Bus feedback analysis due in six weeks

A full analysis of people’s feedback on proposed changes to Wellington City bus services is expected to take another four to six weeks, says Peter Glensor, Chair of Greater Wellington’s Economic Wellbeing Committee.

Greater Wellington sought feedback on proposed changes to Wellington City bus services in February and March 2012.

“We’ve received around 6000 responses and these are being analysed. We’ll be discussing a report, based on this analysis, at our next committee meeting in late May. That report will recommend the next steps for the bus review,” Peter Glensor says.

“From the emails we received, the meetings that were held and the news reports, we’re already aware of some common issues. These include connections between bus services and the levels of services in some suburbs.

“We’ll be considering a detailed analysis of these issues, along with the feedback, at the May Economic Wellbeing Committee meeting. This will enable us to set a clear direction for the next steps of this review. This will include further conversations with Wellington communities and submitters about the changes we’re looking at making to the proposal.

“When we first asked people back in 2009/10 what changes they would like, they told us they wanted more bus services throughout the day, at evenings and weekends and better connections across the city,” he says.

“The proposed changes aim to do that with high frequency, morning to night services on several core routes, and more regular daytime, evening and weekend services for the suburbs. There would be an increase of about 15% more bus services overall which is huge when you think of all the current services currently provided in Wellington City.

“Of course the devil is in the detail and that’s exactly what we were looking for, and received, through people’s feedback. This will be worked through very carefully. But I don’t think we should let this stop our resolve to deliver better coverage and more frequent services for our communities. I’m confident that after analysing the feedback and making some changes we’ll be able to achieve a much improved bus network for Wellington City.”