Back to school

Thursday 28 January 2021

Dunedin will start bustling again as schools go back and first year university students arrive. That means buses will start to have peak travel loads again.

When schools are back, our peak travel times are from 7am until 9am and then start again from 3pm until 6pm on weekdays. The afternoon peak is our busiest time. If you can travel any time of the day, please try to avoid this time to help our school children get home.

 

Proposed changes to St Kilda/Tainui

We are proposing a change to the Tainui/St Kilda part of the Ocean Grove/Ross Creek route 3 once we hear what you think.

The current route at the Ocean Grove end travels via some narrow streets in the Tainui/St Kilda area. It serves three schools but misses some key locations.

Recent upgrades to intersections and streets around the schools have made it more challenging for the buses to make the required turns safely, especially when there is a lot of traffic.

We’ve also received feedback from the community that they would like to see buses servicing accommodation providers such as the Dunedin Holiday Park as well as sports venues.

During the safer schools upgrades in 2020 we detoured the bus along Victoria Road and Culling Street and found this worked well.

 

The current route, shown by the solid line in this map, travels along Tahuna Road, up Cavell Street and Marlow Street before turning right into Royal Crescent, in both directions, with a number of stops along the way.

We are proposing to change the bus route as shown by the dotted line in the map, keeping route 3 on Victoria Road and Culling Street, both ways.

Changing the route permanently to this detour will mean fewer buses on residential streets and better access for accommodation providers and sports venues on Victoria Road.

School students at Musselburgh, Tainui and Tahuna Normal Intermediate will still have good access to the buses.

If you’d like to tell us what you think, visit yoursay.orc.govt.nz/Orbus3-Tainui from 1 February until 1 March. You can also call the Otago Regional Council during this time on 0800 474 082.

Summer roadworks

Summer is always a busy time for roadworks around Dunedin.

To check if your route is affected with a diversion or bus stop closures, visit the ORC website and click on ‘alerts’ at the top of the main Dunedin page, or follow us on Facebook. You can also call 0800 ORBUSDN (0800 672 8736).