"We’re not going to go away," Mrs Angelo said yesterday.
When a new Belleknowes to Waverley bus route was established last August, the Arthur St/Canongate/Russell St section of the previous route was removed, as part of an Otago Regional Council "drive to make Dunedin bus routes more efficient", Ms Davidson said.
The previously twice-hourly off-peak service in the area was also reduced to hourly.
Ms Davidson said the decision of a council finance and corporate committee on Wednesday not to reinstate the bus was "heartless and scandalous".
"City Rise Up members want it reinstated because the cut has severely compromised some residents’ ability to live in the area."
Part of City Rise housed many people in rental accommodation and on low incomes and many also had no car.
"The elderly and disabled were particularly disadvantaged by the loss of their bus service."
A recent survey of residents undertaken by the council indicated some bus patronage in that part of City Rise has dropped since the cut.
Ms Davidson said council staff indicated there would be winners and losers resulting from any change to a bus route, but in this case the losers were "people who are already struggling".
At the council committee meeting, some councillors said extensive public consultation had been undertaken in developing the current regional public transport plan, and that wider community benefits, including potentially increased overall bus patronage were likely to flow from pursuing the plan of having more direct routes.
Ms Davidson and Mrs Angelo disagreed with a council report on the survey, which had been considered by councillors.
The committee heard that survey respondents were generally sympathetic to reinstating the previous route, but none of their comments was included in the summary report.
Ms Davidson said councillors had voted without being able to read those comments, which could have given a clearer idea of the impact the changes had made.
It "certainly is more efficient" to have buses "whizzing down the hill without picking people up", she said.
But public transport was there for the public, and a policy needed to change if it did not represent the best interests of the public, she said.
Cr Andrew Noone previously argued for holding the survey, and for the council to consider possibly reincluding the area.
People in the area had genuine concerns, and he would like to have the general comments they made on their survey forms made available for councillors to consider at the full council meeting on June 28, he said yesterday.
