Whanganui community to have say on revamping public transport network

There could soon be two or three high frequency bus services in Whanganui. Photo / NZME

A shake-up of Whanganui‘s public transport could be on the way, with the community to have its say as part of a full network review.

At present, there are nine public bus routes in the district.

The newest addition, high-frequency service Te Ngaru The Tide, accounts for 55% of all travel.

Anthonie Tonnon, the Whanganui District Council representative on Horizons Regional Council’s passenger transport committee, told district councillors the public would be presented with three options.

Two of them, offering greater coverage (two Tide-like services and four hourly routes) or frequency (three Tide-like services and two hourly routes), relied on a higher budget, which Tonnon said would cost the average-rated household in Whanganui $95 a year.

At present, households are rated about $55 a year.

“If we compare that to our peers, the average household in Palmerston North spends $165 a year, in Hamilton and Dunedin it’s around $150 and in Wellington it is over $300,” Tonnon said.

“We still think we can get good value but it will require us to be as efficient as possible.”

Tonnon said there was a third option if no additional funding was available.

It features an extended Tide route - further up Somme Parade in Aramoho - and four hourly routes but the network would not expand into new suburbs.

Last November, Horizons councillors voted by 10 to four to keep $400,000 in its draft budget for Whanganui public transport despite not receiving matched funding from NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi.

Anthonie Tonnon says upgraded networks would cost the average-rated household in Whanganui $95 a year. Photo / NZME

The funding still needs to be officially signed off as part of the council’s annual plan for 2025/26.

“We really hope people won’t just submit to this [consultation], they’ll also submit to the annual plan,” Tonnon said.

Speaking to the Chronicle, he said that more than 50% of Whanganui’s population would be near a Tide-like service under options one and two.

“Under any of these plans, much more of the city will be near hourly services as opposed to two- or three-hourly.

“This consultation is the best time to make a difference.

“We’ll be taking in all that feedback to develop our final map.”

Tonnon told councillors there would be a “blank slate” when designing a new network and duplication of routes would be addressed.

Horizons will begin consultation in late March.

Its senior transport planner, Jayme Thorby, said the review would lead to a more fit-for-purpose network.

There would be pre-consultation meetings with schools, iwi, community groups, libraries, and the Whanganui residents and ratepayers association, she said.

District councillor Charlotte Melser said The Tide had been “a real gamechanger” in her suburb of Castlecliff.

For the year ending October 2024, The Tide averaged more than 8000 journeys each month.

“I’m really excited for Whanganui to start stepping into the future of what public transport can look like and how we can be more connected as a city,” Melser said.

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.