Aug 23: Better Buses hui in the Raglan Town Hall Supper Room

Better Buses advocate, John Lawson, advises that the next Better Buses hui is at 4pm this Sunday (23rd) in the Supper Room, Town Hall.

He added that they will also be at the Monday 14 September Regional Council Public Transport Subcommittee meeting, speaking in the public forum at 1pm, 160 Ward Street and would welcome your support.

This Sunday they’ll be workshopping what issues and requests we want to put to that meeting, how we fit them into the 5 minutes allowed and what we do to follow up. Please try to come to both, but we’ll be especially pleased to see you on the 14th.

Our regional councillor has mentioned the problems they have with lack of funding and has pointed out that this is a good time to be lobbying political parties. So far their transport policies are –

National – Building the roads

Labour – a $20 weekly public transport fare cap

Green – Fund affordable, reliable, interregional rural bus services, and on-demand public transport

NZF – Northland Expressway and the Marsden Point rail link, going North to Oteria, and South to Auckland.

ACT – Let any child living along an existing school bus route use the service when a seat is available, regardless of which school they attend. Provide an additional bus where demand on a route grows beyond its capacity. Fund any additional buses from within the Ministry of Education’s existing budget by cutting waste.

Te Pāti Māori – Back practical cost-of-living relief (including transport affordability).

Opportunity – Capital injections ringfenced to boost investments in rail, active transport and public transport. Free public transport. electrifying public transport systems. 

So on Sunday we’ll also be talking about how to get further promises from them. Come along with your ideas!

Ngā mihi
John (he/him)
825 7866
027 392 5815.