![Buses, Dunedin [radionz.co.nz]](https://dunedinstadium.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/buses-dunedin-radionz-co-nz.jpg)
“Heart-wrenching” tales of parents walking with young children from Corstorphine to Dunedin Hospital or walking up steep hills carrying bags of groceries while buses zoomed past…
### ODT Online Fri, 12 Sep 2014
Call for cheaper bus fares
By Rebecca Fox
Calls for public transport to be more affordable and accessible for the “walking poor” dominated yesterday’s public transport hearing. “Heart-wrenching” tales of parents walking with young children from Corstorphine to Dunedin Hospital or walking up steep hills carrying bags of groceries while buses zoomed past were made to the panel of regional councillors Sam Neill (chairman) and Michael Deaker, along with Dunedin city councillor Aaron Hawkins, as they sat through the second day of public submissions on the draft regional public transport plan. About 330 people and organisations made submissions to the draft plan that contains sweeping changes, expected to lead to faster and more direct routes away from smaller residential streets.
Read more
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Related Posts and Comments:
28.5.14 Otago Regional Council: Buses —Journey Planner (now online)
10.4.14 Otago Regional Council + Dunedin buses
27.12.13 Otago Heritage Bus shines !!! —ORC holiday bus suspension…
24.11.11 Dunedin buses: ORC or DCC
29.11.10 Phillip Cole on Dunedin buses
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
*Image: radionz.co.nz – Dunedin buses, George Street
What if? Dunedin... 
### ODT Online Sat, 20 Sep 2014
Proposed shelters driving dissent
By Debbie Porteous
About every two years the Otago Regional Council (ORC), which runs the city’s public bus service, proposes a new batch of bus shelters and the Dunedin City Council (DCC), which manages local roads and footpaths, approves them. The ORC funds the installation and ongoing maintenance of the shelters and the DCC owns them. The latest proposal is for 26 new bus shelters, and while there appear to be no issues, most already having gained consent from affected nearby property owners, the proposed placement of 10 has upset some.
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█ A DCC hearings committee of Crs Andrew Noone, David Benson-Pope and Neville Peat will consider the submissions at a hearing on Tuesday.
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Unwanted Bus shelters opposed at: (via ODT)
Opposite 143 Bayview Rd
66 Playfair St
500 Andersons Bay Rd
182 Malvern St
504 George St
607 George St
745 George St
449 Princes St
439 South Rd
14 Ryehill St
### ODT Online Wed, 24 Sep 2014
Submitters thwart bus shelter plans
By Debbie Porteous
A proposal to put up bus shelters outside two Dunedin businesses has been dropped following opposition to council plans. Cooke Howlison managing director John Marsh, and Wayne Graham, owner of 504 George St [corner Albany St], appeared before a Dunedin City Council panel yesterday to put their case for dropping plans for new bus shelters outside their sites.
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### dunedintv.co.nz November 26, 2014 – 5:58pm
Otago regional councillors endorse new public transport plan
Dunedin’s public transport system is in for a major shake-up. Otago regional councillors have endorsed a new public transport plan. That means locals are likely to notice some major changes to buses around the city.
Video
### ODT Online Thu, 27 Nov 2014
More effective bus service in sight
By David Loughrey
Wide-ranging changes expected to provide a simpler, more effective and technologically advanced bus service in Dunedin will be introduced in the next 15 months. The changes to the service in the city, and in the Wakatipu area, were approved yesterday by the Otago Regional Council, when it voted to endorse the Otago Regional Public Transport Plan. It did not go through unchanged from a draft plan released in June, with opposition by residents of suburbs including Brockville and Corstorphine forcing changes.
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### ODT Online Thu, 27 Nov 2014
Tracking buses by smartphone
By Shawn McAvinue
Catching a bus is less fuss with the new bus-tracking service developed by a Dunedin company. TrackABus co-founder Christopher Mein, of Dunedin, said the company was trialling a bus-tracking service, which used global positioning system hardware and wireless communications technology to track the real-time location of buses. The service allowed bus users to access information using electronic devices – such as computers, smartphones and cellphones – to discover when the next bus would arrive at a stop, he said.
█ On http://www.trackabus.co.nz/Dunedin people could track 12 Ritchies Coachlines buses’ real-time location.
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### dunedintv.co.nz July 1, 2015 – 5:51pm
Bus fare increases and route changes now in effect
Extensive changes to the city’s public transport network are taking effect. Bus fare increases and route changes are just the start of a system overhaul by the Otago Regional Council. And staff are confident that’ll please users in the long term.
Video
### ODT Online Thu, 2 Jul 2015
Bus drivers ‘excited’ by new system
By John Gibb
Some Dunedin public transport bus fares rose yesterday as the new southern routes bus system came into effect, and GoCard discounts have become more attractive. More buses were introduced on the more direct routes, via a new Green Island ”super stop”, to central Dunedin.
