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Monday, April 29, 2024

David Farrar: $1.2 million bus stops!


The Post reports:

The full costs of a post-Let’s Get Wellington Moving capital are becoming clear with leaked details showing new bus stops costing more apiece than a house and a further $57 million for two new bus lanes.

This week Wellington City councillors were emailed a breakdown of transport projects going to the Government, via Waka Kotahi, to get funding under the National Land Transport Programme.

It comes after the new National-led Government pulled the pin on the $7.4 billion Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) transport overhaul for the capital. It was to be funded by Waka Kotahi, the Wellington City Council, and Greater Wellington Regional Council.

It shows the regional council is currently budgeting $12m for new bus shelters and information boards along the Golden Mile, from Courtenay Place to the railway station. The regional council has confirmed that money was for 10 new stops, eight of which had shelters, making for an average of $1.2m per stop.

Incredible. Ratepayers are being charged more to build a bus stop than most people pay for their homes. Are they making them from vibranium?

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.

4 comments:

Robert Arthur said...

the cost includes cone hire. Watching council workers today I often wonder what became of the Time and mMotion studies of 50 and more years ago. The current motivation seems to be to employ as many as possible, with a profit on each unit charged for.

DeeM said...

Someone's making a load of moolah out of this kind of work.
They know a sucker when they see one - a sucker who has its mouth firmly latched on to the taxpayer/ratepayer teat and won't let go.

This blatant financial mismanagement and negligence has to stop. The average Kiwi is being taken for a ride by our public service and the time to spit the dummy is now.

Anonymous said...

This is sheer lunacy. No doubt fuelled by the lefties and the left leaning nutcase wgtn council .

I have no idea what a bus stop should cost but with the admin and bureaucracy I'm not entirely surprised at the figure. The cost of the stop will be $100k, the other $1.1m bureaucracy traffic mgmt and cones etc.

Allan said...

Yes, from observation most road works seem to have too large a percentage of workers with a post graduate degree in leaning on a shovel.