NEW PLYMOUTH | Transport Projects

[NZ1]

The Vickers Rd to CBD upgrade is apparently being accelerated by Transit so we should see some action soon on this.

It's a pity that the plans weren't ready to go, otherwise it probably would have been included in the first round of funding

[Marky Mark]

Originally Posted by NZ1

The Vickers Rd to CBD upgrade is apparently being accelerated by Transit so we should see some action soon on this.

It's a pity that the plans weren't ready to go, otherwise it probably would have been included in the first round of funding

[kwl_24-7]

To be honest, I do not think that New Plymouth needs six lanes and only needs four lanes from Bell Block to the Western end of the one-way . All transit needs to do, is change some of the intersections that are currently light signals to over bridges. I know this will cost more, but will be worth it and the end. But part of the one-way system needs to be three lanes. Also intersections that can't be changed from light signals to overbridges have extra lanes to deal with the increased traffic for over the next 10-20 years.

[NZ1]

It certainly needs to be capable of expansion otherwise we're possibly going to end up back in the same position as we are now, especially with the growth focused in the Eastern suburbs. Plus it could eventually be used as a bus-priority lane.

I agree that the flow needs to be streamlined. The new plans call for 5 lanes past NPGHS to the one way system to allow for a new right-hand turn traffic into Hobson St. At the moment they use Devon St East and the right turning traffic it backs up past Watson St (about 400m) at rush hour.

It also calls for widening all bridges including the Northgate Te Henui bridge which gives rise to the ridiculous situation of going from 4 lanes to 2 lanes immediately back to 4 lanes again.

[NZ1]

TRC unveils plans for better bus service

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dailynews/4858887a6554.html

Big improvements are planned for New Plymouth's urban bus services.

The Taranaki Regional Council yesterday announced plans for extra bus routes, plus the introduction of a streamlined school bus service, for the new financial year.

But it first wants to know if New Plymouth ratepayers are prepared to add another $2 to $4 to their annual rates bills to help fund the improvements.

"The council has been listening to concerns from New Plymouth residents that bus services need to be improved," TRC chief executive Basil Chamberlain said.

"We're now hoping to get an indication from the community as to whether the small addition to rates bills is acceptable to pay for these better services."

At present the council funds four peak-time bus routes and four off-peak routes which, while covering large parts of New Plymouth, exclude a number of important areas including The Valley, Glen Avon, Whalers Gate and Ferndale.

The new plan proposes increasing the peak-time routes to nine, while at the same time retaining the four off-peak services.

These would cover the whole of New Plymouth.

In addition, the new plan proposes replacing the current five ad-hoc commercial school bus services with four "orbital" services, giving students direct access to most schools in New Plymouth.

All of these changes promise big improvements to bus services for the city.

The extra bus routes would reduce the average length of time to travel each route from 40 minutes to 30 minutes at peak times, and it would also reduce the waiting time for the next bus from 70 minutes in the mornings and 90 minutes in the afternoons, to 30 minutes at peak times and 60 minutes at off-peak times.

Seating capacity would also be increased from 300 seats a day to 500 seats, and electronic "smartcard" ticketing would become available across the entire network.

The proposed bus service improvements are now going out for public consultation as part of the council's Long-Term Council Community Plan.

This consultation starts on March 16, with a deadline of April 17.

If the changes are introduced, they will take regional council spending on New Plymouth urban bus services to $500,000 a year.

[kwl_24-7]

Wow. About time we get peak hour changes to the bus routes However still nothing on Bell block having its own route(including the indusrial area)

[NZ1]

We're starting to see a decent system emerge, so let's hope that it's supported by not only the rate payers but passengers as well.

The BBK suburban services are probably being delt with separately as they are linked to the Waitara town route. There are apparently also plans for the Oakura services.

That Orbitor service could be quite interesting if it also service the public, not just schools. One problems the city has always had is inter-suburban travel. Previously, you had to travel via a spoke system downtown then transfer back out on another spoke. Hamilton and Christchurch have orbitor-type services.

