October 2014 Raglan Community Board results from 378 Long Term Plan survey forms forms priority 237 Continued development of footpaths in Raglan 185 A heated swimming pool 158 Additional areas for parking in the CBD 143 A new footpath from Whale Bay to Manu Bay 135 Public transport – increase bus services to & from Hamilton

You might recall that in December you received the minutes of the RCB, including a report on its October survey. That survey got about ¼ of the town responding. There is some doubt in Raglan as to whether WDC is serious about your new Community Engagement Strategy. It seems to me that the best way to show that you are is to listen to at least what the Raglan survey showed as the top 5 priorities and not, as the staff recommendation does, dismiss them as too expensive, can't consider a cheaper alternative, it's not our job, or other excuses. I can well appreciate that in the rush of getting this LTP done that survey may have got overlooked and the quickest way to do a staff response is to copy what you've said before. But now is your opportunity to say whether you're serious about this new strategy, or whether it's just window dressing. Listening to you? Ignoring you? Which? There are 5 issues here, and I've included many more in my submission, but I've only 10 minutes, so I'll talk about the last one here, buses.

January 2017 start of new Raglan bus contract

The other issues can be dealt with another year, but the Raglan bus contract is coming up for renewal in 2017, so if it's not sorted now, it'll be best part of another decade before it's sorted out. And there's plenty to sort out - passengers standing – everyone else can be fined for not wearing a seat belt, but on a winding road at 90kph, there's only a windscreen between these standing passengers and the road. The luggage area is inadequate for tourists and surfboards and the infrequency of the bus puts passengers off visiting Raglan.

WDC’s submission to the Regional Transport Plan read “The Raglan service will continue to be monitored to ensure safe travel for school and commuter passengers as the demand increases. A recent resident survey has identified hat 35% of respondents consider public transport as one of the top priorities for the town. Resumption of the Sunday bus service is an option that Council would like to see considered.” WRC's response was “any change to service levels for Raglan bus route (e.g. weekend or evening services) is contingent on the additional funding being confirmed by WDC and the NZ Transport Agency. Waikato Regional Council will work with our funding partners to assess the feasibility of a scheduled Sunday service for Raglan.”

The staff recommended response to my submission is that Public transport is predominantly a Regional Council issue. That should be true, but it's not. People get on WRC because they're interested in dirty rivers, resource consent and the like, not because they like running buses. And of course it's the same with you. But Raglan is interested in buses and you say you have a Community Engagement Strategy. And WDC asked for some of the right things from WRC – safety, Sunday bus, provision for more passengers, but, as my submission said “WRC's response to WDC's submission effectively says nothing will change unless WDC pays for it. But I don't think that need be true either. WRC has only recently realised what a poor deal it got with the last Raglan bus contract. It's paying about twice what it should.

bus 1 3 4 1 2 3 4 2 3 4 1 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 2 4 3 2

Raglan 06:00 06:45 07:10 07:30 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00

Hamilton 06:45 07:45 08:10 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 11:00 11:30 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00

14:30 15:00

15:30 16:00

16:00 16:30 17:00 18:10 19:00 20:30 22:15

17:00 17:30 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:15 23:15

load 2.08 38.88 10.4 46.24 14.32 2 15.66 7.64

Hamilton 06:45 07:45 08:10 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00

Raglan 07:30 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:30 11:00

1.84 0.04

12:00 13:00 13:30 14:00

13:00 14:00 14:30 15:00

0.08

15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:10 17:40 18:00 19:00 20:30 21:15 23:15

16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:10 18:40 19:00 20:00 21:30 22:15 00:15

21.3 44.84 10.8 11.52 17.6 21.66 1 3 0.2 1.2 2.2

0.04 0.48 0.48 2

0.24 0.16

load 1.24 0.08 3.36 0.48

6.2

Bus subsidies also depend on how many passengers you get paying fares. These are the results from a 2002 survey done jointly by WDC and WEC. On buses there was an even bigger response than to the RCB survey – 212. From that it was calculated the extra fares would pay for this bus timetable; many more than the current 3 a day each way. That survey's out of date and needs to be done again before the 2017 contract starts. You can't get a new value for money contract without a fair idea of demand, willingness to pay and cost of what you're buying

The only thing that came out of that survey was that we got weekend buses back. No one ever said why the rest wasn't acted on. I suspect the view was that Kiwis don't want buses, so there must be something wrong with the survey. But now again we have Raglan putting buses in the top 5. So I want to spend most of the time I've got left looking at why the survey was right. It's said Kiwis don't want buses because we're a rural country. Not true. Look at the top here. 86% of us live in urban areas, among the highest in the world, but totally out of line with public transport use elsewhere.

So maybe it's because we have such a big country and so few people in it. Again not true. This time, look at the bottom. The other low density countries use much more public transport.

So why? I think it's because those arguments were true when public transport got going a century ago. Then we were rural and low density. But look how much it's changed, that green line's virtually static, but not the red one - yet public transport hasn't changed like that.

Yes, we've got more modern buses, but the timetable has changed little since these buses were running.

You can't use a bus if it's not there. The classic case for poor prediction of public transport was Union Steamship. They said too few used the Picton service to justify more than a daily sailing. Here we can see the difference in size of the Lyttelton and Picton ferries. But the railway ferries proved them wrong and Union Steamship is history.

When Britomart new railway station was planned in Auckland prediction was way below what passengers really wanted.

And more recently the same is true of Auckland's Northern busway.

Maybe I can also put in a plea for Raglan's bus to again advertise Raglan, rather than being in its current plain blue.

Is there any way to get to Raglan by bus or tour? 08 April 2011, 3:30 We are hoping not to have to rent a car so that we can just sit back and enjoy the scenery, but I'm having a hard time finding a way to see Raglan without this. I did find a tour with Stray that heads there, but then the tour also makes some stops that we don't want to see and would be tricky to fit into our timeline, so thought I'd try to customize our own! Raglan seems to be the snag in all of this so if anyone has any suggestions that would be great! I had been looking forward to a lie-in and staying in Raglan for an extra day but sadly the bus behind me was full so I had to keep on trucking with my current bus rather than be stranded in Raglan

Because the bus is good for Raglan's main industry, tourism. And here's some website examples of why people miss Raglan, or don't stay as long. As it says, Raglan seems to be the snag in all this.

And here it is in picture form. You might not be interested in buses. Most people aren't. In every country only a minority use them. But in this country that minority is about ten times smaller than the rest of the world. The only real difference is that we don't have buses to use. Do a survey. Use Survey Monkey. Get people like me to help with it. Get the 2017 contract right. Save ratepayers' money and show that you are listening to your communities. And as I usually end my radio show, “Thank you for listening, if you have been.”