Why we need regional public transport
Let's get the Waikato moving - the climate friendly edition
In the peak morning traffic period, there are 7,000 vehicle trips between Waikato District and Hamilton, 5,000 between Waipa, Otorohanga, South Waikato and Taupo Districts and Hamilton, and 2,000 between Hauraki, Matamata-Piako, and Thames Districts and Hamilton1. That’s a lot of trips that could be via public transport.
Fraser Purves, a former Te Awamutu local, takes us on a trip via our regional buses and trains - the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Regional public transport has been an issue that most regional councils in Aotearoa struggle with. The provision of services to smaller towns is simply not economical, and the services have previously struggled to maintain ridership and meet Waka Kotahi’s minimum return on investment, with costs more often than not being passed on to the passengers.
In the case of Kirikiriroa and its BUSIT network, there have been limited services that provide a connection for towns on the periphery. It offers Cambridge, Te Awamutu, Raglan and Huntly with recent additions of Morrinsville/Paeroa routes, but all of these routes fail to provide any level of service that allows commuters to connect to each other without changing buses in Kirikiriroa. This, currently, is the largest issue in the greater Kirikiriroa BUSIT network, as it maintains the reliance on private vehicle commutes between these towns on the periphery of Kirikiriroa.
In 2022, the Waikato Regional Council launched a replacement for its aging and significantly out-of-date Regional Public Transport Plan 2015-2025 (RPTP 2015), with a replacement that acknowledges the significant change that the Waikato and Kirikiriroa have experienced since 2015. This replacement, the Regional Public Transport Plan 2022-2032 (RPTP 2022), allows for a significant pivot in how people get around Kirikiriroa and the greater Waikato Region.
There was limited discussion of alternative public transport modes to buses in the RPTP 2015, which has been identified through the Parliamentary Enquiry into Regional Passenger Rail, as somewhere that Aotearoa’s public transport network can be improved. The launch of Te Huia, connecting Kirikiriroa to Tāmaki Makaurau, is just the first step of this, with the RPTP 2022 identifying both expanding the service to include North Waikato stations at Pōkeno and Te Kauwhata, and investigating extra services, especially over the weekend to facilitate more travel between the two urban areas. This would reduce the travel time between the two centres - a benefit to both Kirikiriroa, and Tāmaki Makaurau. It is also a step towards the connection of Kirikiriroa-Tāmaki Makaurau-Tauranga, with the rail connection to Tauranga (as discussed in the RPTP 2022) creating the “golden triangle” identified by Greater Auckland in 2017. The “golden triangle” would provide a connection for Tāmaki Makaurau, Kirikiriroa, Tauranga, and possibly Rotorua, and Taupō via rail, and would be of significant benefit, connecting the three largest, fastest-growing population centres in the upper Te Ika a Maui (North Island). An increase in rail investment would reduce the number of vehicles that need to travel on these already busy road routes. Even with just a fraction of the spending to develop the Waikato Expressway, this network could operate and reduce the reliance on private vehicles in these main corridors.
The new RPTP 2022 has identified a significant opportunity for travel between centres that are not well connected in the current BUSIT network. In particular, areas in the periphery of Kirikiriroa are likely to see an increase in services that do not travel through the hub of Kirikiriroa. The RPTP 2022 has identified a significant opportunity in servicing key population growth areas of Te Awamutu and Cambridge/Kemureti with a connection to one another and to their surrounding areas such as Kawhia, Pirongia, Leamington, Tīrau, and Ōtorohanga.
The RPTP 2022 identifies the need for the communities to connect to the Waikato region's regional centres and within their local area. This is important for key population centres of Kirikiriroa, its periphery towns, Taupō and its communities, and the Tīrau-Tokoroa-Putāruru corridor. These communities in the updated RPTP have an increase in interregional and connector services, which has been lacking in the current design of the regional Waikato public transport network and has had a significant impact on the mobilities of those living in some of the more disconnected areas. It has been reported that mobilities (the measure of the ease for people to get around in their communities) in smaller towns within Aotearoa are significantly limited, especially for adolescents in areas of smaller populations, and the connections that do exist for these communities are significant for the social capital of residents (the ability for people to undertake activities that they wish). Therefore, it is extremely important that these small communities have some public transport connections.
It has become clear that there was significant work to do before the development of the Waikato Regional Regional Public Transport Plan 2022-2032 with significant holes in the provision of transport service for smaller towns within the Waikato region. The updated RPTP 2022 has begun to patch some previously existing issues, but there are still opportunities to provide better service to the region’s smaller communities. For the network to be of a standard that would allow for a significant uptake in public transport usage in smaller towns, the Waikato Regional Council needs to continue developing the public transport network in the Waikato Region.
Fraser Purves left the mighty Waikato to study a Master of International Development and Planning at the University of Otago and a Postgraduate Diploma in Geography. Fraser now works in the transport sector in Ōtautahi.