Earlier this month, the Otago Regional Council rejected proposals to fund a direct service between Dunedin and Oamaru, deciding instead to just keep the existing route, which terminates at Palmerston.
However, Oamaru’s Trevor Goodin, who runs a six-seater community donation-based shuttle between Oamaru and Dunedin Hospital, is organising a town meeting to find a solid proposal to put to the regional council to establish a new community shuttle service to run between Oamaru and Palmerston.
"I ended up in a meeting with the regional council recently and I suggested to them that we use local services and that because there’s already four buses going up to Palmerston from Dunedin that we use a community shuttle-type situation from Oamaru to Palmerston," he said.
"They’re quite receptive to that and also receptive to help funding that. So, what I was looking to do was try and call a public meeting and get people involved in it, see what they want and present that to regional council. Then they look at what they can offer.
"They’ve certainly got funding that we can tap into. They’ve already told me that.
"They’re already taking bus service money for a bus service out of our rates and we don’t get the bus service."
Mr Goodin said a community meeting would take place at 4pm on August 1 at the Freemason’s Lodge in Wansbeck St.
He said the vehicle he was using for his community shuttle service was too small to be used as a public service but if the demand was clear at the meeting, he was confident ORC would fund a vehicle for the service.
"Really what I want to do is get the community together and say, OK, here’s what counts, here’s what regional council are offering, how are we going to make that work?
"But if we don’t do it, if we don’t look after ourselves and don’t do it for ourselves, it’s not going to happen but certainly, the regional council have indicated that they could help fund that."
The regional council had previously said its transport planning team will be investigating the cost and viability of connecting Oamaru to the existing Dunedin services, which terminate at Palmerston.
Yesterday, the council’s regional planning and transport general manager Anita Dawe there were "a number of options" that will be explored but the council was only in the early stages of that work.
"As part of the investigation, the team has reached out to Mr Goodin and had a positive and productive conversation. There is no proposal and no direction has been sought from the council at this stage."
