Thank you to the many hundreds of people who gave feedback on the proposed temporary flat fare consultation. The survey broke records at ORC for consultation responses! It’s been great to see you get so involved and tell us what you think.

The total visits to our YourSay consultation page were 3,400, with 1,390 people filling in the survey. 248 of you read the frequently asked questions and around 70 people asked to speak to their submissions.

What’s next?

It’s been great to see the community get so involved and tell us what they think, and we’d like to thank them. The next stage is for us to hear public submissions and put our recommendation to the council. Charging fares, whichever they are, would coincide with the launch of the Bee Card.

If they vote for a flat fare, these will be valid until the end of the year where the regional council will then review the structure again. 

The flat fare proposes to temporarily remove the five fare zones, tertiary student concession and GoExtra concession and replace it with one zone and three simple fares plus free travel for SuperGold card holders at any time. These are the proposed fares:

• $2 with a Bee Card for all (other than youth)
• $1.50 with a Bee Card for youth (5–18 year olds)
• $3 cash fare (no Bee Card) for all passengers

Bus trips will remain free until the transition to the Bee Card.

Have your say on shaping Future Dunedin Transport

Have you visited the Shaping Future Dunedin Transport survey yet? It’s an interactive website where you can read about and provide input for a transport system that’s safer, better connected and offers a range of travel choices as the New Dunedin Hospital is being built in the central city.

The project is from Connecting Dunedin, a transport planning partnership where Otago Regional Council (ORC), which runs Orbus, works with Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and Dunedin City Council.

Go to www.nzta.govt.nz/sfdt or call 03 477 4000, where a member of Dunedin City Council’s customer service team can help you provide feedback online.

The opportunity to give input into Shaping Future Dunedin Transport runs until Thursday 16 July 2020.

Ideas developed so far

We’re thinking about how to improve public transport choice and the cycle network, aiming to get more people moving around by bike and bus.

Ideas for how we could do this include simplifying the bus routes through and to the city centre and filling gaps in the existing cycleway network to improve connections between popular destinations.

Other ideas include possible changes to the current one-way system, including whether it could be two way. We’re also thinking about improving Wharf Street and Thomas Burns Street so that they can handle more traffic, providing an alternative route bypassing the city centre.