketing, with one “smart card” for all public transport. The smart card would also eliminate “transfer penalties” so there would be no extra cost to transfer between buses, trains and ferries. However, this would involve “a three-to-five-year business transformation process”, so the earliest this could be introduced would be 2017.
Another proposed option is bulk purchasing, whereby organisations would be able to bulk-buy public-transport period passes at a discounted rate. According to the plan, this would be initially targeted at university students, but work on pricing and scheme development has not been done yet.
The Draft Regional Public Transport Plan is open for submissions until 9 May.