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### ODT Online Fri, 3 Jul 2015
Teething problems on new bus routes
By John Gibb
The start of the new Dunedin southern routes bus service has been accompanied by teething troubles, and community concern about lack of direct bus access to South Dunedin from Green Island. The southern route bus changes, which began on Wednesday, involve a contract won by Go Bus Transport and affect nearly 20% of Dunedin’s overall bus routes.
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It shows the depth of planning involved here, that nobody seems to even know where the location of the “superstop” in Green Island will be.
Superstop in this case, rather than being a major interchange like Hamilton (or even the old Dunedin bus station), will just be more markings on the road and a couple of those glass shelters.
### ODT Online Tue, 7 Jul 2015
Free bus transfer considered
By John Gibb
Further free bus transfer is being considered after more complaints about changes to southern Dunedin bus routes. Some passengers travelling through Green Island on a new direct route introduced last week as part of wider city bus transport changes have complained buses no longer pass through South Dunedin to reach the central city. If these passengers want to reach South Dunedin or Caversham, they now face changing buses and buying a new ticket, with an extra fare.
Read more
### dunedintv.co.nz July 8, 2015 – 5:02pm
Your word on using public transport
Dunedin’s public transport system has received a major overhaul. Bus fares have gone up, travel routes have been altered, and more changes are planned. With that in mind, our word on the street team braved the cold to ask locals if they use public transport.
Video
Not so hot.
### ODT Online Thu, 9 Jul 2015
Concerns aired on school bus changes
By John Gibb
Fare rises on Go Bus Transport Dunedin school buses and the cancelling of three school bus services have sparked complaints from concerned parents. Go Bus Transport has announced it will cancel the daily 3.10pm school bus from Kavanagh College to Corstorphine; the 7.45am bus from Portobello to John McGlashan College, and the 3.30pm return bus from the college to Portobello.
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### ODT Online Mon, 13 Jul 2015
Editorial: New era for Dunedin buses
OPINION The initial stage of the revamped Dunedin bus system is off to a bumpy start. First from the depot were the southern routes. The rest of the city is to follow over the next year or so. […] The idea behind the changes is, in the long term, to encourage faster and more efficient services, which will attract more users.
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### ODT Online Thu, 16 Jul 2015
Lessons to be learned: bus group
By John Gibb
A new central Dunedin bus hub is expected to be in place by mid-next year, but lessons must first be learned from recent problems with the first phase of bus improvements. That is the view of Go Bus Dunedin passenger advocacy group co-president Alex King. He and a colleague met Otago Regional Council support services manager Gerard Collings yesterday for an update on progress with planned bus improvements.
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Scary…………….
ODT 17.7.15 (page 12)
### ODT Online Sun, 26 Jul 2015
Gold Card pressures frustrate
By John Gibb
Otago Regional Council chairman Stephen Woodhead is “mighty frustrated” over budget pressures arising from the Government’s Gold Card free bus transport scheme. Issues over the free off-peak travel scheme surfaced this week at a meeting of the council’s finance and corporate committee. […] A report tabled at the meeting noted that councils were reimbursed for 65% of the adult cash fare, below the 75% reimbursement level when the scheme was introduced in 2008.
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Unreasonable inflexibility, poor customer service to Nth Degree!
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### ODT Online Tue, 28 Jul 2015
Family upset over bus bike ban
By Craig Borley
A 6-year-old Dunedin boy was left crying on the footpath after he and his mother were not allowed to take his bike on an otherwise empty bus. The bus driver told the mother and child they had a choice: ditch the bike, or catch the bus, they say.
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IF – just if – the driver’s inflexibility was due to employers’ inflexibility over rules ahead of customer service the blame shouldn’t go to him, not many people can afford to lose a job. Perhaps there needs to be more awareness of where drivers’ tunnel vision Rules are Rules attitude comes from. Are these people who bring their own bad attitude to work with them? Or are they decent people forced to be jerks? If the latter, the ORC should be given a strong message by Dunedin people that we support cooperative non-robot drivers who exhibit sense and compassion and we’ll kick up something horrendous if decent drivers get punished for being Good Kiwis.
Remember the Fubar would put Dunedin on the map? Latest on the map, this bus driver vs crying kid story is on Fairfax news (stuff.co.nz). Seems like there’s one Dunedin story after another putting Dunedin on the map, marked not “here be dragons” but “here be f#ckwits”.
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{Link added. -Eds}
Inflexibility about rules is a spot on comment. As the mother said the two wheeler bike was no bigger than a pram. Given it has wheels you would expect the bike to be contained and not left to roll about on the bus……’endangering people’! Give people credit, please.
In other parts of the world people transport trussed up chickens on public transport and, as visitors, we would think nothing of it, it all being part of the colourful culture of such places. Yet here was a mother and child confronted by intransigence to rules instead of the driver using his initiative.
