Streets cut from bus route shocks residents

The bus doesn’t stop here anymore.

Blockhouse Bay residents were ‘‘shocked’’ the 248 and 249 buses would no longer travel along the Blockhouse Bay streets of Dundale Avenue, Whitney St and Terry St.

The buses would now travel from New Windsor Rd straight onto Boundary Rd.

Auckland Transport announced its streamlined bus service would be impleme-nted out west from June 11.

Whitney St resident Rajesh Bharat said many people used the

‘‘Just keep it the same.’’

Rajesh Bharat

bus stops, and a petition he had created to send to mayor Phil Goff had 215 signatures as of May 29.

He said it was a ‘‘shock’’ to find out the bus route would be changed.

‘‘It’s horrible,’’ he said, ‘‘just keep it the same’’.

AT media relations manager Mark Hannan said the decision to not use these streets in the new bus route was made because not enough people were getting on at the stops. He said patronage figures in March showed that during peak hours, fewer than 15 people were using the bus stops.

Hannan said AT consulted on the change in December 2015 and gave residents the chance to provide feedback.

The Whitney St residents said they were unaware of the opportunity to provide feedback, and only learnt of the change when the new map arrived in the mail.

Whitney St residents Sneh Lata Bharat, Yogesh Bagadwal, Rajesh Bharat and Vedant Bharat will be impacted by the route change.