Stoke bus interchange decision made at Hearings Panel

The location of the new bus interchange in Stoke will be outside the Turf Hotel on Main Road Stoke, just one of the changes to bus stop locations that have occurred as a result of community feedback heard by today’s Hearing Panel at Nelson City Council.

Council received more than 200 pieces of feedback on the 111 new bus stops that will be part of the new eBus network launching on August 1.  

Most changes proposed through public feedback were accepted, and as a result Council has decided to adjust, remove or provide an alternative location for 24% of the originally proposed stops. 

Deputy Mayor Rohan O’Neill-Stevens says today’s decisions show that Council is listening to the public as it rolls out one of the biggest changes to public transport for Nelson in a generation. 

“The new service is a considerable upgrade for Nelson with many more buses, on new routes, leaving every 30 minutes. The process we have gone through over the past month, culminating in today’s decisions, is a good example of the democratic process. I believe we now have a solid compromise between effective bus stops and routes for the new service and the needs of local residents and businesses.” 

The decision to locate the interchange outside the Turf Hotel was made after a series of public and one-on-one meetings with Stoke businesses.  

“Stoke businesses proposed the location outside the Turf Hotel and while there are pros and cons to any location, this was a workable alternative to the original location,” says O’Neill-Stevens.  

“The new interchange needs to be centrally located to provide people with a quick change from Route 1 to Route 2, or to transfer from the Stoke OnDemand service. The Turf location isn’t quite as close to Strawbridge Square as the location outside Blind Low Vision, so bus passengers will have a little further to walk to reach shops and services, but we feel this is a reasonable compromise.” 

With the interchange placed outside the Turf Hotel, Route 2 will now carry on past the Songer Street intersection and turn left at Putaitai Street before heading on to Nayland Road (via Neale Avenue/Songer Street), bringing a half-hourly bus service to the large residential catchment of Stoke West.  

“This new route will allow thousands of people in Stoke West to take the bus to Tahunanui, Nelson City Centre, Richmond and Stoke Central, and they can do that every 30 minutes, between 7am and 7pm, 7 days a week.” 

The other major changes were for adjustments on Route 3 on Emano Street, Murphy Street, and Jenner Road where residents expressed concerns about loss of parking and that Jenner Road was too narrow to run a bus down safely. 

The bus will still run along this route, but the bus stops on Jenner Road will be removed. 

Further improvement to bus stops will take place throughout the next few years taking into account demand and usage.