The bus was virtually empty afterall. We want to encourage people on buses, don’t we?
Sometimes initiative is called for by bureaucrats/service people.
Years ago when my father died the power was suddenly cut off to his house as he had been unable to pay the bill, having been in hospital for weeks. This was a hassle as you could imagine as I was staying in the house. I was so grateful to the power company call desk person who said they would normally not be able to restore power to a dead person’s house, but he understood my situation when I explained I was now in the process of selling and cleaning up the house while I lived there for the next couple of weeks or so. Solution? He told me to forget this call was made, power was immediately restored, and when I was ready, ring back to disconnect the power when I returned to NZ.
And I’ll bet you recommended that power company to anyone you knew who was deciding which one offered best value!
The buses are struggling, they don’t need publicity like this, they don’t need personal anecdotes shared about why bus commuting in Dunedin is hellish.
It appears that bikes are starting to take over the city like triffids. They are taking over our highways, byways and now the buses. Don’t look now but they could be hiding in your shed out the back. Go out and check, but don’t go alone.
● ODT receives considerable feedback from bus users since article
### ODT Online Thu, 6 Aug 2015
Bus guidelines being developed
By Craig Borley
Dunedin bus users will have a clear idea of what they can and cannot take on buses within the next four weeks, the Otago Regional Council say. Last week, Dunedin six-year-old Judah Gray was left crying on the footpath after he and his mother Deb Friberg were not allowed to take his bike on a bus.
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### dunedintv.co.nz Thu, August 6, 2015
Dunedin’s public transport system faces more changes
Another raft of changes are under way for Dunedin’s public transport system. The Otago Regional Council’s developing a policy about what passengers can take on buses, and more contracts are up for tender. But the overhaul is copping some flak.
Ch39 Link
39 Dunedin Television Published on Aug 6, 2015
Dunedin’s public transport system faces more changes
Another half-arsed piece of bus information is coming from ORC – Gerard Collings reminds me of a cartoon bulldog. Unnecessarily gruff to media, all jaw and no brain.
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### ODT Online Tue, 3 Nov 2015
Ban on buses overturned
By Craig Borley
A sweeping set of rules for what can and cannot be carried on Dunedin buses will come into force at the end of this week. The rules were drawn up in response to a July incident in which a 6-year-old boy was left crying on the footpath after he and his mother were denied entry on to a bus because he had his small bike with him.
Read more
And then! Disgraceful treatment of Kane Mcqueen.
What’s the world coming to if the driver won’t use his available phone to check with his supervisor what “can happen” to facilitate safe transit for the passenger, given the bus had a ramp ?
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### ODT Online Fri, 27 Nov 2015
Wheelchair banned from bus
By Timothy Brown
A wheelchair-bound Dunedin man has been left frustrated and disappointed after he missed a hospital appointment because he was refused entry to a public bus by its driver. Kane Mcqueen says he attempted to catch a GoBus service in Brockville Rd last Friday but was turned away by its driver because his wheelchair is battery-powered. Mr Mcqueen suffers debilitating arthritis and cannot use a push wheelchair.
Read more
### ODT Online Wed, 20 Jan 2016
Better bus service petition
By John Gibb
The Greater Green Island Community Network is lobbying to get an hourly “local to Dunedin” bus service restored, and operated by the Brighton No70 bus. The community network launched a petition yesterday, requesting that the Otago Regional Council takes action to restore the “local” service, to supplement the express bus service that already operates on a route to central Dunedin, via the Green Island “super stop” bus stop.
Read more
█ Petition can be signed at several places in Green Island, including Fresh Choice supermarket, and Coffee Post Green Island, before February 15.
“Seasonal workers and residents in isolated areas unable to access transport could soon get lifts to and from Blenheim from members of the public thanks to new rainbow seats.
Trust founder Lilian Broadhurst says their ‘wishing for a ride’ initiative proposes to place bright benches in Seddon, Renwick and Blenheim for pick-ups.
Locals can walk to the closest rainbow seat and wait for a passing neighbour to give them a ride.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/81804734/rainbow-seat-pickup-points-in-marlborough-for-locals-and-rse-workers-needing-transport
While bus routes and timetables are revised for the convenience of service providers ahead of service users, there’s an alternative that can co-exist with buses and taxis. Dave and Jinty are sure to support it – look at the sustainability aspect!
Yesterday in discussion with a colleague we remembered Jinters’ startling lack of financial acuity when she tried to push Councillors into voting for takeover of the ORC bus system by DCC. Failed both times. Why? It’s a loss-generating activity. Doh.
Earnest sincere people with no sense of humour are a worry, they can’t step aside from their own opinions periodically and see any absurdities pointed out by satirists and humourists. Mockery only strengthens their belief, doesn’t make them think “there may be some validity in other opinions” then go over their ideas with critical faculties sharpened It just makes them cry.