End of the line for Hataitai trolley service
THE demise of Wellington’s buses has begun.
Safety issues with the overhead wires at Hataitai have seen the capital’s iconic trolleys yanked off their first city bus route, despite Greater Wellington Regional Council vowing to keep the network running until June 2017.
The decision to replace the fully-electric trolleys from the No.5 Wellington-Hataitai Loop service with diesel buses has drawn criticism from within the council’s own ranks.
But the council’s transport portfolio leader Paul Swain says it was a ‘‘wise decision’’ as the alternative would have cost ratepayers $1.3 million in repairs.
The regional council decided in 2014 that it would not persist with the capital’s 60 electric trolley buses beyond mid-2017, which is when the council’s redesigned system of bus routes and contracts with bus companies kicks in.
The region’s 218 diesel buses will also be progressively phased out as they reach the end of their useful lives between 2017 and 2032, to be replaced by hybrid dieselelectric buses, and then eventually fully-electric buses.
But the first pieces of overhead wires disappeared in September after problems were discovered with the Hataitai section of the network.
Fixing the entire section was priced at $1.6m, or the council could save $1.3m by decommissioning part of the wires at the intersection of Hataitai and Waitoa roads, meaning trolleys could no longer turn between the two streets.
That meant the five trolley buses servicing the No.5 route would have to be replaced by diesel buses.
‘‘We decided that for the sake of
trolley five buses per day, it wasn’t worth asking the ratepayers to pay $1.3m,’’ Swain said. ‘‘This is not some sneaky effort to start decommissioning the trolley bus network by stealth. We’re still spending money to ensure it can continue until 2017.’’
The regional council had $22m budgeted until June 2017 to operate and maintain the trolley bus network, $9m of which was for maintenance wires.
But regional councillor Sue Kedgley said it was another example of Greater Wellington being too quick to give up on trolleys, which she believed should be persisted with until fully electric buses were on the market.
Many Wellingtonians did not realise the promised hybrid buses
of
the
overhead would not all be ready to go come July 1, 2017, and the trolleys would have to be replaced with diesel buses to begin with, she said.
‘‘It’s incredibly short-sighted. It’s going backwards, not forwards.’’
She had seen University of Otago research that suggested replacing Wellington’s trolleys with diesels could see carbon emissions jump by as much as 20 per cent in places where buses pile up during peak time, such as Willis St.
Swain acknowledged it was likely emissions being generated by the fleet would increase slightly in the latter half of 2017.
But by January 2018, half the of the region’s entire fleet would be new buses, while the remaining 50 per cent would be a better standard of diesel than the oldest buses currently operating.