Palmerston North’s new electric bus service, offering twice as many trips as the current timetable, has been designed to get a whole new demographic of commuters out of their cars and saving money.
Horizons Regional Council chairperson Rachel Keedwell and passenger transport committee chairman Sam Ferguson are talking up their vision for a city with fewer cars and less carbon emissions.
The new bus network, due to be launched on February 19, is already under attack from those who will have to walk further to catch a bus on one of the newer, more direct routes with fewer stops.
The councillors said they understood there was concern from those who would lose a bus stop near their front gate, but they could not afford to maintain all current services as well as increase frequency on others.
Their focus was on the people who currently did not use public transport because the current routes were too complicated, too infrequent and the buses were too slow to reach their destination.
