by Elizabeth Cox
A major deadline has been reached in Wellington, but a showdown seems to have been narrowly averted.
Read more »

Left to right: Barbara Donaldson, Chris Laidlaw, Greg Campbell, Wayne Hastie. Photo: NZ Parliament.

Media release from Wellington Regional Council
Bus services are now becoming more reliable and arriving on time more often as service levels improve, Wellington Regional Council Chief Executive Greg Campbell told the Transport and Infrastructure Select Committee at an update at Parliament today. Read more »

by Roy Murphy
Yesterday’s stopwork meeting of bus drivers not only voted to strike – it also made plans for the strike. The strikers will set up picket lines to prevent the companies from using their buses. At the same time they plan to set up their own alternative bus service for a gold coin donation in all areas affected by the strike. The money will be used to pay for the buses, with any extra going into the strike fund. The buses will run over the pre-July routes. Read more »

by Roy Murphy
The Regional Council made four serious and basic errors in the new design for Wellington buses. Thinking that hubs are a solution, thinking they’d save money by taking the cheapest bids, thinking they had to accept whatever vehicles the operators wanted to use, and thinking that cutting out the people who run the transport (the bus drivers) would result in better solutions. Read more »

“Kate Sheppard” with her petition

Report and photos by Roy Murphy
In what was dubbed the Suffrage 125 Bicycle Ride, about 90 mostly women cyclists took to Wellington streets to celebrate 125 years since Kate Sheppard won the vote for women. The ride was organised by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga and the Wellington Frocks on Bikes. Read more »

by Mark Cubey
Greg Campbell is not having a good week. Read more »

by Roy Murphy
The trade unions are blunt about the state of negotiations with Wellington’s bus operators. The president of the Council of Trade Unions, Rick Wagstaff, pulled no punches at yesterday’s meeting of the Regional Council’s sustainable transport committee. Read more »

by Russell Tregonning
John Milford of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce wants to ‘fix congestion choke points’ in Wellington’s urban roading system. He says this will be ‘vital to our economy’. But there’s no evidence that his solution — more motorways — will achieve either aim. Read more »

by Lindsay Shelton
An omni-shambles or a bustastrophe? Those have been the two most memorable descriptions of Wellington’s continuing bus problems. Read more »

Wellington.Scoop
Dissatisfaction with the ‘Greater’ Wellington Regional Council – including suggestions that it should be abolished because of its bus system failures – has coincided with a representational review that the council is now carrying out. It seems happy with how things are, and is proposing no changes in representation for next year’s elections. But not everyone would agree with retaining the status quo. Read more »