Bus hub to officially open on March 20

Construction crews are in clean-up mode as the Otago Regional Council sets an opening date for the long-awaited Dunedin bus hub.

The ORC announced yesterday the Great King St hub would officially open on March 20.

It would become operational the next day and routes would be integrated into it over the following week.

Tag-on, tag-off ticketing is expected to be introduced in the third quarter of this year.

Council support services manager Gerard Collings said most construction had been completed and the road was expected to be open in both directions on Monday.

A week-long rollout of bus route alterations would make the change smoother, but it was likely there would be "teething issues".

The cost is $5.4million and rising, compared with the $4.4million allotted when the project outline was announced in July last year.

Of that the Dunedin City Council will pay $400,000.

The hub, on Great King St between Moray Pl and St Andrew St, has 10 bus bays, shelters, seating, toilets and stops with audio buttons. It will eventually contain a cafe kiosk.

An 11th bus bay in Moray Pl will serve regional buses.

A new clearer route map has been created in consultation with University of Otago maths student and cartography enthusiast Sam van der Weerden

The aim of the hub is to centralise public transport in the city and ease congestion in George St.

The completion date is five months later than planned last year. Mr Collings has said this was partly because the ground conditions were not as expected when the project began.

Some businesses have said construction has heavily affected sales.

Mr Collings said he was not aware of any formal requests for compensation.

Regional councillor Trevor Kempton said routes were being altered over the course of a week to avoid a shock to the city's public transport.

"From Wellington's experience the big bang doesn't work."

The 10% average increase in patronage since last year was a "great story".

ORC chairman Stephen Woodhead said the hub represented an important investment in modernising and simplifying Dunedin's public transport network.

"Bus patronage is on the rise in Dunedin and combined with earlier improvements to the network, the new hub will deliver a connected and efficient service to the growing number of people choosing to take the bus."