No appetite for another 'lasagne of failures' in Wellington bus lanes

Tuesday, 19 August 2025

The Greater Wellington Regional Council is spending $64 million on a new, largely uncovered bus depot that will soon draw more power than all the homes in three neighbouring suburbs.

The council was getting briefed on Tuesday on plans to tender for bus operators – a process that when last done was dubbed a “bustrastrophe” and a “lasagne of failures” – but this time the council is pledging to avoid past pitfalls.

Regional Council chairperson Daran Ponter said there were no immediate plans to return to directly running buses – as now permitted under rules brought in by the last government – but the council was taking steps to bring some aspects in house by getting its own leased depots in Kenepuru, Landfill Road by the Wellington tip, Karori, and Miramar.

The Miramar depot, on Kauri St near the airport, was set to cost $64m with a large part of that getting the electricity to the site, which was solely for electric buses. This would eventually require running high voltage power lines underground to the site, Ponter said.

When all buses were charging, the facility would draw the equivalent power of a town the size of Feilding, population 17,550. That is more than the combined suburbs of Miramar, Strathmore and Seatoun.

Most of the depot would be uncovered though the workshop and staff area would be inside, Ponter said.

The old bus depot in Kilbirnie was acquired by Infratil as part of the privatisation of buses in the 1980s and 1990s. Part of it was already developed as a retirement home with four-storey housing expected on the site of the bus barns.

With appropriate land harder to find, getting depots back in public ownership was vital – especially with buses that now needed charging facilities, Ponter said.

Council transport committee chairperson Thomas Nash said 180 buses would eventually be housed at Kauri St. Funding would likely come from ratepayers, via the council, and the Government. There were options that would include some costs going to operators, he said.

Having the council own the depots would open up more competition in the tender for new operators as, currently, only operators with storage space could tender.

The last time the regional council tendered for new bus operators it was met with outrage and a report finding the council failed to provide realistic expectations for commuters, despite being aware of the significant risks.

The new network was not phased in, there was a lack of route testing, and the council did not have enough information from bus operators, the report said. Awarding operator contracts also failed to identify “major challenges”. However, some operators were not providing accurate information to the council, and some factors were outside of its control.

Nash said driver pay and conditions, which proved to be problematic in the last tender round, would play a much bigger part in the decision. There would also be a better transition to new operators.

“Since I have been on council I have heard incessantly about what went wrong last time,” Nash said.

A Wellington Electricity statement said supply was expected to increase to the depot over several years and the existing network should work until 2030 with new transformers on site.

“At some point, we may need to invest in new high voltage cables and a new substation if the load exceeds the capacity of the existing assets,” the statement said.