NZ Bus No. 369 at the Lambton Interchange 20/7/2017

One of Wellington's endangered species scheduled to face extinction at the end of October, captured inbound on a Route 9 service to the Wellington Railway Station Interchange Hub on Thursday, 20 July 2017.

 

NZ Bus 369 (EWE103 10 March 2009) / 2009 Designline Citybus Trolley / VIN:7A874010908008247 / Designline B43DW bodywork. Go Wellington, Kilbirnie

 

CHRIS LAIDLAW: SOME CLEAR-EYED FACTS ABOUT WELLINGTON BUSES

Dominion Post, 21 July 2017

OPINION: You've got to hand it to Dave Armstrong – his opinion piece (The dirty truth about Wellington buses, July 17) makes the answer to the city's public transport challenges seem very simple.

And that answer? Soldier on with ageing, inefficient trolleybuses, ignoring the costs and the fact their presence constrains development of an efficient network.

He has clearly not noticed that Greater Wellington Regional Council is looking well beyond the immediate future to a modern all-electric bus fleet, and that this transformation is well under way.

 

Here are a few facts:

- Bringing the trolley infrastructure (overhead wires, substations, power supply and underground cabling) up to scratch would have cost ratepayers at least $50 million. Dave's figure of $18m is probably a reference to the $17m Wellington Electricity said was necessary solely to make the substations safe by modern standards (let alone efficient).

- Greater Wellington voted to replace the trolleys, not "quick smart" as Dave suggests, but after rational analysis of the huge upgrade cost, the additional running cost ($6m a year and climbing), the inflexibility of the trolley routes (which made modifying the wider bus network very difficult) and the arrival of full battery-electric bus technology.

- Wellington Electricity, which maintains the power supply and substations and supplies power to the overhead lines, said, significantly, that upgrading this outmoded form of transport was "throwing good money after bad". Keeping the trolleys running became effectively a non-option.

- Wrightspeed technology is hardly a "praiseworthy but flawed" approach to reducing emissions. Yes, such hybrid buses could consume 75 per cent of the fuel of a regular diesel bus, but that's the maximum consumption under extreme conditions (namely, fully loaded on steep hills). Overall, it would be a lot less. In spite of this, they don't seem to be green enough for Dave.

 

Here are some more facts: Greater Wellington does not have its head in the sand about climate change or the need to get a modern bus fleet on the region's roads as soon as possible. That was a fundamental factor in recent bus tenders, the results of which will become apparent from July next year when the region will have a fleet of 400 buses, most of them brand new. Eighty per cent will meet or better the Euro V emissions standard, and two-thirds will meet the Euro VI standard – the toughest in the world.

That achievement alone will give the region one of the cleanest fleets in the world. Harmful emissions will immediately fall 38 per cent in Wellington compared with current levels (and 86 per cent in the Hutt Valley where older buses operate). It's a massive improvement – not an "if" or a "maybe". It's a guarantee.

An all-electric fleet can't happen overnight just because Dave and others say it should. These things happen incrementally and we are on our way. From next July, thanks to investment by new operator Tranzit,10 all-electric double-deckers will begin operating in the city (along with 50 ultra-low-emission diesel versions). Another 22 all-electric double-deckers will follow over the next three years.

Some people still object to the fact it will take years to reach an all-electric fleet at this rate – to which I would answer: yes, but we will have the cleanest-burning diesels to carry us through the transition, and it is the longer-term guarantee that counts. And all going well, we will also have a fleet of Wrightspeed hybrid buses.

Finally, there's the $1.3 billion investment over the next five years in the region's transport services and infrastructure as the number of commuter trips on buses, trains and ferries rises from the present 36 million a year to 42 million by 2021. The result will be a modern, integrated public transport network – the best in the country – and one we can be proud to call our own. Such a network will attract commuters out of their cars – and that's where we can make the biggest impact on climate change.

Now there's a story worth writing about.

 

- Chris Laidlaw chairs Greater Wellington Regional Council.

 

THE DIRTY TRUTH ABOUT WELLINGTON BUSES – AND WHY GWRC WANTS TO KEEP IT SECRET

Stuff, July 17, 2017

OPINION: It's a situation every Wellington cyclist or pedestrian knows well. You come up behind a diesel bus stopped at the lights. Then the lights change and the bus moves forward. You are left choking and spluttering in the wake of sooty exhaust.

But the unpleasantness is only part of the problem. Diesel emissions contribute to greater air pollution – which ultimately leads to higher levels of respiratory disease, therefore higher health costs. Then there's climate change.

The Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) might tell you that diesel emissions are the unfortunate but necessary cost of having a public bus system. Besides, the technology will eventually improve and get cheaper. GWRC chairman Chris Laidlaw even reckons we are 'likely' to see some electric buses in Wellington soon. "Hopefully", before you can say "melting polar icecap", Wellington will have entirely electric buses.

The trouble is, fully electric buses aren't yet available, and our clean, green trolleybuses are being sent to the electric chair at the end of October. That means our supposedly environmentally friendly city will be reliant on dirty diesel buses, probably cheap hand-me-downs from Auckland, for "at least" eight months.

Perhaps Wellington needs to replace the motto on its coat of arms from Suprema a Situ to Supremely Sooty until we're fully electric. Liberal Wellingtonians of the type who sit on the GRWC would be horrified to be compared with Donald Trump, but when it comes to climate change, are we that different?

So why did the GWRC get rid of trolley buses if there was no clean, cost-effective alternative readily available? Privately owned Wellington Electricity estimated that it would cost between $18 million and $52 million to upgrade the dilapidated electricity substations powering the trolleys. Funny how councillors who wanted to get rid of the trolleys only quoted the upper limit.

Why had the substations run down? That often happens when you privatise a public asset. After council-owned Capital Power was sold off in the 1990s – thanks a lot, Fran Wilde and Mark Blumsky – it went through four different owners to eventually become Wellington Electricity. Successive corporate owners have made handsome capital gains and profits, but haven't invested in infrastructure.

We don't know exactly how much upgrading the substations would have cost because the GWRC voted down a motion asking for an independent expert review of the estimated cost. They simply voted – with the exception of Greens Sue Kedgley and Paul Bruce – to get rid of the trolleys quick smart. Could this be the biggest environmental backfire since diesel buses first sputtered into town?

The good news is that new operator Tranzit will be using buses that emit 38 per cent less harmful pollutants than current ones. Even better, NZ Bus will be fitting 57 Wellington trolleybuses with Wrightspeed motors. These are hybrid engines with rechargeable electric batteries.

According to NZ Bus chief executive Zane Fulljames, the fleet of 57 trolleybuses "could" be converted in time for use on NZ Bus routes when new contracts start in July next year.

But how green are these buses really? According to NZ Bus, they could use as much as 75 per cent of the diesel used by a normal diesel bus, though the company is looking at ways to reduce this. A best-case scenario "could" see some buses running entirely on rechargeable batteries.

NZ Bus should be applauded for trying to come up with a solution, however flawed. Meanwhile, I propose that GRWC councillors who voted to get rid of the trolleys so soon should be made to travel on sooty diesel buses for the rest of their natural term – until the next election.

I'm not happy hearing councillors and providers using words like "likely", "might", "could", "hopefully", "ideally", "maybe", "element of risk" and "time will tell" when it comes to public transport. I want to commute on an efficient clean bus, not come in on a wing and a prayer.

In the meantime, can I suggest GWRC issues free face masks to ratepayers who have to walk or cycle near the diesel buses when they sputter down from Auckland. And the face masks could also work as cunning disguises during the next local body elections for GWRC councillors who voted to get rid of the trolleys.

Done