MOUNT Victoria residents are feeling cheated.
In response to concerns about safety after a pedestrian was seriously injured by a car in the tunnel last year, Wellington City Council sought to legally designate it “bus only”.
But a seemingly positive change to the Pirie Street bus tunnel regulations actually opens the way for more buses.
The proposed bylaw would make it legal for “Not In Service” and charter buses to also use the tunnel, which has not been allowed before.
Kent Duston, president of the Mt Victoria Residents Association, estimates this will make way for between 70 to 90 extra buses to drive up narrow Pirie St and use the tunnel.
The Association’s concerns also include the loss of safety due to the extra buses, an increase in noise and fumes, damage to the 1900-era road and nearby homes because of added vibrations, and suggest there will be added congestion.
Duston says Mt Vic locals have already worked hard to catch sneaky Not In Service diesel buses using the tunnel illegally (trolley buses are allowed, they’ve got fewer routes).
“It’s only when we alert Go Wellington that we get any response. If it weren’t for residents, there would be no enforcement,” he says.
Deputy mayor Ian McKinnon, who has been liasing between the council officers and Mt Vic residents, sympathises.
“I can understand their concerns. The whole thing has arisen out of the need for greater safety. The person who was injured in the tunnel was in there illegally and was hit by a car that was in there illegally.”
McKinnon says at the moment about 500 vehicles travel through the tunnel a day, and as many as 100 of those are not supposed to.
Paul Barker, the council’s road safety engineer, says the wording of the proposed bylaw was purposeful.
“From time-to-time [Go Wellington] do instruct their [Not In Service] buses to go through the tunnel when traffic is heavy.”
Barker doesn’t believe opening up the field for NIS buses will mean any more than usual, because it’s “not in the interests” of Go Wellington to put pressure on its service.
“Our surveys show that about 50 buses a day go through the tunnel that are not meant to, so we want to make that lawful,” he says.
Barker adds the proposal never intended to allow charter buses free reign, and he plans to amend that.
A decision on the issue will be made at the Strategy and Policy Committee Meeting, August 19.