Council weighing up range of solutions to bus problem
BIGGER buses are still very much in Wellington’s future, even if the city’s leaders have to rely on technology that does not yet exist to make it happen.
Greater Wellington Regional Council says it is looking at a range of solutions to the potential problem of double-decker buses being too heavy for the capital’s roads, and too big for some of its tunnels.
Diesel-electric double-deckers are the preferred option to service the capital’s two new highcapacity routes – north-south between Johnsonville and Island Bay, and east-west between Karori and Seatoun – from 2017.
While there are no issues with double-deckers running between Johnsonville and Island Bay, there are not thought to be any hybrid double-deckers currently on the market that can fit through the Karori and Seatoun tunnels.
Paul Swain, the council’s public transport portfolio leader, said the likelihood was that a mixture of different-sized buses would initially have route.
But new and emerging technologies were also being looked at, such as a double-decker bus that could ‘‘kneel’’ while moving to pass through the tunnels.
Bus manufacturers in Europe and China have told the council they ‘‘have the capacity’’ to produce such a bus, but have yet to build one.
The other concern is what kind of damage an 18-tonne doubledecker would do to the capital’s roads. Wellington City Council is
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operate
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eastwest currently testing the load-bearing capacity of pavements to figure this out.
The regional council plans to meet bus operators at the end of this month to brainstorm possible solutions and discuss what new technologies could solve the quagmire of getting big buses through Wellington’s notoriously narrow streets.
‘‘What we’re looking at will be, is there another kind of doubledecker configuration that meets our high-capacity needs,’’ Swain said.
‘‘There’s potentially some technology that could resolve the tunnel height problem. We’ve also heard of technology where buses are being made lighter, which would solve the pavement problem.’’
Operating articulated, or bendy, buses in the capital has been ruled out because of their inability to turn some tight corners, and the lengths that bus stops would have to be.
It is possible that Wellington will end up with four different sizes of bus on its various routes.