Bus stop 7918 was closed during the construction of the Countdown store in Newtown. I don’t remember how long it was down for, but it was a significant length of time. With the store opening today, I’d asked Metlink when the stop would be reopening. I think we were both surprised by the answer: Also today.
Encouraged by this, I went down to the stop this morning and caught the next bus coming along. The driver insisted that the stop wasn’t open yet. The paint is down and the sign is up, but the bus stop isn’t really a bus stop. She let us on anyway.
A couple questions fall out of this instantly:
- Why wasn’t Metlink advertising the reopening of the bus stop?
- Why didn’t Metlink have forehand knowledge that the bus stop was reopening?
- Why is there different information coming from Metlink and Go Wellington?
- How are passengers supposed to know what is or isn’t a bus stop if all the markings are there?
This highlights a common failure for Wellington’s public transportation system: communication. Metlink doesn’t handle public communication overly well, which is also hindered by the disconnect between Metlink and the operators. I shouldn’t have to ask when a stop is opening. Everyone should know the details well in advance. We need to do better than this.
Sustainable Wellington Transport 
This is a typical case, in regards to anything involving the Council, of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. This bus stop has been out of action for about 7 months.
By: Peter on December 5, 2012
at 9:55 am
Hi Gregory, where exactly is bus-stop 7918?
By: Maria van der Meel on December 5, 2012
at 6:07 pm
It’s directly beside the new Countdown on John St. It moved slightly closer to Adelaide Road compared to pre-construction, but is effectively the same stop as before. The link in the post goes to Metlink and has a map.
By: Gregory on December 6, 2012
at 7:18 am
Okay thanks. I was at a meeting some time ago and that bus stop was discussed and subject to some scrutiny as to whether it should be removed because of the bus stop just 50 meters up the road by the Winter Show buildings. The John Street intersection will be more complicated now with a new set of traffic lights on Hanson/John Street intersection and makes me wonder how our emergency services will cope when the north bound traffic lanes fill beyond capacity waiting for a green light at Hanson.
With a cronic shortage of street level parking and Countdowns unfriendly parking rules I thought the bus-stop would be better deleted and turned into 15 min car-parks. Do you think this is a permanent arrangement?
By: Maria van der Meel on December 6, 2012
at 11:27 am
I agree that the two stops are far too close and should be reviewed. We have quite a few examples of poor stop locations and I’d love to see the map re-evaluated. I’m not sure that exchanging the bus stop for short term parking would change the situation for emergency vehicles. Bus drivers – in my observation – respond better to emergency access better than most other drivers.
As for traffic queues, that’s a very good point. There is a narrow channel on Wallace St and traffic moves slowly through there at peak times. Again, I wouldn’t expect that bus stop modifications would improve that at all.
In general, I’d argue that the stop at Countdown and its southbound twin are better placed than the stop at Toi Whakaari.
By: Gregory on December 6, 2012
at 12:51 pm
Wellington City are pretty poor at passing on what they are doing when they change bus stops. Metlink and the bus company can really be the last to know.
Re stop spacing I think the Regional Council would actually like to rationalise some stop spacings, but within some parts of WCC there seems to be a view that more stops are better. I have heard there was some inter-council friction when WCC wanted to add extra stops onto Adelaide Rd between the Basin and Newtown.
By: LX... on December 6, 2012
at 8:07 pm
Reactivating a bus stop would be appreciated on Adelaide Road between Hospital Road and John Street south bound for the Hospital, any ideas what’s happened to that and do you know the number of that stop Greg?
By: Maria van der Meel on December 13, 2012
at 7:21 pm
This one Greg..http://www.metlink.org.nz/stop/6016
By: Maria van der Meel on December 13, 2012
at 10:12 pm
14-12-12 an email from Metlink advised that bus stop 6016 is already active just waiting for the bus stop signage. 🙂
By: Maria van der Meel on December 14, 2012
at 9:17 pm
Thanks for following up on that one. During the roadworks, drivers would sometimes stop where the stop was and sometimes continue to the next stop. I haven’t used that stop since the roadworks finished and didn’t realise that the signs were still missing over there. Did Metlink give an indication when the signs were set to be replaced?
By: Gregory on December 17, 2012
at 7:47 am
No they did not.
By: Maria van der Meel on December 19, 2012
at 10:09 am