Shame on them.
When I was elected to the mayoralty in 2016, one of my lead action items was public transport.
At the time we had a service that was highly expensive, infrequent and unreliable.
If my memory serves me well, the fare from Lake Hayes Estate to town was $11 — understandably the very people it was aimed at (commuters) shunned it.
With the support of a wonderful council, we set out trying to change that.
My plan was better buses, more frequency and much lower fares.
Otago Regional Council (ORC), which runs the service, had to be dragged kicking and screaming to make the change, but eventually the $2 bus was born (believe it or not, ORC insisted that Queenstown Lakes District Council underwrite the service, they were so reluctant).
Anyway, the service was incredibly successful, and passenger numbers quadrupled overnight.
The Ministry of Education had clearly been rifling through our rubbish bins and promptly decided that our good work would allow them to dodge their responsibility.
They sent us a courtesy note to say that school buses would pretty much end, and children would now ride on public transport.
In our view that would have shot the new service down in flames.
Crowds of children and commuters fighting for the same space.
The result would be overcrowded buses and commuters would not use it any more.
World War 3 broke out with the Ministry, with the manager responsible for school buses coming down to tell us they would do what they wanted.
All terribly arrogant, but we had a few arrows in our quiver as well, and eventually they very reluctantly backed down.
A very important point, as Chris Blackford pointed out (Mountain Scene, October 2), there is a requirement to slow to 20kmh when passing a stationary school bus.
Very rightly and sensibly so.
Ergo, if children are to ride on public buses, then the same rules must apply.
Given the frequent encounters we all have with public buses, that will cause even more mayhem than we have now.
But for safety’s sake, it would have to.
Well done to all those in the education system and elsewhere who have spoken out on this.
Good work and keep it up.
This is an issue that should be supported by all Queenstowners.
If school buses go, fully expect to see a significant increase in cars on the road, and even more congestion.
Let’s all make some serious noise about this.
And if someone wants to start a petition, count me as the first signatory.
