The Greater Wellington Regional Council is spending $64 million on a new, largely uncovered bus depot that will soon draw more power than all the homes in three neighbouring suburbs.
The council was getting briefed on Tuesday on plans to tender for bus operators – a process that when last done was dubbed a “bustrastrophe” and a “lasagne of failures” – but this time the council is pledging to avoid past pitfalls.
Regional Council chairperson Daran Ponter said there were no immediate plans to return to directly running buses – as now permitted under rules brought in by the last government – but the council was taking steps to bring some aspects in house by getting its own leased depots in Kenepuru, Landfill Road by the Wellington tip, Karori, and Miramar.
