Council Explores Options to Strengthen Golden Mile

Several options – including the possibility of re-routing buses through Manners Mall – are being explored in a bid to strengthen and simplify Wellington’s Golden Mile.

Over the last month or so, Wellington City Council transport and urban planners have been looking at the feasibility of options to improve the area between Taranaki and Willis streets, including possible traffic flow changes and streetscape improvements.

More work is required on all the options, which include enhancing the existing situation, or running buses in both directions on either Dixon Street, Manners Street or Wakefield Street.

If any options are found to be worthy of more detailed investigation, they will be considered by City Councillors in the next few months. The community would get an opportunity to comment on any major changes proposed for the area before any final decisions are made.

The Council's Urban Development and Transport Portfolio Leader, Councillor Andy Foster, says preliminary work is being done to see if there are benefits in once again running public transport along the Golden Mile by partially re-opening Manners Mall to buses moving at slow speed.

Until the late 1970s, when Manners Mall was created, trams, and later buses, ran the full length of the Golden Mile from the Railway Station, along Lambton Quay, Willis Street and Manners Street to Courtenay Place. In more recent decades southbound and eastbound buses have snaked their way from Willis Street to Courtenay Place via Mercer, Wakefield and Cuba streets before turning into Manners Street, while northbound buses have used Dixon, Victoria and Manners streets.

Cr Foster says the Council is looking at the pros and cons, and what would be involved in once again allowing buses to travel from Willis Street to Courtenay Place via Manners Mall and Manners Street. The aim, if possible, is to come up with changes that are safe and benefit everyone – shoppers, retailers, pedestrians, cyclists, car and bus users.

"We obviously want to consider all the implications and costs, and consult with a wide range of organisations, but there could be potential benefits. The route is more direct and would be easier for visitors and other bus users to negotiate because it would bring buses travelling in opposite directions on to the same streets.

"In Manners Mall, a slow-zone similar to the narrow section of Lambton Quay adjacent to the Old BNZ building is being considered. Reopening Manners Mall to buses would also potentially allow us to develop additional on-street car parks and enhanced pedestrian areas in Lower Cuba Street and improve general traffic circulation."

Cr Foster adds that a reinstated Golden Mile route would also lend itself better to light-rail trains if such transport becomes feasible in the future. "The curves are more gentle – which is more suitable for light-rail."