University staff ask for their bus stop back

University of Otago Assoc  Prof  Karen Nairn wants the bus service from Otago Peninsula to Otago Museum to be restored. Photo: Gerard O'Brien
University of Otago Assoc Prof Karen Nairn wants the bus service from Otago Peninsula to Otago Museum to be restored. Photo: Gerard O'Brien
Having to drive to work or hike from a central bus stop to the University of Otago campus every day is the thin edge of the wedge for a group of university staff members, who want the museum stop to be restored.

More than a year ago, the bus route from Otago Peninsula was changed to end near New World in Cumberland St, rather than the Albany St stop at the Otago Museum reserve, near the University of Otago library.

Science communication senior lecturer Dr Jenny Rock said she was considering leaving the university because of the issue.

It was 20 minutes' walk to get from the bus stop to where she worked on campus, and staff and students working on the eastern side of the campus had to leave home or work an hour earlier to use the bus service.

''We now all drive in separately in cars, joining the increasingly heavy traffic now using Portsmouth Dr and Anzac Ave in commuting times.''

As an environmental researcher at ''a supposedly sustainably-focused institution'', Dr Rock said the hypocrisy of having to drive was intolerable.

''We have asked repeatedly for them to extend the route back to Albany St (just two stops or more) and they refuse, claiming everything will be better when the bus hub exists and we can transfer between buses for delivery to that side of campus.''

A chain of emails passed on to the Otago Daily Times showed in October 2017 the university got in touch with the Otago Regional Council raising concerns about transfer times and saying route changes had stopped staff using the bus.

After several reminders sent in September this year, a response was sent from the ORC to the university last month apologising for the delay and saying there were three services running from central Dunedin to the university, but acknowledging not all were easy to connect with.

''Once the bus hub is in place and operational, the connections to the university will become clearer and will definitely be more accessible for all users,'' the response said.

ORC support services manager Gerard Collings said this week construction of the bus hub, outside the Dunedin Central Police Station, and mitigating inconvenience to retailers and the wider community over Christmas had been the ORC transport team's key focus.

He also said connections would become clearer once the hub was in place.

Dr Rock said it was ''plain bewildering'' the bus stop could not be extended two stops further to deliver workers to ''one of the region's biggest employers''.

She was doubtful the hub would make a difference, and said it appeared the university had now dropped the case.

College of Education Assoc Prof Karen Nairn also lives on the peninsula. She said she had ''drastically decreased'' her bus trips and found it ''bizarre'' the bus returned to the peninsula along George St, which slowed the return trip down.

When contacted, a university spokeswoman said it had passed staff members' concerns on, but decisions sat with the ORC.

elena.mcphee@odt.co.nz

 

Comments

The problem is with NZTA who has prompted regional councils New Zealand-wide to adopt a 'hub and spoke' bus network optimization model. This is correct theoretically and a big improvement on a conglomeration of point-to-point routes which do not take into account any overall network perspective.
But models are only useful if they are useful! The real world has to be taken into account. So specific optimization for a particular location is inevitably going to be a combination of hub and spoke AND point to point routes, the latter making sense where there are a lot of potential users. (Effectively changing from a totally centralized to a somewhat distributed system.)
There are similar protests from users about inflexible hub and spoke applications in Christchurch and Wellington. The power-that-be are generally not negotiating with users because they assume they are ignorant and do not understand optimized networks. Which is very disrespectful and counter-productive. User behaviour is a key factor in an optimized public transport network and brute force is not the best way to change it. There will be unintended consequences, as in this case, with users just opting out.

My bus service (66/67) was completely completely removed. The new ridge runner leaves the Forth St 5 minutes before the hour, why not after, so folk finishing at 5 pm can use it rather than waiting another 30 minutes? So I now drive a car. Nice work ORC.

You need to take the buses to where the people are and at the times they require. Not doing so means the services are not used and not economic. Become people-centric ORC then the systems will be used.

A further example of the arrogance and stupidity of the ORC.

The absurd number of empty buses seen day and night is ridiculous and solely attributable to the ORC. Their decision to change timetables, remove bus stops and change bus routes, expecting passengers to transit from one bus to another (or several) just to get from point A to point B, is crazy. The old system used to work well but they just HAD to fix something that wasn't broken!

With regard to bus route changes, it has been brought to my attention that many drivers have sought employment elsewhere because the frustration experienced in negotiating almost impossible manoeuvres, especially in peak time traffic isn't worth the escalating stress. I certainly don't blame them for leaving. I don't know anyone who would want to work in that sort of situation.

It's time the ORC listened to the rapidly dwindling users of public transport and gave us back a system designed to serve those who pay for it - us, the ratepayers.

The hub and spoke model is very popular with service contractors who suppose they are getting a monopoly on a geographical piece of the pie. Whereas the whole present business model of bus services provision is supposed to promote competition. (Overall, it's actually doing the opposite and the little guys are getting pushed out.) Commercial service providers had a ring-side seat during the deliberation about the implementation of this network model but users had no collective voice and individuals only the usual submission process and IMO were generally ignored. The present mess is going to be very hard to fix because the service providers, planners and bureaucrats get paid regardless of whether the users are happy or not. And the elected reps on regional councils usually don't care about public transport. ( ORC is full of farmers.) So no adverse consequences for any of the decision makers. IMO only loud and noisy user groups may be able to make a positive difference. And they are the ones the whole system is supposed to be for!

 

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