Consequences of a new bus corridor

The Regional Council wants to split Wellington’s central bus spine into two corridors: The Golden Mile, where all the buses currently run, and a new “Harbour Quays bus corridor” along Customhouse Quay, Jervois Quay, Cable Street and Wakefield Street between Whitmore Street and Kent and Cambridge Terraces.

Peak-hour express buses and peak-only services would use the new corridor, with all other buses continuing to use the Golden Mile. GWRC approved this plan last Thursday, with a 10:4 majority, ignoring screeds of expert advice that it was an ill advised, unwarranted and unaffordable project that would harm our bus services and cause traffic congestion.

My sincere thanks to Councillors Nigel Elder, Claire Johnstone, Penny Gaylor and Simon Woolf for voting against this $11million boondoggle that will have to be completely funded by city and regional ratepayers.

GWRC now needs the Wellington City Council to allocate one lane each way on the Harbour Quays as a peak-hour bus and cycle lane, for three hours each weekday morning and afternoon.

The two councils have developed the proposal because they have been advised that the Golden Mile bus corridor is overcrowded and will reach “saturation” within a few years. The councils claim that the second bus corridor will relieve congestion on the Golden Mile, provide faster and more reliable bus journeys through the CBD, cope with growing passenger numbers, and provide more choice for bus users.

Unfortunately, all these claims are false.

You’ll find well-informed discussions on this complex issue on several Wellington.Scoop forum threads.

In short, bus numbers are well below saturation point and are not increasing. The new bus corridor won’t provide more choice – if you need a peak-hour express bus or a peak-hour-only bus, you’ll have to leave the Golden Mile and walk to and cross the Harbour Quays.

Congestion levels will be far worse than predicted and diverted traffic will clog State Highway 1 and rat-run through the Golden Mile, delaying buses.

The promise of all-day all-week “visitor-friendly” services providing easy access to Te Papa and other waterfront destinations has been broken – it’s now very likely that only peak-hour express buses and peak-hour-only buses will use the new corridor. And the benefit-cost ratio, stated as a marginal 1.2, becomes strongly negative if the time-cost of walking to and crossing the Harbour Quays is factored in.

This plan will create severe traffic congestion. Businesses will suffer. The biggest losers will be the commuters and workers whose bus service will be worse.

Many Wellingtonians will remember the new bus network introduced in 2018, with considerable fanfare and expense. That network failed completely and became known as the “Bustastrophe”. Bus users rejected the requirement to change buses at “hubs” to reach their destination. With considerable extra expense, the network was eventually changed back to one similar to the pre-2018 configuration. Now, eight years later, we are in danger of a Second Bustastrophe.

Once again, more detailed reports, more expense, more promises, more council hubris, and a complete resistance to common sense or the advice of experts familiar with Wellington’s transport patterns and history.

If the WCC approves this plan at its City Strategy and Delivery Committee meeting on Thursday, the new bus lanes will start in 2027.

Take action now, or live with the consequences. Help the City Council make the right decision. Come to the WCC’s City Strategy and Delivery Committee meeting at 9.30am this Thursday. Tell the Mayor and City Councillors to reject this unnecessary and unaffordable proposal. Meet outside the Council’s new Headquarters on Harris Street, corner of Jervois Quay at 9.15am.