Significantly more people are regularly using city buses. To encourage and support the trend the city and regional councils are this month asking for peoples opinions about a change in bus layovers and routing through the middle of the city.

The two councils are partners in public transport for the city. ECan, the Regional Council, is in charge of planning and contracting public transport. The City Council’s role is to provide the on-road space, facilities and other infrastructure needed to help the public transport system operate well.

Together, the two local bodies have a Public Transport Passenger Strategy which aims to build on the recent success of public transport and substantially increase the numbers of bus passengers. By making the bus system more attractive and useful, the councils aim to steer clear of a future where many main roads suffer from traffic jams and vehicle pollution.

The latest changes take into account ECan’s plan to give a big boost to the number of bus trips in the middle of next year. To avoid this adding to the stream of buses already running along Colombo Street in the Central City, the City Council and ECan are proposing a new routing scheme that will decrease bus congestion on Colombo Street by creating a new bus layover alongside South Hagley Park at the hospital end of Hagley Avenue.

The idea was debated by the City Council last month. Councillors agreed to put the idea out for public comment. More information about the change and how you can have your say will be available from City Council offices and on the public feedback website, at www.ccc.govt.nz/ HaveYourSay

The timetable is for public submissions to run until the end of this month. By the end of the year, staff and councillors will have looked at that feedback and refined the plan. Final City Council consideration and approval is expected in February and the necessary road and signal works will be designed and built by the end of May.

The report to last month's Council meeting says ECan needs to move quickly on the idea because of the timing of contract talks with bus operators. If the extra bus trips are added in mid-2004 but the suggested changes are not made, it would put "significant pressure on Colombo Street", the report says.

The scheme is being put in place as an interim measure. This plan will allow the proposed bus service increases to occur with minimal impact on other central city users until longer-term work that takes a wider look at how transportation can and should work in the middle of the city, is completed.

The road and signals work needed for this scheme is estimated to cost about $140,000. One expected advantage of having a new bus layover alongside South Hagley Park is that there will be far fewer buses using the layover alongside the YMCA on Rolleston Avenue.

• The report on this topic to last month's Council meeting can be found at www.ccc.govt.nz/Council/Proceedings/2003/October/SustainableTransport/InnerCityBusRouting.pdf
• The technical report which forms the basis of the Public Transport Passenger Strategy can be found on the web, at www.ccc.govt.nz/Council/Proceedings/2003/June/ by selecting the Sustainable Transport and Utilities Committee
• A report about public consultation of other proposals for change on Hagley Avenue is on p4