Bus services

Press, 26 November 1982, Page 16

Bus services

Sir,—The Christchurch Transport Board is obviously pruning its city services to release vehicles for its new country routes. Radley residents were in the habit of shopping in Sydenham to the mutual benefit of shopper and shopkeeper. This is no longer possible with . the change of route. Those living in Sydenham who commute daily to Radley are now required to go right into the city for a connection and the timetable will be unsuitable for the ones beginning work at 8 a.m. May I ask through your columns just who the Transport Board members are elected to serve: the citizens of Christchurch and its ratepayers or those dwelling outside its boundaries? — Yours, etc.,

S. I. EDEN. ’ November 17, 1982.

[Mr M. G. Taylor, General Manager, Christchurch Transport Board replies: “The change to the Radley route was an economy measure. The numbers of passengers using it had dropped to the point where some cutting back in operating costs had to be made.- This is being obtained by running it in conjunction with the Woolston terminating buses on the Sumner route, instead of as a full branch off the Opawa route. This change would have been made irrespective of whether or not the service extensions to the rural areas had gone ahead. If your correspondent would care to discuss his/her specific requirements with the board’s operations manager, it may prove possible to divert a few trips, during off-peak hours only, to run the old route to meet those requirements.”]

Sir,—The Christchurch Transport Board has evidently spent a lot of time and money advertising the provision of new bus services and changes to timetables of existing ones. It has not bothered to advertise changes to the erratic and incomplete service it offers to Bromley residents. Last Thursday. the driver of the 8.05 a.m. bus told regular customers only that this bus was retimed 7.58 a.m. from next Monday: This, information, and that about other minor changes to the timetable, was prised reluctantly from another ■ board employee later that day. On Monday the bus ran to the usual (later) time. On Tuesday it failed to put in any appearance; it apparently left > even earlier than timetabled. Apologies are dispensed as reluctantly as information from the C.T.8., but I, along with other potential patrons, would prefer a reliable service. — Yours, etc A. J. McNICHOLL. November 17, 1982. [Mr M. G. Taylor, General Manager, Christchurch Transport Board, replies: “In the course of trying to publicise, comprehensively, the service extensions that ,'came into operation on November 15, some concurrent minor changes to existing services were overlooked. The retiming of the Bromley 8.5 a.m. departure to 7.58 a.m. was one of these omissions. The omission having been recognised, the regular operator ‘ was instructed to leave at the old

time on Monday (November 15) and to inform his passengers of the change in timing that would commence the following day. Unfortunately, on the Tuesday, the operator had a wrongly set watch, with the result that the bus left early, at 7.55 a.m. These two mistakes compounded to produce the totally unsatisfactory situation described by your correspondent. I can only apologise to all patrons who were so inconvenienced and assure them that the necessary action has been taken to prevent a repetition.”]