Time is running out for those who want to have their say on the future of the public transport system in Otago and the Wakatipu Basin.
Submissions on the Otago Regional Council's (ORC) draft regional public transport plan (RPTP) close on Saturday, with only a dozen submissions received to date.
ORC policy and resource planning director Fraser McRae said the draft plan set out proposals for public transport throughout Otago - particularly the Wakatipu Basin and Dunedin - over the next six years, specifying the services provided by buses, taxis, shuttles, private hire vehicles, harbour and lake ferries and trains.
The plan would guide the future development of Otago's public transport network and built on recent service improvements in both Dunedin and Wakatipu.
About 630,000 trips were made annually on the Wakatipu Basin bus network - less than Dunedin's 2.3 million trips, but patronage was increasing.
Despite the Government signalling changes to the legislation governing the funding and operation of public transport, Mr McRae said the ORC was required to proceed with the plan, to ensure there was no delay in the re-tendering of the bus contracts expiring in the middle of next year and beyond.
Otago public transport services were funded in three ways. -Services which received financial support from the ORC and the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), including the contracted bus services in Dunedin and Wakatipu, and Total Mobility services provided by taxi and, in future, also by shuttle.
Special purpose services which received funding from education, health or community agencies, but not from ORC, including school bus services contracted by the Ministry of Education.
Commercially provided services which did not receive any public funding, including some of the services within the Dunedin network and most of those within the Wakatipu Basin network, as well as bus services and shuttles operating within Otago and beyond.
Mr McRae said both the Otago regional land transport strategy 2011 and the draft RPTP anticipated steady but gradual improvements to the two bus networks, as well as gradual increases in patronage.
The draft plan, as well as a summary, could be viewed on the ORC website (www.orc.govt.nz). Submissions close at 5.30pm on Saturday.
Hearings will be held on October 4 and 5, and the final plan will be available in January.
