Committee hears views on public transport

Submitters to the draft Regional Public Transport Plan (RPTP) were heard by Horizons Regional Council’s Passenger Transport Committee this week.

The draft RPTP covers all aspects of the Region’s public transport network including bus services, health shuttles and the Total Mobility scheme which provides discounted taxi services for people who are unable to use other forms of public transport.

A total of 45 submissions were received with 19 people choosing to speak to them. Committee chair Rachel Keedwell says the spoken submissions ranged from variations of proposed changes to the Palmerston North and Feilding urban bus networks, to support of the Capital Connection rail service.

“It was fantastic to have so many people come and speak to their submissions, especially to hear from those who actually use the buses and know where the issues are,” Cr Keedwell says.

“There were some really good ideas put forward such as changing our diesel bus fleet to an electric one and possible additions to the proposed enhancements to the Palmerston North and Feilding routes.”

Other popular topics included public transport needs for smaller centres such as Levin, Foxton and Marton.

“Some of our areas with aging populations are transport disadvantaged so how we are going to deal with this issue is something to be considered,” Cr Keedwell says.

“We also had a number of requests to change our policy around Total Mobility services to include private operators, allowing users to choose which type of service they want. As we consider this it’s important that we make sure it’s a system that works for both Users and Horizons.”

Deliberations will be taking place on 5 May and the final Regional Public Transport Plan is expected to be adopted on 26 May by Horizons Regional Council.

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