Wellington dream of electric bus fleet by 2030 seems over

Wednesday, 26 February 2025

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The one-time goal of an entirely electric Wellington bus fleet by 2030 no longer looks possible following government funding cuts to public transport.

Full electrification had originally been expected to take a decade as part of plans to reduce the region’s carbon footprint ‒ Wellington currently still had 350 diesel buses, and 102 electric buses.

The Greater Wellington Regional Council had to rewrite its public transport plans, meeting papers show, after the Government released its National Land Transport Fund last year, which meant big cuts to government funding for public transport.

Under previous government funding, the goal was to reduce Wellington’s public transport emissions to 5500 tonnes by 2030.

This was now revised to 16,300 tonnes – up 10,800 tonnes a year. Council transport committee chairperson Thomas Nash said that was a direct result of government funding cuts and equated to the same carbon dioxide emissions as adding 4500 cars to the roads.

In 2024 the Government changed course of funding for Wellington transport away from public transport to roads including a Petone to Grenada link road and two new tunnels. Councils were told they needed to find more money for public transport from fares and third parties.

The Government planned to spend $3.3 billion on Wellington region transport over three years of which $1.3b was for public transport.

Nash said the reality of that was real cuts in public transport plans, and there had been no new target set for an electric Wellington bus fleet.

Improvements to the Wainuiomata bus service and Waterloo train station, a Porirua bus interchange, and the Tawa on-demand bus service were all either being scaled back, delayed or cancelled, he said.

Existing off-peak fare reductions, designed to spread the rush hour out, were being cut from 50% off to 30% off. Fares were also predicted to increase with inflation.

“We will do our best to minimise impact, but buses at peak times will be more packed than we were planning and less likely to be electric because government cuts to future public transport investment mean we can't grow our bus fleet the way we want to,” Nash said.

Bus service cuts would not be felt by many but there would be some reduction in little-used services.

Transport Minister Chris Bishop would not comment with his office referring the matter to NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi which, in an emailed statement, said the Greater Wellington Regional Council was getting $100 million more in funding for public transport in this three-year period than last.

“It’s not a funding/budget cut, it is a function of the bid process,” it said.

“NZTA always gets more bids than there is available funding.”

Green Transport spokesperson and Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter said the changes were a direct result of the coalition Government’s policies, which would result in reduced services, higher fares, more cars, congestion and pollution.

“Chris Bishop needs to front up and take responsibility,” she said.

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau said it was “deeply frustrating” the Government was cutting public transport funding during a cost of living and climate crisis.

“Half of Wellingtonians use a bus or train every week so the impact of fare increases will be felt by households across the city,” she said.

“These cuts to public transport basics, at the same time the Government is proposing to spend billions of dollars on car mega tunnels, show they have got their transport priorities for Wellington wrong.”

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