University staff ask for their bus stop back
HAVING to drive to work or hike from a central bus stop to the University of Otago campus every day is the thin edge of the wedge for a group of university staff members, who want the museum stop to be restored.
More than a year ago, the bus route from Otago Peninsula was changed to end near New World in Cumberland St, rather than the Albany St stop at the Otago Museum reserve, near the University of Otago library.
Science communication senior lecturer Dr Jenny Rock said she was considering leaving the university because of the issue.
It was 20 minutes’ walk to get from the bus stop to where she worked on campus, and staff and students working on the eastern side of the campus had to leave home or work an hour earlier to use the bus service.
‘‘We now all drive in separately in cars, joining the increasingly heavy traffic now using Portsmouth Dr and Anzac Ave in commuting times.’’
As an environmental researcher at ‘‘a supposedly sustainablyfocused institution’’, Dr Rock said the hypo crisy of having to drive was intolerable.
‘‘We have asked repeatedly for them to extend the route back to Albany St (just two stops or more) and they refuse, claiming everything will be better when the bus hub exists and we can transfer between buses for delivery to that side of campus.’’
A chain of emails passed on to the Otago Daily Times showed in October 2017 the university got in touch with the Otago Regional Council raising concerns about transfer times and saying route changes had stopped staff using the bus.
After several reminders sent in September this year, a response was sent from the ORC to the university last month apologising for the delay and saying there were three services running from central Dunedin to the university, but acknowledging not all were easy to connect with.
‘‘Once the bus hub is in place and operational, the connections to the university will become clearer and will definitely be more accessible for all users,’’ the response said.
ORC support services manager Gerard Collings said this week construction of the bus hub, outside the Dunedin Cen tral Police Station, and mitigating inconvenience to retailers and the wider community over Christmas had been the ORC transport team’s key focus.
He also said connections would become clearer once the hub was in place.
Dr Rock said it was ‘‘plain bewildering’’ the bus stop could not be extended two stops further to deliver workers to ‘‘one of the region’s biggest employers’’.
She was doubtful the hub would make a difference, and said it appeared the university had now dropped the case.
College of Education Assoc Prof Karen Nairn also lives on the peninsula. She said she had ‘‘drastically decreased’’ her bus trips and found it ‘‘bizarre’’ the bus returned to the peninsula along George St, which slowed the return trip down.
When contacted, a university spokeswoman said it had passed staff members’ concerns on, but decisions sat with the ORC.