Last year I wrote this piece for the Spinoff about light rail for Christchurch. It has been one of the most popular pieces that I’ve penned for the site, and for weeks afterwards, people from all walks of life would rock up to me to talk about trains. Public transport is one of the big things that ECan is responsible for, so I’d hope that we would be able to look into this, as well as other options for improving our bus service.
A couple of weeks back, I was one of the thousands of people who tried to use the free bus service over the weekend of September 21 and 22. For a long time, I have wanted to try and get as far as one can get on the transport network - Diamond Harbour. We got the first bus - the Blue Line - up to Sydenham, no problem. I even had time to run around the corner and get some lunch from Grizzly Baked Goods, and get back in time for the bus to the port. Unfortunately, that bus was completely full, and didn’t even stop for us. We took another Blue Line into the Bus Interchange, and then made sure we got on the next Lyttelton bus. It was totally rammed - an experience more akin to jumping on the metro in Mexico City than a bus in Colombo St. After a few people had got off along the way, we stopped to pick up someone in Opawa. He said that the last three buses had been too full to stop. When we got to the wharf, it was pretty clear that the ferry was going to be a non-event, with a queue of hundreds of people.
Clearly this was frustrating for the people who need to use the ferry to get in and out of town, and weren’t able to because of tourists like me. However, I think it does show that the bus service can and will be used, and that the main barrier to usage is price. That’s something I’d like to see the new council look in to, rather than continuing to increase fares, as the last ECan just voted to do. For the climate strike on Friday, the Blue Line was again running full, as the people concerned enough to strike for the environment were clearly concerned enough to make their way in to the protest in the most eco-friendly way they could. The demand is there; the numbers of people at the protest show that people want change. I hope that the next ECan that I’m a part of can be as bold as the thousands of people who made their way to the Square last week.
PS the Spinoff also have this handy guide on what to do if you haven’t got your voting papers, or haven’t enrolled, or have other miscellaneous election issues!