Site chosen for new Bus Exchange
Christchurch City Council has chosen a square block of land in Lichfield
Street, west of Colombo Street, as the site for the city's new Bus
Exchange.
Christchurch Mayor Garry Moore says a new Bus Exchange is needed because
the present exchange is nearly at its capacity. More people are
travelling by bus and bus passenger numbers are expected to increase
further.
The site chosen for the future development of the Bus Exchange is
between numbers 36 and 54 Lichfield Street extending through to Tuam
Street. Council is currently negotiating with owners for its purchase.
Council staff have carried out a detailed and thorough investigation
into a range of options for the site and have identified the Lichfield
Street site as the best option, Garry Moore says.
"Important considerations were proximity to the central city and the
shopping, area and it had to be able to support the bus movements and
services. It also needed to be large enough to meet bus requirements to
2041.''
Council has made a major commitment to public transport, aiming to
double passenger numbers in the next six years. A new larger bus
exchange is necessary to support this projected increase.
Mr Moore says the number of daily passenger trips increased by 47%
between 2001 and 2007, up to 19,000 daily. This is projected to increase
by 21% to 23,000 in 2010.
"The Canterbury Regional Transport Plan and the Metro Strategy in
partnership with Environment Canterbury have committed us to developing
a supporting system of high quality infrastructure,'' he says. "We want
to build a state-of-the-art bus exchange that incorporates the
airport-style facilities that have been so successful in the current
exchange with modern, efficient and internationally-recognised
features.''
"We have really become the victims of our own success,'' Garry Moore
says. "Increased patronage has meant pedestrian congestion in lounges at
peak times as well as passenger/pedestrian conflict and bus/car
conflict.''
"It became imperative to choose a new site that would deal with these
issues while remaining in the central city.''
The bus exchange acts as the main central city bus stop from which
thousands of people get on or off to access central city employment,
shopping, education, leisure and recreation destinations. The exchange
is the first or last point of contact with the bus system for 75% of
passengers so the site for a new exchange had to be as central as
possible to the majority of these destinations.
Advantages of the chosen site are:
* It offers the best bus routing of all options considered
* The large site offers potential for high-quality passenger
facilities
* The large site will meet passenger demands now and long-term
* The site is a relatively short distance from the existing bus
centre and is conveniently placed for future south central growth.
* It offers the best overall option to lead further city-wide
passenger transport growth and to reduce congestion in the central city
and the main routes to it.
"We have set clear time frames to work through the process for its
acquisition and are keen to ensure landowners receive a fair market
value," Mr Moore says.
"The primary focus in the medium term is to make sure the new bus
exchange is up and running by the target date of 2012 and we are working
with Environment Canterbury and Land Transport New Zealand to achieve
this."
As the existing Bus Exchange capacity will be exceeded before 2012, it
will be necessary to refurbish the current site and to plan for further
increase in bus passenger numbers.''