Mass rapid transit is one of the big ticket items in Let's Get Wellington Moving. Image / Supplied
Mass rapid transit is one of the big ticket items in Let's Get Wellington Moving. Image / Supplied
Every option being developed for the big-ticket items in Wellington's $6.4 billion transport plan will include mass rapid transit routes to both the eastern and southern suburbs.
The original proposal in Let's Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) was to create a mass rapid transit route from the central city to the airport. Later in the project it was revealed a route to Island Bay was also in the mix.
Now, LGWM Governance Reference Group chairman Daran Ponter has confirmed it's not a matter of one or the other.
Both routes will be included in every package of options set to be revealed to the public for consultation in early November.
The questions hanging over mass rapid transit have become ones of what mode and how the routes will be phased.
Ponter said including both routes demonstrated the "clear realisation" that the goal of mass rapid transit was not just a connection with the airport, but providing for population growth in Wellington City.
"If the Let's Get Wellington Moving programme, in its inception phase, was guilty of anything, it was seeing the airport as the final destination.
"We're not dismissive of the airport, but they're just one part of the population catchment. It's not necessarily the final destination, nor is it the single focus."
Let's Get Wellington Moving Governance Reference Group chairman Daran Ponter. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Last week the LGWM project team revealed the two options for the type of mass rapid transit would be light rail or articulated buses, also known as "bendy buses".
Ponter said bendy buses were effectively a trailer at the back of a bus with multi-door boarding, often on both sides.
These buses could have up to two trailers on the back of them meaning they could carry up to 150 people, Ponter said.
Bendy buses don't have tracks so they can go on the road, which might have to be strengthened in some places to accommodate them.
Bus stops would have to be lengthened to accommodate one or two bendy buses at any one time. The cornering of buses would also need to be taken into account for the route design, Ponter said.
The two routes, to the eastern and southern suburbs, wouldn't necessarily have the same type of mass rapid transit, Ponter said.
"Bendy buses will improve the public transport experience through an area, but potentially will not do the same population uplift job that might occur if you put light rail in place.
"So the choice between these options is largely going to be determined on the population density along the two routes that we are predicting over the next 20 to 30 years."
Ponter would not say how many different packages the public would be consulted on.
But, he said, all of them included mass rapid transit routes to the east and south, solutions for congestion around the Basin Reserve, and a second Mt Victoria of "some description".
