Perhaps its time to replace Fran based on her lack commitment to what Wellington needs now, not 10 years from now. Isn't it funny that Fran starts out with these great statistics:

"Twenty-nine per cent of people travel through the Wellington CBD by bus but less than 5 per cent of road space is dedicated to buses. Cars account for 46 per cent of people travelling through the same area, with 72 per cent of road space."

Instead of tearing up the roads for cars to put buses Fran tears up the the walking spaces for buses... http://www.wellington.govt.nz/projects/new/goldenmile/routechanges.html

What does Councillor Wilde base her opinion on, that we are not ready for light rail? We were ready for it 20 years ago. The regional council of the early 1990s was ready to adopt light rail, then a change of incumbents meant that it was conveniently forgotten.

Dedicating more space to buses through the CBD won’t help in the least. They already have complete right of way heading south in the bottleneck of Willis St, yet 6 or more still bank up nose-to-tail at peak times.

So we are forced to conclude that we need higher capacity vehicles. But what? Buses with two or three trailers through the narrow streets of Wellington?

Another impediment in our public transport system is the change from trains to buses forced on those who are coming in from J’ville, the Hutt and the Kapiti Coast and wanting to go into town, which adds at least 10 minutes to the trip into town and must surely force many people to use their cars instead. This is a major inconvenience to a very large number of commuters (just stand in the railway station one morning and watch them coming out of the trains like a herd of sheep!) but you will note that Councillor Wilde doesn’t even mention this. How are we going to overcome this? Can the “future buses” in Councillor Wilde’s imagination help here at all?

The answer should be obvious to anyone not wearing blinkers. It has to be light rail. Germany pioneered the use of “tram-train” 20 years ago in Karlsruhe, where the same vehicles go through city streets and pedestrian malls, then seamlessly continue onto the heavy rail system doing 100 kph or more. Imagine going from the airport to Upper Hutt or Paraparaumu without getting out of your seat!

One tram-train has as much capacity as 4 or 5 buses (present or imaginary future buses!) and they can be coupled together to provide even more capacity. They are ideal for narrow, densely-used transport corridors such as Wellington has. These vehicles have been well tried and proven. All possible problems have been ironed out, including voltage changes, signalling, anything you can and can’t think of.

Instead of this, Councillor Wilde talks about technology which is in its infancy, is still very much experimental and riddled with problems, and costs an arm and a leg because of the very fact that it is new and untried, and therefore not in common use. Light rail is cheap in comparison to some of the ideas she puts forward.

Another weak excuse put forward for not considering light rail in the next 10 years, is that they can’t easily integrate light rail with buses. What poppycock! The current problems are caused by so many bus routes (35 at last count) squeezing through the CBD bottleneck at peak times. Replace these with a few tram-trains, and have shuttle services commencing from different points along the main route servicing each destination (these can be as small as mini-buses depending on demand). For example, the Island Bay route would be a shuttle service commencing from the hospital which would be served by tram-train. Simple!

And yet another advantage of tram-train: Level boarding for prams, wheelchairs and mobility vehicles. But then again, perhaps the “future buses” currently found only in Ms Wilde’s imagination will provide that, too, as they are guided electronically (but cheaply!) to their platforms which cost nothing to construct.

Christchurch and its progressive forward-thinking mayor have shown us the way and disproven the myth that laying rails has to be expensive. Does anyone see the paradox here? In the same breath, Ms Wilde talks about “the additional cost of having to lay rails” and buses with “electronic guidance to dock at platforms”. Does she think these untried guidance systems come free?

And what about energy efficiency? Even if these “future buses” run on electricity, it is an irrefutable fact that steel wheels running on steel rails are much more energy efficient than rubber tyres running on asphalt. Just look up www.strickland.ca and click on “efficiency of different modes of transportation”.

So why are the current incumbents not sympathetic to light rail? You only have to look at their record. Look up http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/2702005/Forget-trains-try-carpooling and you will find another opinion piece written by Fran Wilde in July 2009 where she absolutely condemns rail transport and suggests, of all things, that car pooling is the solution. Yeah, right.

And a final thought about fares. We don’t need these fancy cards that scan but don’t scan as we get on and again as we get off – just another delay in the process of getting on and off. Stopping time at each stop should never exceed 30 seconds (and I agree, the stops should be further apart). You purchase your ticket (or book of tickets) from a machine or the local dairy and after you board (not during), you cancel your ticket by putting it into a slot in one of several on-board machines. Random ticket inspections and hefty fines would keep everyone honest. Not rocket science, is it?

The solution is really in our hands. Come election time, we must make sure the people we vote for are really tuned in to what is required and are willing to listen open-mindedly to ideas outside of their knowledge and experience, and make the right decisions with an open mind, casting aside their own prejudices and preconceived ideas.

Whatever alternative is preferred, must be operated by private companies. Keep all the bureaucrats away from it or there will be another Railways disaster. Public servants and councils must be kept away from anything that is competitive.

I think I find it embarrassing when 3rd world countries can afford to have a light rail transit system when you can't have it in Wellington. I mean you can have a central train system that connects you to the airport in Singapore and in Malaysia and there's none in Wellington. Its a bit tad embarrassing.

I cannot believe that we have put integrated ticketing into the long term plan. To have one cashless card which is accepted on all buses, trains and ferries will make travel around Wellington easier and further encourage different transport modes work together. Integrated ticket is a very high priority in Auckland as their regional council has been strongly pushing for transport improvements and sees integrated ticketing as one of them. If its good enough for Auckland's pathetic transport system, why isn't it good enough for ours?

Try making more people walk through the central city. I get sick and tired of lazy people delaying a bus while they get on at Courtenay Place only to travel 2 stops. Plus they seem blissfully unaware that certain buses don't pick up through the city, and will argue with any driver who tells them they can't get on.

@bjb: I hear you, I've traveled to Berlin a couple of times and the first time I came back to Wellington I thought "Why don't we have a system like that??"

In my experience in the UK, multiple bus stops at each location are a fantastic idea, you avoid the problems of buses having to stop twice at each stop. And please please bring on the real-time displays at each bus stop- they tell you how long you truly are going to be waiting until the next bus- not just the fantasyland timetable.

My main gripe is that there are far too many bus stops and that the buses get caught in traffic in Courtenay place, Manners and Willis Streets. With the manners mall re-jig and more bus priority lights (please), it should be a lot quicker to get down the golden mile...

"Cashless fares, off-bus ticket machines and all-door loading are longer-term options. Wellingtonians will be asked for feedback on these suggestions this year" imagine, being innovative enough to think of cashless fares, and ticket machines outside the buses. When I lived in Berlin, most if not all bus stops (even the very small ones) had ticket machines on the pavement, that was 16 years ago. sure it is the same in many cities. Presumably the feedback will be "great to see Kiwi Ingenuity in action" or should that be Kiwi "inaction"

Welcome to New Zealand - please set your clock forward 12 hours and wind your calendar back 30 years.