Little public money available for desired bus routes

A proposal to operate public transport between towns in Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago is on the table but little public money is available to get the wheels turning.

The Otago Regional Council has approached prospective operators about two related studies of future public transport services in the "Otago Central Lakes" sub-region. One is around local service options for Wānaka and Lake Hāwea and of the wider sub-regional network, including services between Queenstown and Wānaka, and between Queenstown and Alexandra.

The council, though, sounded warnings about the difficulties of bringing a publicly funded service to the area.

"We are not currently in a position to fund a service in the area, to bring a tender to market, or undertake formal commercial negotiations to advance a proposal," it said.

"We believe that improvements to public transport in this area may require a higher-than-usual level of commercial initiative or collaboration in service design.

"We are especially interested in understanding if there are opportunities to collaborate on solutions with high levels of ‘private share’ cost recovery, as such solutions which could be more realistically activated in the short term compared to the high-subsidy services that ORC generally contracts."

The register of interest document suggests three possible routes: Queenstown to Wānaka, Wānaka to Cromwell and Alexandra to Frankton, with six trips each day.

But the document said these routes were not set in stone and there could be alternatives.

Queenstown-Lakes District Mayor John Glover said the proposal made sense and it was good to have something to consider.

"We have got tourists wanting to do the bike trails and wine experience further down the river and having that connectivity will help that," he said.

"We need to think outside the square in some of these things. Public transport does not always have to mean a 40-seat bus. We have to look at every option, but it is very encouraging to hear."

He said people would have no issue getting on buses, especially with the rising price of petrol.

Central Otago District Mayor Tamah Alley said there was a real and growing need for a bus service.

"It is something that has been on the radar of Central Otago District Council for quite some time. I’ve certainly spoken with my counterparts at the regional council to say, ‘hey, it’s maybe time to start looking at what public transport further afield looks like, especially with our workforce transition between CODC and QLDC’," she said.

She said high bus fares would be a hinderance to any scheme. Private providers had tried it before and it was a hard slog.

Cromwell Community Board chairwoman Anna Harrison said you only had to look at social media to see the number of people who were looking for a ride to places such as Queenstown and Alexandra. Public transport could fill that role.

Many people wanted to get to other towns quickly and a bus could provide that, she said.

Until it started, no-one would really know if it worked. This service would be on highways, which would be different than bus services in cities.

Wānaka Community Board chairman Simon Telfer said the board and the regional council were working closely together to get a public transport plan in place and this was part of that process.

"We’ve got real congestion problems starting to happen, particularly from Hāwea into Wānaka and mornings at the Albert Town Bridge, the Luggate to Wānaka — the road’s becoming increasingly busy, and also that link for those wanting to get to Queenstown Airport," he said.

Hāwea was growing fast and the challenge was to provide public transport to get people travelling and not forced to use private cars.