Faster buses are on their way to Wellington

Wellingtonians take over 70,000 bus trips a day and some of those journeys take twice as long as the same trip in a car. We’ve approved the construction of Harbour Quays to make those trips faster and more reliable. Whether you’re catching an express bus along the new route or on your regular bus on the Golden Mile you can expect your trip to be faster.

The numbers

Metlink is yet to decide which buses will move to the new route, but they’re likely to be express and peak only services. For services moving to the new route passengers can expect up to save up to 7 minutes per trip.

For passengers travelling on local services they can expect to save up to 2 minutes per trip. Same bus, same stop, just less time stuck behind busses through the Golden Mile.

We’re halfway there

Last term the Greens delivered more bus lanes than any previous Council. This included progressing the development of the first business case for Harbour Quays. During the election, your now Green Councillors, were the first to campaign on delivering the Harbour Quays project.

On the 17th of September we approved the business case for Harbour Quays which will see construction start in early 2027 and expected to complete and become operational by the end of 2027.

Responding to what you told us

We received over 900 pieces of feedback on Harbour Quays, and Councillor Jonny Osborne did a fantastic job of distilling two pieces of feedback we received.

Better access

Lots of you told us that the Harbour Quays wasn’t going to work for you because you worked or visited the northern end of Lambton Quay. With the closest stop in the previous design at Balance Street we have asked officers to look at including another stop along Whitmore Street. This also provides Metlink with more flexibility during future network reviews. This amendment passed with Councillors Compton, Calvert, Chung, Tiefenbacher and Young voting against.

Better shelter

We also heard people’s concerns that there wasn’t enough shelter between Harbour Quays and the Golden Mile. Councillor Osbornes ammendment has directed our officers to look at installing more shelter, particularly at crossing points leading to bus stops so you can catch your bus rain or shine. Officers will also be looking at commercial opportunities to bring down the cost to ratepayers. This amendment passed with Councillors Calvert and Tiefenbacher voting against.

What’s next?

Construction starts in early 2027, and we expect construction to be completed by the end of 2027, getting you from A to B much quicker.

Once Metlink has moved routes onto the new corridor, we’ll review how the project is performing against its objectives 12 months on. That’ll provide us an opportunity make sure these improvements are working for you.

Who supported the project?

For: Councillor Laurie Foon, Deputy Mayor Ben McNulty, Councillor Matthew Reweti, Councillor Nureddin Abdurahman, Councillor Geordie Rogers, Councillor Rebecca Matthews, Pou Iwi Holden Hohaia, Pou Iwi Liz Kelly, Mayor Andrew Little, Councillor Afnan Al-Rubayee, Councillor Jonny Osborne, Councillor Sam O'Brien

Against: Councillor Nicola Young, Councillor Ray Chung, Councillor Diane Calvert, Councillor Andrea Compton