Brian Rudman: Council puts the seats back... but now there's no reason to sit down

First the seats were removed, now 'Big Brother' is removing the buses. File photo / Bay of Plenty Times

I'm starting to wish I hadn't complained last week about the removal of the seats at my bus stop outside TVNZ headquarters in Victoria St.

That was Auckland Council's mean-spirited way of trying to drive away itinerant windscreen washermen who shared the space with us commuters. The result was, we got a few of our seats back. But you have to wonder why they bothered.

Today comes news that Big Brother is also removing the buses and I'm starting to worry I'm to blame for that as well, for endlessly bleating about NZ Bus' inability to keep to a simple timetable.

Little did I expect the best solution the boffins could come up with, was to close the stop. No buses, no passengers, no moaning, QED.

Still, they say you have to break an egg to make an omelette, and it seems that in the raft of "major improvements" to central city bus services announced today, bus services along Victoria St to and from the west are to be the sacrificial eggs.

We're told the Link and the Western Bays buses which use the stop will in future "deliver a much more reliable customer experience by avoiding traffic congestion on Queen and Victoria Sts". They'd do that by being rerouted. In the case of the Link, that's up Wellesley St and down to the Victoria Park Markets.

The new Western Bay services will travel along Fanshawe St to Beaumont St then up College Hill. We're told they will be able to "take advantage of the bus lanes" along Fanshawe St to provide a faster service.

This piece of wishful thinking was obviously written by someone who hasn't been stuck in an 004 or 005 bus in the evening rush hour crawling along traffic-jammed Custom St and Fanshawe St to the Nelson St intersection, where the bus lanes begin.

As an expert passenger, I predict the only way this route will provide a "faster service" is if the Fanshawe St bus lane out of the city begins at the bus stop in Customs St.

The great leap forward in today's announcement is the decision to build on the runaway success of the inner city Link route by creating an Outer Loop service that encircles the inner suburbs, through Herne Bay and Pt Chevalier to St Lukes, Mt Eden to Newmarket and Parnell.

As part of the changes, the existing Link surrenders the waterfront leg of its service to the new Loop, while a new Inner City service links Karangahape Rd with the Wynyard Quarter via Queen St.

Using the same high quality buses that makes travelling on the Link appealing, the new Loop service sounds like a winner.

What will be needed from the day the new services start mid-year, is better regularity of service than the Link manages. It's one thing to offer 10 or 15 minute services on the Link and the Outer Loop, another to deliver. With all the GPS technology now available, it's hard to understand why the bunching of buses that has always dogged the Link service, can't be overcome.

On the matter of time-keeping, a recent trip to Sydney reacquainted me with a cheap bus-friendly traffic tactic which is almost effective as a dedicated bus lane at keeping buses flowing. Buses pulling out from the bus stop into a line of traffic have right of way.

To remind drivers, there are prominent indicator lights on the rear of the bus and appropriate signs. Car drivers seem to slow down and give way as though it's part of the natural order. It took a battle to get Auckland motorists to accept the idea of dedicated bus lanes. Compared to that tussle, educating them to give way to buses should be a doddle. And given the bus' size, there shouldn't be too many arguments.