[Svartmetall]

I'd have thought that New Plymouth would have been large enough to sustain a 30 minute bus service off-peak to be honest. Few people will use an hourly service except the elderly and less-able (or those truly unable to drive).

Still, an improvement is better than nothing! If patronage picks up perhaps they'll continue to make improvements.

[jarbury]

You could probably walk the length of New Plymouth in 90 minutes.

[Svartmetall]

You could walk the length of my old town in less time than that and yet 200,000 people live there! Even more reason to provide a higher level of service IMO if the town is that small/non-sprawled.

[jarbury]

My point being that an "every 90 minutes" bus service is stupid in a town that small.

[Svartmetall]

Originally Posted by jarbury

My point being that an "every 90 minutes" bus service is stupid in a town that small.

Yep, I was agreeing, sorry should have made that more clear. In future I'll put a large "I AGREE" before rambling in my usual off-topic way.

[NZ1]

Originally Posted by jarbury

You could probably walk the length of New Plymouth in 90 minutes.

Interesting idea, so I calculated it on Google Maps

Walking from the city limits in an East-West direction you're looking at 2 hours 50 mins, while North-South it's about 1.5 hours.

New Plymouth is spread along the coastline hence the first figure is rather large.

[NZ1]

Prior to deregulation, there were 15 routes with peak services running at intervals of 15 min or less, with off-peak at 30mins.

Given that the patronage is down from a peak of 3m trips PA (in the 1970's) to around 0.4M PA, right now I think 30 min intervals on peak with hourly off-peak is fine.

Hopefully this will build up the patronage, which will thereby allow for additional services to be implemented.

Currently regional rate payers are contributing around $0.25M PA to public transport, which is very small compared to levies the likes of EW and EBop are collecting.

[kwl_24-7]

The Bell Block Bypass continues to race ahead of its completion date in 2011.

Mr Christiansen said yesterday the sooner it was finished, the sooner the community would be able to benefit.

The cornerstone of the development, the flyover bridge to the east of Bell Block which will allow easy access into and out of the city's northernmost village suburb, should be completed by May, Mr Christiansen said.

[NZ1]

Time for a Public Transport update.

The gist of the new proposal is as follows:

There will be 9 direct routes on-peak consiting of

01 Spotswood
02 Whalers Gate
03 Marfell
04 Hurdon/Westown
05 Frankley Park/Ferndale
06 Vogeltown
07 Highlands Park
08 Merrilands
09 Fitzroy/Glen Avon/The Valley

The standard four routes will apply off-peak.

On-peak services of .5 hour from 7am to 9.30am and 3.00pm to 5.40pm.
Off-peak services of 1 hour outside of the times above. Last service at 6pm.

No changes to current Saturday timetable.
Changes to Bell Block suburban service and Waitara service to come after this current round.

These changes are proposed and have not been ratified yet.

[kwl_24-7]

Well this is a great start. Cant wait to see what happens next

[KaneD]

It is a case of "chicken or the egg" - Having higher frequency services require more money which can only be gained through higher patronage, something that is only going to occur with higher frequency.

Unfortunately many of our regional cities still sprawl out quite a bit which of course makes it even harder to provide a good comprehensive bus service. If I decide I want to 'whip into town to buy something at XYZ shop' then it's probably a lot more enticing to go by private car - in many of our regional centres you could probably be there and back in not much more than half and hour. By bus, if you allow for the average headway between services, you'd be lucky to complete the round trip in 2 hours in most regional cities - not very attractive.

But still, this is a good start and as our regional centres become more popular with tourists, this becomes even more important. Recently when my wife and I wen up to Rotorua over the Christmas/New Year break, we decided to drive up from Christchurch rather than fly - mostly because it was cheaper because if we flew up, we would have had to hire a rental car as the PT system just wasn't going to cut it.

[NZ1]

Yes, I completely agree.

New Plymouth's biggest problem is that it sprawls East-West which makes routing quite difficult, plus a decade of poor bus services the population have the car firmly engrained into their psyche. That's a habit that is very difficult to break.

[jarbury]

What's the current usage of buses like in New Plymouth? I can't really see that there would be much incentive to use the bus unless you don't own a car.