My Bus Submission on the Chopping of Routes, and The Raising of Fares.

Six Bus Routes Face the Chop

This really gets up my nose! Yet again, Environment Canterbury (ECAN) (you) are doing your level best to annoy and frustrate people, not only by canning six bus routes, but by raising fares as well, especially hitting low income people and disabled people in the pocket.

ECAN annoyed people in previous years by changing the routes as far as I can tell, so less buses can get around more areas . That might sound good to accountants but it now takes over 50 minutes or more for my Southshore bus to get to the City Bus Exchange, as it ambles along to QE2, through Burwood, wandering along Lake Terrace Rd to Shirley and past the Palms and schools, taking in North Avon Rd, Stanmore Rd, and finally points its nose to town. This is a journey 60 yr old me can do in 25 minutes on a good day on my bicycle, taking a simpler more direct route. Meantime, I require two buses in order to get to the closer Eastgate Mall? Is this making sense to anyone. Not to me.

I note that the Westmoreland bus route is going for the chop. This is a route my sister would use daily IF the flaming bus would actually go to the Central Bus Exchange near to her work, but it doesn't. So she would have to use two buses also which is ridiculous. Why any route would not go to the Central Bus Exchange built at great expense by the Christchurch City Council, therefore ratepayers, I cannot understand. Instead my sister ignores her close-by bus stop and drives to outside Princess Margaret Hospital where she then picks up a bus taking her into town where she wants to go. In case you haven't noticed the Central City is now opening up and more people are working there. All buses should arrive at the Central City Bus Exchange in a timely manner.

I am quite sure that people all over Christchurch can tell many similar stories. It is ridiculous, firstly, that the Christchurch City Council (CCC) is expected to provide all the infrastructure while ECAN decides the routes and fares. ECAN would be better named ECAN'T I think.

So what I want to say here is that public buses exist to provide a Service, first and foremost. They should provide that Service by giving people what they want and need, instead of making their customers struggle to find ways to make it somehow work for them, or else just give up and use their cars. ECAN is tasked with looking after our Environment, aren't you? Isn't that why it is called ENVIRONMENT CANTERBURY? Isn't that your kaupapa? ECAN is failing in its duty if it cannot find ways to help people to not use their car, thereby saving fossil fuels and congestion on our roads. In this day and age, as we see Global Climate Change wreaking havoc on our day to day temperatures with hotter summers, hotter seas, and more frequent and devastating storms, surely a first step is to get people using the public bus system. More people will do so if they are indeed offered a better service on their buses, not cutbacks and rising fares.