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More reliable bus services top priority for Hutt Valley

More reliable bus services top priority for Hutt Valley public transport


Making bus services more reliable and improving connections between buses and trains are the top priorities to come out of a review of public transport in the Hutt Valley.

The review, carried out in 2013 and 2014, looked at patronage and reliability of all services in Hutt City and Upper Hutt City, the connectivity between buses and trains and changes in travel patterns, population growth and land development.

“Public transport services in the Hutt Valley are generally pretty good so this review was more about fine tuning current services to improve them for customers rather than a fundamental redesign of the network,” says Paul Swain, Greater Wellington Regional Council’s Public Transport portfolio leader.

“There’s certainly room for improvement in reliability of bus services, particularly the popular Route 110 that runs from Upper Hutt via Queensgate to Petone. The data from Real Time Information will enable bus timetables to be revised to better represent actual running times.”

Staff will work with operators to ensure that timetables provide for sufficient bus-train connection times.

“The review is also recommending some more peak hour services for Riverstone Terraces residents. This suburb of nearly 1400 residents currently has only a twice daily bus service just running on school days. Consultation with Riverstone Terraces residents, carried out during the review, indicates that some more peak hour sure services between Riverstone Terraces and Upper Hutt Station could be popular.”

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The review recommends that a small number of under-used services be discontinued. These include the Gillespies Road extension on the Route 110 (Upper Hutt – Petone) and the Judd Crescent extension on the Route 130 (Petone – Naenae).

The review found that the Gillespies Road extension service, north of Birchville, has an average of less than one southbound boarding per trip, compared to an average of 2.1 at the five nearest bus stops. School services to this area will continue to be provided.

The Judd Crescent extension covers 10 bus stops. The review found that during March last year, the busiest month of the year on public transport, there was an average of one passenger per trip on this extension. The discontinuation of the Judd Crescent extension would increase the maximum walking distance to a bus stop from 500m to 700m or an average two minutes walking time.

Savings from the discontinuation of the Gillespies Road and Judd Crescent extensions will be reinvested into the Hutt Valley bus network to improve reliability and bus-train connections.

The review also recommends the termination of the Hutt Hospital extension on the Wainuiomata – Lower Hutt Routes 160 and 170 given that only a small number of passengers use this extension and there are a large number of alternative and frequent services to the hospital available via a free transfer from Queensgate.

“The money saved from removing these extensions will be used to make the improvements in reliability.”

Details of the proposals will be discussed with all those affected before they are carried out.

Changes are expected to begin being made towards the end of this year and will be completed in mid-2017.

ends

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