When is the next bus coming?
by Helene Ritchie  Councillor Thomas Nash says that the Regional Council is changing the bus timetables again, and is still without sufficient drivers. He apologises. But we dont need apologies. We need a reliable, affordable carbon emissions reducing bus system, and believe it or not, one with enough drivers. Councillor Nash suggests we submit to a review of PTOM by Friday. He says the council wants a fair deal for drivers, and public ownership of the buses. The Regional Council mantra has been and still is that all their transport woes are due to so-called PTOM (Public ownership, transport operating model) and a past government. There is no doubt that PTOM has a commercial imperative (but there is no compulsion or timetable to aim to one day make public transport a competitive commercial model  a bit like the CHEs of the nineties when the government tried to make hospitals profit-making competitive entities.) These services are public services. They will always need to be funded by taxes and rates and in the case of public transport, by fares, (unless they are free  thats a debate for another day). But PTOM says squarely that the responsibility for how services are run is a responsibility of Regional Councils. So is a decision about who owns the buses. So is a decision about who is contracted to own the buses and employ the drivers. If the Regional Council intended to purchase the buses and directly operate or lease out the operation it could have done so anytime since 2008 when PTOM was introduced  or before. Most of the operational inefficiency and unreliability is squarely at the Regional Councils door, and not because of PTOM. The Regional Council let the contracts. The councillor wants a fair deal for drivers. Well according to Chairman Ponter a living wage amounts to $1 an hour extra, or maybe $1.50. (RNZ interview 16 June). I would love to see the bus operation in public ownership, and I opposed the City Councils sale in 1992  but that was eons ago. Today the Regional Council has contracts which run from another 5-8 years. Can the councillor focus on his climate change portfolio and ensure during his term of office that proposals to limit carbon emissions are introduced  the most important aspect of his portfolio. The decisions just announced by the council, to reduce peak bus services, will have the carbon emissions effect of forcing more people to drive their cars to work. And if he is serious about public ownership of the buses, he needs more information and he should seek some cost scenarios. I know it is complicated but it could be simplified. Surely this is possible for the Regional Council to achieve. Our city and our wellbeing is at stake. Helene Ritchie was twice a Regional Councillor, way back, and she was a City Councillor on the transport committee when we had electric trolley buses and the City Council owned and operated them.