The Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) wants to introduce electric buses progressively to the region within the next five years, starting with an electric bus demonstration in the first half of 2016.
In the interim, it will transition to a high capacity double decker diesel and hybrid diesel bus fleet for its new network service and that decision does not please the Green Party.
GRWC says it will continue with plans to scrap the ageing fleet of 60 electric trolley buses, as well as its older diesel buses, by 2017 for low emission double deck diesel buses, of which ten will be hybrids.
This interim move irks the Green Party, and its Wellington issues spokesperson Gareth Hughes MP, who don’t want the trolley buses removed from service until replacement battery electric powered buses become available.
Hughes says replacing the pollution free trolley bus system with dirty diesel buses is a retrograde move that echoes Central Governments plan to replace electric trains on the main trunk line with diesel.
However, GWRC says the trolley buses are being phased out in 2017 because of their unreliability, the high cost of upgrading and maintaining the infrastructure and incompatibility with the new routes.
GWRC chair Chris Laidlaw says in the interim high capacity buses are a vital part of the new network that will be rolled out in early 2018, as a council strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by getting people onto public transport and out of private vehicles.
He says the bus upgrade will mean that by 2018 the average age of the fleet will be five years old compared to 13 at present, and overall tailpipe emissions levels of the fleet will be about 33% lower than they are now.
“The biggest gain we can make in contributing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions is to get people out of their cars and onto public transport,” says Laidlaw.
“By removing the trolley buses and the old diesel buses we can deliver services that are reliable, easy to use, and that go where people want to go,” he says.
“The only way to achieve these big changes by 2018 is by replacing those vehicles with the best technology available, which is a mix of hybrid buses and new low emission diesel buses,” says Laidlaw.
“It will give 75% of residents, compared to 45% at present, access within 1km to a high-frequency bus route. Services will run through the CBD instead of stopping or starting at Wellington Station or Courtenay Place as many do currently,” says Laidlaw.
“This new network, coupled with the use of high capacity buses, will speed up travel times for everyone,” he says.
According to Laidlaw, GWRC will be going to tender around April next year for new bus service contracts, and it will partner with the transport industry to choose the best available low emission diesel buses for the network.
