What's Missing in Christchurch's Public Transport System

One of the significant problems with Christchurch public transport is that it is almost entirely a bus system. There is certainly nothing rapid about the cities mass transit! There is no real 'backbone' to our system that allows quick services along a dedicated corridor which normal bus services feed onto/from.

To illustrate, the number of trips per year made on Christchurch's public transport system is around 17 million (almost all on bus, the rest on one ferry route). In Wellington 35 million trips per year are made on its public transport system, 11 million of which are made by rail. Take away that 11 million and it is 17 million vs 24 million for two cities of similar size. That is still quite some difference (7 million) but not as much as people may have been led to believe. Further, that extra 7 million could be accounted by the fact that buses in Wellington feed onto/from the rail network.

So my point is that we are doing relatively well considering... considering our system doesn't have a backbone! More than anything this example spells out what is wrong with our public transport network, where it still falls short. Unlike Wellington (and Auckland) we don't have dedicated mass transit corridors which our buses can work with, our rail tracks sit quiet all day except for the odd freight train.

Before I get carried away and start talking about bringing rail back I'll stop myself and instead focus on what can be done here and now and at a reasonable price. Most obviously is bringing in a system of express routes that operate frequently and stop only at major centres and popular destinations which other services feed onto. Bus priority measures will also help. I sat on the bus the other day and thought "who would really take this bus?". It was stuck in the same mess as everyone else (for a city of 400 000 people I think Christchurch has pretty bad road congestion). It's really only attractive for short trips, for those who live in inner city suburbs and work in the CBD for example. Otherwise it simply takes too long, and there is little advantage even when factoring in petrol.

If we are going to really get serious about public transport we need to recognise where it's deficiencies are (in comparison to more effective public transport, such as my Wellington example). It's inability to move lots of people quickly is a severe handicap and must be overcome to make our entire transport system operate as it should.