The Otago Peninsula Community Board is backing a resident’s call for the Otago Regional Council to make changes to its town bus service on the peninsula.
Broad Bay resident Lucy Atkinson wrote to the community board to ask for its support to request changes be made to the service.
The suggested changes were to put a bus stop with a shelter on the corner of Portobello Rd and Portsmouth Dr, start the 7.57am service from Portobello five minutes earlier, start the halfhourly afternoon service from New World in Great King St at 3.08pm instead of 4.08pm and install a bus shelter at the Glengyle St stop.
‘‘These changes fit with the existing timetable and will create new passengers for the bus service,’’ she wrote.
‘‘The changes add considerable value to the bus service, are sustainable and highly beneficial to the Peninsula residents.’’
The earlier start would mean Bayfield pupils would be able to get to school on time, she wrote.
At last week’s community board meeting chairman Paul Pope said he had forwarded the email to Otago Regional Council support services manager Gerard Collings and Dunedin City Council transport group manager Richard Saunders.
After the meeting, he said only subtle changes would need to be made it make the route better, since the ORC changed from the school bus service to the town service.
Mr Collings said he had been in ‘‘direct discussions’’ with the DCC regarding the Portobello Rd and Portsmouth Dr bus stop.
The ORC was also ‘‘seriously considering’’ starting the 7.57am service five minutes earlier and moving the half-hourly service forward an hour, he said.
Any changes would most likely occur at the same time as the introduction of the bus hub, as rescheduling the whole timetable would take a lot of time, he said.
Mr Collings said installing a shelter in Glengyle St would be subject to availability of space.
‘‘Certainly a shelter on that stop would be something we will look at.’’
