Bus user advocates have welcomed Otago Regional Council moves to consult the public next month over plans to establish a central Dunedin bus hub.
The hub, proposed for Great King St, near the central police station, is part of a wider series of planned bus transport improvements, including the phased adoption of faster, more direct bus routes.
A bus user group, Bus Go, hailed bus route changes and ticketing improvements announced in August as ``very positive steps'' that would help make the city more attractive, vibrant and liveable.
But community frustrations are growing in some quarters over delays in implementing some other parts of the improvements, including a lack of bus shelter protection at the Green Island ``super stop''.
ORC services manager Gerard Collings said a great deal of work had gone into preparing the bus hub plans for consultation, and recently elected regional councillors and Dunedin city councillors would be briefed before the public consultation began.
The main focus of the community consultation would be the design of the planned hub, rather than its location, Mr Collings said.
``It's taken longer than we would have liked.''
But there had been a `` lot to investigate'', including traffic flows, to ensure anything being proposed was ``feasible and achievable''.
``We want to make sure that we've got a good level of information when we go out to the community.''
The ORC was prepared to listen if anyone wanted to raise concerns about the Green Island bus shelters, but he questioned whether it would be the best use of public money to install a temporary shelter, only to have to replace it later with another type of shelter.
The aim was to have the Green Island super stop bus shelter design in keeping with the requirements of the central hub-related design, he said.
Jack Rutherford is a retired school principal who in March gave an address to an Otago Regional Council meeting about southern route bus issues, introducing a petition signed by 400 people, and presented on behalf of the Greater Green Island Community Network.
Mr Rutherford (85) welcomed the bus hub consultation and said such consultation was ``very important''.
Planned ``super stops'' at Green Island began operating on July 1 last, when the southern routes bus changes took effect, the first in a series of planned improvements.
Mr Rutherford said there was some nearby shelter for passengers travelling to Dunedin via the Green Island ``super stop''.
But passengers waiting on the other side of Main South Rd to go to Brighton or Mosgiel had no seat, no shelter of any kind and were fully exposed to southerly wind and rain.
This was a ``non-super bus stop'' because ``there's nothing there''.
It was ``ridiculous'' that it might be well into next year before a bus shelter was provided. A temporary shelter should be provided in the meantime, he said.
Network chairman Steve Hayward also welcomed the hub consultation, but said it was important the community was given a good deal of ``lead time'' to ensure consultation was effective.
Mr Hayward, who is also the Green Island School principal, said overall progress was being made, and there were many ``positives'' in the planned bus changes.
The regional council was trying to persuade more people to use the buses, and users, both young and old, should be protected from the weather on health and safety grounds.
They should not have to think ``hold on, you've got to stand in the rain'', he said.
The community network has also been striving to have a ``local'' bus service restored between Brighton, Green Island and South Dunedin, and that was the subject of the petition presented to the regional council in March.
The ORC has proposed a bus service to reconnect Concord with Green Island, but that has not met all of the network's concerns.
Bus Go co-president Alex King said it was ``great'' that the ORC was going to consult on the bus hub, but there had been some ``frustrations'', including over earlier delays in the consultation, and over the bus shelter issue.
The bus hub was initially to have been established about the middle this year, following community consultation, but the project is now scheduled to be established mid next year.
