More people use Hutt Valley buses

Preliminary indications of changes to the Hutt Valley bus services introduced last October are very positive.

Greater Wellington Regional Council figures for December 2003 released this week, show that patronage on the new improved bus services has increased by 26 percent, or more than 30,000 more trips, and that a significant number of people know about the improvements.

According to a survey commissioned by Greater Wellington to measure the success of a campaign to promote the new services, more than 90 percent of respondents are aware of the recent changes.

“We are delighted with this result,” Public Transport Committee Chair Chris Turver says. “These are initial indications only, but it shows we are heading in the right direction and getting lots more people using public transport.”

Cr Turver says that bus patronage on the West Coast (Porirua and Kapiti) has also increased significantly, with about 50 percent more people using buses now than four years ago. Bus patronage in Wellington has increased by 10 percent over the same period.

Greater Wellington is now planning upgrades to bus travel in Wainuiomata. A request for tenders has gone out for improvements, including more direct, frequent and late night services in the area.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>