Bus hub, new timetable, not the answer, ORC told

THE Otago Regional Council has stated it wants to provide a more affordable, streamlined, quicker and consistent bus service. Well, it hasn’t and won’t. People of Dunedin and outer suburbs want cheaper fares, a timetable book that everyone can read and understand, not tweaking of the bus runs. Reinstate the old bus runs. More bus shelters and seats.

If Gerard Collings thinks that bus use has fallen 4% (ODT, 14.1.17), does he really think that spending $3 million on this new bus hub is going to make more people catch the bus? Well, he is so wrong. I hope the Farmers department store is ready for 5000 people a week cutting through the middle of the store. I feel very sorry for anyone that has a business in South Dunedin, as people will not be travelling your way if they have to catch four buses. I, like many others, do not go out to Pak’n Save any more. I catch one bus to Countdown and one bus home, not four buses; that is just making people’s lives a whole lot harder.

The ORC and the Dunedin City Council are not listening to what the people need and want.

Teena Henderson

Brockville [Abridged. Otago Regional Council manager support services Gerard Collings replies: ‘‘Thanks for your thoughts and feedback. The bus network design is geared to enable people to be able to transfer from service to service in order to access the largest possible geographical area. The recent addition of free transfers is designed to best enable this — and the planned interchange will make these transfers easier to access for the whole network.’’]

Thiel citizenship

RARELY has there been such a clear and undisguised statement of this Government’s priorities and intentions as that involving the hasty granting of New Zealand citizenship to American billionaire and prominent Donald Trump supporter Peter Thiel.

It is now plain our Government seeks to create a twotier society in this country, one modelled along the lines of a Trumpian dystopia of societal fracture and inequality, the likes of which now exists in the US. We have the chance to put a stop to this agenda on September 23.

Paul ElwellSutton.

Haast

Discrimination

WHILE I don’t agree with President Trump, let’s not forget Australia has been arresting predominantly Muslim boat people and holding them in detention in a foreign land for some time now. They also arrest, hold in detention and deport with no right of reentry Kiwis who have lived and worked most of their lives in Australia for sometimes small crimes. So, when we think of discrimination against race or religion, perhaps we need look closer to home first