Free wi-fi at stops jettisoned
Plans to install free wi-fi at bus and train stops across Wellington have been officially scrapped.
Greater Wellington Regional Council’s sustainable transport committee yesterday voted against rolling out the scheme at 50 sites across the Wellington public transport network, citing a forecast demise of wi-fi, as well as a lack of commercial interest and low demand among young commuters.
But Victoria University Students’ Association president Rory Lenihan-Ikin said the council was operating on ‘‘flawed logic’’ and free wi-fi would help make public transport more appealing to young people.
The council’s decision to throw out the proposal, which had passed unanimously in August, was based on a feasibility study that revealed the project would cost up to $2.2 million for three years.
The study also referenced a 2015 New Zealand Transport Agency survey, which listed wi-fi on services at No 10 in a list of priorities for commuters in the Generation Y age group – those born in the 1980s and early 1990s.
The council’s public transport group general manager, Wayne Hastie, referred to a Fairfax article questioning the future of wi-fi when answering queries from councillors about the recommendation to scrap the project.
The suggestion from Hastie that wi-fi could become extinct took councillor Ken Laban by surprise, and he sought clarification.
‘‘Yes, you did hear me correctly,’’ Hastie said in response to Laban, while reading the article.
While the recommendation to shelve the plan passed in a majority vote, the committee left open the option of further public consultation on free wi-fi at bus interchanges at a later date.
Councillor Sue Kedgley’s proposal for public consultation this year on providing the service at selected major stops across the region was withdrawn.
Kedgley had disputed the council’s logic in using the NZTA survey as evidence, saying it did not ask respondents specifically about their thoughts on wi-fi.
Using the same survey, the council could then also assume schemes such as discounted peaktime fares or installation of CCTV cameras were not important to commuters, either, she said.
Lenihan-Ikin said wi-fi remained an important tool for young people, and would probably be welcomed.
‘‘The council has stated it’s a prerogative of theirs to get young people using public transport from a young age because they’re more likely to keep using it as an adult. Access to internet would be a pretty good way of making the public transport system more appealing for young people, and making the experience one that doesn’t disrupt people’s lives.’’
It was wrong to conclude from the NZTA survey that wi-fi at train and bus stops was not important to young people, he said.
‘‘That’s pretty flawed logic. The [No 1] priority is not going to be wifi because if you don’t have a bus that comes on time, then having wi-fi there is not going to make much of a difference.’’