About half of Wellington bus trips are at least twice as slow as driving, figures show
Thursday, 13 June 2019
If it feels like your bus ride is taking longer than it should, regional council figures show you are probably right.
A report outlining the state of Wellington's bus network shows about half of all trips are at least twice as slow as driving, with average peak-time travel speeds on some routes dropping below 10kmh.
An average speed comparable with international best practice would be 22kmh - an increase of between 10 and 30 per cent on Wellington's travel times, the report said.
'In a very few instances, taking public transport is slightly faster than driving, or takes about the same amount of time.
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'However, in all these instances, this is by train rather than bus.'
Greater Wellington Regional and Wellington City councils compiled the report after teaming up to develop a plan aimed at making the network more reliable.
The plan includes removing car parks on the Golden Mile, which runs from Wellington Railway Station along Lambton Quay, Willis St, Manners St and Courtenay Place, and creating more bus lanes and traffic-light priority for buses across the city.
The report said taking the bus was slower than driving in almost all instances, with variability in travel times also a major problem.
Figures comparing bus and car journey times were taken from 2013 data, but the rest of the figures were from current information.
The figures show average travel speeds have dropped below 10kmh at peak times on some services on the Golden Mile, and between Wellington Regional Hospital and the CBD.
That meant taking the bus was 'not competitive with driving', the report said.
Across the city, the average peak-time speed was 15-20kmh, with typical speeds 'not much higher' in the off-peak.
One of the worst stretches was on the No.1 route from Island Bay to the railway station, where travel times on the 8-kilometre trip during the morning peak ranged from 32 minutes to 48 minutes.
Public transport advocate Tony Randle said the figures showed the difficulty in encouraging people out of cars and onto public transport.
'People are not going to give up a 20-minute car journey to travel for 40 to 50 minutes on a bus, especially when it's unreliable.'
More-direct train services showed it was possible to have a public transport network comparable to cars, but that required dedicated lanes, Randle said.
'You need a dedicated corridor and some real investment. Wellington's bus service has never had that so it's no surprise to me that it's really slow.'
The plan to improve the network has been developed as part of the $6.4 billion Let's Get Wellington Moving programme aimed at fixing congestion between Wellington Airport and the Ngauranga Gorge.
Greg Pollock, the regional council's general manager of public transport, said an action plan would be developed by September, with changes expected to be made within 12 months.
The LGWM programme also includes a proposal for a mass transit system through the city, with the proposed route running from the railway station along the waterfront quays and Taranaki St, past the Basin Reserve to Newtown, and eventually through Kilbirnie to the airport.
WELLINGTON BUS COMMUTER CRAWL
* 50 per cent of bus trips at least twice as slow as car trips (representative figures)
* Bus trips slower than car trips on almost all journeys
* Average speed on some peak-time Golden Mile services now less than 10kmh
* Average peak-time speed across Wellington 15-20kmh
* 16-minute range in journey times in morning peak Island Bay-railway station