Weekend trolley bus services deferred

19 June 2009

The high cost of standby maintenance crews has forced Greater Wellington Regional Council to reluctantly defer the introduction of weekend trolley bus services in Wellington until 2011.

Trolley buses have not run on weekends for more than 10 years, largely because the fleet was ageing and prone to break-downs. However, a fleet of about 60 new trolley buses has been introduced progressively since December 2007. About 40 new buses are now in operation.

Greater Wellington's trolley bus contract with NZ Bus Ltd includes a condition that when sufficient numbers of the new buses were in reliable operation, weekend trolley bus services would be introduced.

However, discussions with Wellington Cable Car Company, owner of the trolley bus overhead network, have revealed there would be a substantial extra cost involved to have standby crews available at weekends in case there were any problems.

Peter Glensor, Chair of Greater Wellington's Transport and Access Committee said that this cost, on top of the annual operating cost and multi-million dollars worth of deferred maintenance over the next 10 years, was unaffordable. "Reluctantly, we have decided to defer the introduction of weekend services until the contract for the maintenance and renewal of the overhead network is renewed or re-tendered in 2011. We will then seek to get a better price."

"Also, by this time several trolley bus-specific and wider public transport reviews will have been carried out, giving us a clearer indication of the role and financial implications of trolley buses in our public transport network."

He said the deferral would give maintenance staff continued unimpeded access to the overhead network at weekends for essential, budgeted work on the wires. "This will speed up improvements to the reliability and performance of the weekday trolley bus service.

"I'm disappointed we had to make this decision, and Greater Wellington is absolutely committed, in principle, to a seven-day week trolley bus service in Wellington City. However, we have to ensure that the services are economically as well as environmentally sustainable. And at this stage, we believe that the cost of running weekend services would not provide value for money for ratepayers."

ENDS

© Scoop Media