The Tide was the most used bus in the entire Horizons network last month. Photo / Bevan Conley
Patronage on Whanganui’s Te Ngaru The Tide service is dwarfing that of all other bus routes in the city - to the point where a rethink of the entire network is needed.
Monthly trips on the service rose from less than 5000 in March and April to 8000 in August and September and it is now taking half of the city’s patronage.
The other half is made up of eight route models.
Anthonie Tonnon, Whanganui District Council’s representative to the Horizons Regional Council Passenger Transport Committee, told a district council operations and performance committee there were 8515 trips on The Tide last month, making it the most used bus in the entire Horizons network.
The Whanganui governance group on public transport had indicated to Horizons it should develop a new “Tide-like service” that aimed for high ridership, Tonnon said.
Buses would travel closer to schools and students would have more chances to catch them.
“There is duplication [of routes] but there are high-population areas that have little or no service,” Tonnon said.
His report said to achieve the anticipated service, Horizons would need to increase the spend per person in Whanganui to 70 per cent of that for Palmerston North, which came in at $48 per person. At present, the spend in Whanganui was $24 per person.
However, there were indications Horizons was planning to increase the Whanganui spend to only $37 per person in its next long-term plan.
Whanganui District Council could help fill the funding gap, either through continuing or enhancing the current co-funding arrangement for The Tide, the report said.
Costs for the Tide are split evenly between the councils at $180,000 each a year, with that amount doubled by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency.
Between the two councils and Waka Kotahi, just over $2 million a year is invested in Whanganui public transport.
Deputy Mayor Helen Craig said Whanganui had a low socio-economic base so, if anywhere in New Zealand deserved to have good public transport available, “it’s us”.
“I see this as something that’s really key,” she said.
“It’s transformative for lives and it’s transformative for the climate. I really encourage Horizons to look at this more closely and put some money in the budget.”
Councillor Rob Vinsen said he had lived on St John’s Hill for the past five years and until last week he had not seen anyone on the bus that went past his house.
That was the 203 route, which made up 1.71 per cent of the patronage on Whanganui buses.
“This is the thing we have to be very careful of when we talk about increasing our spend,” Vinsen said.
“I would also caution [the district] council in discussion about subsidy or providing funding in the long-term plan for further public transport.
“That is the role of Horizons. They have been mandated by government since 1987 to do this. We should not be rating Whanganui ratepayers for public transport, as well as Horizons doing the same thing.”
Tonnon said he had a meeting at Horizons next week to “argue the case” for the urban network and a conceptual regional public transport network.
The regional network had no budget lines in the regional council’s draft long-term plan.
Tonnon’s report said a regional network would connect the largest demand centres, such as the Wellington Rail Network, Whanganui and Palmerston North, while taking in urban and rural centres that sat “naturally on the way” between them.
One example was a Whanganui to Wellington rail network service which would provide for shorter journeys such as Levin to Foxton or Marton to Whanganui.
“At the moment, someone in Palmerston [North] has four opportunities per day to take a return trip to Wellington without their car - one by the Capital Connection train and three by Intercity,” Tonnon said.
“In Whanganui, it’s not actually possible for a person to travel to Wellington and come back on the same day by public transport.”
Without additional budget in Horizons’ long-term plan, it was unlikely any new services would begin within the next five years, Tonnon said.
Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.