While Wellington’s mayoral candidates have been enduring a rugged schedule of meetings to convince locals they are the right person for the job, the schedule for candidates for the GWRC (Greater Wellington Regional Council) hasn’t been quite as arduous. While I’m familiar with most of our mayoral and council candidates, there were GWRC candidates I hadn’t heard of.
This greatly contrasts with the 2019 election. At the height of the Bustastrophe, all sorts of people put their name forward for the high-profile election. The manifesto of almost every candidate was that they were going to fix the buses. Even some Wellington City Council candidates were going to fix the buses, even though the council is not responsible for their running.
Three years on and our bus system is still munted. The greater part of an evening has been cancelled on some routes, with some commuters facing waits of over 90 minutes. Photos of a whole board of cancelled services have frequently appeared on social media.
