Hub suits public, not businesses

Passengers seem to be loving Dunedin's bus hub. Nearby businesses, not so much.

Dunedin's Great King St public transport centre opened more than three months ago, affecting some bus routes and stops.

Passengers there yesterday were generally in favour of the facility.

St Kilda woman Isabel Schwass said the services in past months had been reliable.

''Even the drivers have been nice.''

The location was much better than before, she said.

Mosgiel woman Beverley Rowlands said she regularly bussed into town and the location of the hub was ''nice and central'' compared to where the service used to drop her.

''We do still need a bit more shelter and probably some seats, I think.''

Dunedin woman Badriah Al Qarni said services had operated smoothly to get her daily to and from her Balaclava home.

The hub had more space and was ''more tidy'' than the busier George St, she said.

However, businesses on the street are not reacting as positively.

Look Sharp Store manager Minimol Sudheesh said it had to lay off two staff since this time last year.

''There are lots of people outside, and they come in and walk around the shop, but they don't buy anything.''

This potentially led to more shoplifting, she said.

However, she thought so many people seeing the store could be ''good marketing'' long term.

Chris Baker, whose coffee cart Classic Cafe is on the site, said business was gradually improving, but still slow.

''Maybe people are in a hurry.''

It could be because bus passengers were a ''certain subsection'' of the population who did not buy coffee, he said.

Smiths Sport Shoes co-owner Greg Lapwood said trading was still down since last year.

He attributed this to both continued construction and the removal of car parks from the street.

''It's good for some people, it's just not good for me.''

Otago Regional Council public transport team leader Julian Phillips said the hub was operating well and the council believed bus users had fully adjusted to it.

''The biggest challenge has been the need to replace ducts at the hub, which has required works staged over weekends since May. However, the design of the hub meant that services could be easily swapped to other stops with minimal interruption for customers.''

There were 61 cancelled trips between the opening of the hub and the end of May, meaning when a service is more than five minutes late.

''Approximately 1200 trips per weekday are provided across the Orbus service, and the percentage of cancellations is extremely small.''

Patronage on the Dunedin network was 245,924 in March, 198,679 in April, and 244,713 in May, all of which were increases on last year, he said.

The ORC planned to introduce tag-on tag-off ticketing in Dunedin before Christmas.

jono.edwards@odt.co.nz