New Metlink buses first business day in operation, some delays to services. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Ōwhiro Bay has the worst bus services in the city, according to a new report by Better Buses Ōwhiro Bay, an organisation dedicated to seeing improved bus services in the suburb.
Currently, there are two buses that service Ōwhiro Bay - the 39, from the central city to Island Bay, and the 29, from the central city to Brooklyn.
Spokesperson Arunan Noble said it has found routes 29 and 39 are not consistent or frequent enough to provide reliable public transport to a suburb the size of Ōwhiro Bay.
"When we compare Ōwhiro Bay to other similar suburbs and their levels of bus service relative to their population, Ōwhiro Bay sees 57 percent fewer buses than it should," he said.
"Proportionally, we were one of the most cancelled and suspended suburbs in the entire city last year, with more than one in four bus services suspended or cancelled during the driver shortages.
"Our residents are completely dissatisfied and frustrated with the network, not trusting it at all, and we're just seeing more and more people resort to private means of transport instead of using the bus, even though there is huge demand for bus services and bus network and travel in our suburb."
But Greater Wellington Regional Council transport chairperson Thomas Nash said he disagreed.
"We don't agree that it's the worst route, or the worst suburb for public transport in Wellington by any means. It has a direct bus route to it, and there are many suburbs in the Wellington region that don't have that."
However, Nash agreed the number 39 bus service, which went from the central city to Island Bay through Ōwhiro Bay, was a "problem".
"While most of the bus services in Wellington are at around about 98 or 99 percent reliability, which is obviously world-class, the route 39 serving Ōwhiro Bay continues to be a problem for us, and we've raised that with the bus company that runs it, Tranzurban, and they're working on it.
"The basic problem is that it is at the end of a non-core route, so it has fewer services on, and when some of them are cancelled, it has a big impact.
"We recognise that impact, we're working on it, but there are limits to what we can do."
Tranzurban Wellington general manager Samuel Stairmand said 2023 was a challenging year, with bus driver shortages across New Zealand.
"Our team have been actively engaged in driver recruitment, retention efforts as well as bus driver safety initiatives," he said.
"In 2024, we have seen an improvement on our performance on the Ōwhiro Bay routes, and while there's still room for further progress, our results indicate an upwards trend with year to date results showing a 97.42 percent performance rate on route 29, and 93.27 percent on route 39.
"Moving forward, our team remains committed to enhancing service delivery and closely monitoring services."