Concord bus users have transport woes

Concord residents Lynn and Kevin Keogh, and her  3-year-old guide dog,  Matsi, sit at a bus...
Concord residents Lynn and Kevin Keogh, and her 3-year-old guide dog, Matsi, sit at a bus shelter in Stevenson Rd, Concord, where buses to South Dunedin once stopped. Photo by Linda Robertson.

Call it the ''plight of the Concords''.

The introduction of Dunedin's new southern bus routes on July 1 has meant swifter, more frequent bus services, via Green Island, then non-stop to central Dunedin.

But some southern bus users say they have been disadvantaged by the loss of the direct bus route between Green Island and South Dunedin.

Retired plumber Kevin Keogh (64), who lives in Stevenson Rd, Concord, is particularly ''frustrated'' about the situation he and wife Lynn face.

Mrs Keogh is legally blind and has had a guide dog for the past 11 years.

Bus route changes mean the Keoghs and many other Concord residents no longer have any direct bus connection with South Dunedin or Green Island.

That is difficult for Mrs Keogh, who uses the Green Island Medical Centre and also visits the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind facilities in Hillside Rd, South Dunedin, several times a month.

She said she felt ''sheer frustration, more than anything, and loss of independence''.

She now has no bus access to the medical centre, more than 3km away.

And she can only reach Hillside Rd using a circuitous bus route to Dunedin North, where she would have to change buses near Knox Church before heading south.

The Keoghs would like to see a couple of morning bus services reinstated between Green Island and South Dunedin after 9am and early to mid-afternoon.

Mr Keogh said bus users in some other areas, including Corstorphine and Burnside, were also disadvantaged by the route changes.

He appreciated the benefits of the new direct bus service to central Dunedin but hoped some adjustments could be made.

Otago Regional Council manager support services Gerard Collings said he had a ''great deal of empathy'' with Mrs Keogh and others who had long used buses and now found some previous connections were not available.

Small-scale service changes were costly, but the ORC was listening ''very, very carefully'' to community feedback and was aware of the interest between Concord and Green Island.

ORC officials have previously said no commitments to make changes could be made, but aspects of the bus service would be looked at again next year.

john.gibb@odt.co.nz

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