Page 8 - Demo

roundup
a look at bus news around the country
Christchurch’s Stories on the Go ‘driver’ Magdalena Lorenzo
Wanaka’s popular Orbus
WANAKA
NO STANDING CHANGE
e Ministry of Education (MoE) is keeping its policy that allows children to stand on school buses on the open road, despite calls for change from the Wanaka Primary School board.
e MoE’s Head of Education Infrastructure Service Kim Shannon
said extra capacity had been added to
the Luggate bus service, ensuring all younger passengers would be seated while travelling on the open road.
QUEENSTOWN
TOURIST TOWN LOVES BUSES
Queenstown’s new public transport system continues to exceed expectations, with
a 192 per cent increase in passengers on buses during June, compared to June 2017. Orbus o cially launched on November
20 last year, providing $2 at fares for GoCard holders across Wakatipu, and introduced new routes and more frequent bus services.
For the six months to June, bus patronage was two-and-a-half times up on the same period last year, increasing 153 per cent
to 607,609 trips, up from 240,076 between January and June 2017. Fare revenue had also not su ered as a result of the cheaper fares and has increased by four per cent. e busiest month on the buses to date was in March, during which time users took 106,664 trips, closely followed by June (102,290). In March last year 44,179 trips were recorded and in June 2017 there were 35,063.
➤ Roundup continued from page 7
BLUE LIGHTS OUT
Tranzurban (Tranzit’s Wellington Metlink subsidiary) will phase out controversial blue lighting from inside Wellington’s buses and possibly replace it with white lighting over the next few months. A small number of commuters complained about the lighting, which was introduced to minimise re ection on the driver’s front windscreen.
e GWRC said it was working with Tranzurban to respond to customer concerns and make everyone’s journey “as enjoyable as possible”.
Tranzurban Managing Director Paul Snelgrove said that, while the blue lighting was new for Wellington buses, it was increasingly being used in New Zealand and overseas to improve pedestrian, cycle and vehicle safety.
CHRISTCHURCH
BOOKS ON BUSES PROJECT
A new project that gives Christchurch commuters an easy and mobile way to catch up on local literature while they travel has proven popular with passengers, and Red Bus has extended the scheme just weeks a er its inception. At the beginning of August, buses running between the airport and the central city were tted with QR codes, which passengers can
scan with a smartphone to access one of 20 short stories by New Zealand authors. e scheme has been extended to another four routes.
e Stories on the Go project has been driven by Magdalena Lorenzo, a regular bus user and avid reader who is behind e Commuting Book, a non-pro t group
aiming to bring reading into public spaces and people’s daily activities. Lorenzo said the group thought using public spaces was the best way to get people into the habit of reading. e rst 20 stories feature a mix of established and upcoming New Zealand authors and students.
Red Bus Chief Executive Paul McNoe said Lorenzo approached the company about 18 months ago with the idea, which he felt was a really good t with public transport. “Christchurch people are hungry for enhancements to the way the city functions. Our support for Stories
on the Go is part of our commitment to innovation and new technology.”
BUS FRIENDLY BOULEVARD OPENS
Christchurch’s “Manchester Boulevard” $20 million upgrade has nally opened. e upgrade, which runs between Lich eld and Kilmore Street, is part of the controversial ‘An Accessible City’ transport plan which prioritises di erent methods of transport on inner city streets to move cars away from the centre of the city. Manchester Street is a designated bus priority in the plan.
Bus lanes and stops have been added, footpaths widened, and tree planting and other landscaping completed as part of the works.
ere are two bus “super stops” (one for each direction) near the middle of the upgrade. When a bus pulls into one of the stops, it triggers a sensor that tells a nearby tra c light to turn red, stopping car tra c so the bus can pull out in front of the cars.
8 CIRCULAR SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.BUSANDCOACH.CO.NZ