[kimandgareth]

Hi all,

We're off for our reccie soon and plan to spend a few days walking/driving around Wellington to try and pick some potential areas to live as well as general research on the city. We have read a lot about how much better public transport is in Welly, compared to the UK in general and as we're planning on only having one car, we wondered if people use it daily to get to and from work. Does everyone find it efficient/safe/cost effective? It would certainly help us to know if the trains/buses were good to use as it means we could potentially look to live in the suburbs if we end up liking the look of them.

Thanks everyone :)

[Trigirl]

we've lived in brooklyn for the last couple of months. it takes me 45-50 mins to walk to/from work. i find i do it quite often - maybe 6 out of 10 journeys a week. its quite hilly on the way back but it keeps me fit. the bus from here costs $2.50 per journey, or $20 for a 10 journey ticket. they go every 10-15mins or so and the journey itself takes about 15mins plus a 5 min walk at each end. they seem pretty reliable on the way in, less so on the way back.

we've now moved to hataitai (the house became ours on friday but don't actually move in properly till our stuff arrives middle of next week). the walk is a bit shorter but even hillier (over mt victoria) or we can run/cycle around the bays - about 8km. buses run more frequently - about every 5mins - and are the same price. they look as though they probably take the same sort of time as the ones from brooklyn.

im sure others should be able to give you similar info for other suburbs.

[ellenmelon]

hi there,
i live out in miramar and i go to college in newtown.i drive there along the main route (70k zone by the water for a bit, then up a hill and instead of going right to the mt vic tunnel, i go left over the hill and down into newtown).it takes me 15 minutes exactly in rush hour traffic.i drive home through kilbernie and lyall bay to avoid the rush hour traffic at 5pm..and sometimes if im organised and early i drive this way to college. the reason i drive is that my bus fare otherwise is 6 dollars a day..x5 its 30 dollars and that in petrol gets me a heck of a lot further! im lucky that the car i have is very fuel efficient so a full tank of fuel will get me two and from college and a couple of other long trips a week and last me a month at least. (i have a 1987 mazda 323, it was my nana's car so therefore has only just reached 150,000k!! its great). how you get to work depends on whether you have parking either on property or resident car parks..
personally i think that the wellington buses are cr*p and overpriced compared to christchurch where at least you get a return transfer thats useful for 2hours if you pay in cash, and free transfers for the rest of the day if you do two trips using your metro card (think oyster card). the wellington city council have been VERY sneaky the past while, and were trying to pass a motion that meant that for the next ten years they wouldnt spend ANY money on improving the public transport system..it would all go on new roads which i think is balls. this happened on friday so hopefully enough people signed the petition! if you're a third level student in welly its not the best place to be bussing, because they dont have a student discount at all..secondary students do though.
welly however is a very walkable city and most people i know walk to and from college and on occasion bus/drive.the buses, though overpriced, are fairly reliable. i personally drive as i have to lug tools and stuff too and from college and will often have late nights when im packing in/out a theatre and doing projects.

so, a lot of that info wont be relevant to you! :) but thought id reply anyway :)

[Trigirl]

personally i think that the wellington buses are cr*p and overpriced compared to christchurch
but really not when compared to anywhere in the UK! especially london (£3.50 per day to use london buses - or £6.60 for a one day zones1-2 travelcard to use the tubes too). plus you can actually get on the buses here without having to pretend to be a sardine and 99% of the time you get a seat.

the most you can ever have to pay in wellington is $95 a month - that is a monthly bus pass for unlimited travel around zones1-3 of wellington city so although it might cost $6 a day, if you were actually travelling to work that way every day it would only cost $4.50 a day (assuming a normal 21 working day month?)

but i guess how you view public transport really depends on what you are used to so if christchurch was cheaper and better than welly then thats what forms your view - i'm not trying to say that your view is wrong and buses are certainly not perfect - just that coming from the uk the public transport here is really a big step in the right direction!

[incredible hulse]

I'm based up in Paraparaumu and get the trains in. They are generally reliable (never arrive into Welly on time but generally only 5-10 mins late), and run every 20 mins or so peak times. When they do go wrong however they can be pretty bad as they have single track in places and the communication to passengers is dire. Can get a seat 99% of the time. Cost wise - a monthly ticket has just gone up a hell of a lot and now costs 216 dollars. I find in real terms that's about the same costs as the UK as I used to have a ticket from Surrey -> London for the same length journey for about the same cost in sterling. (They don't give you renewal discounts here though for missing targets)

[sizzlingbadger]

OH travels in from Featherston to Wellington everyday. It's an hour each way and usually very reliable, only been late a handful of times in two years which is much better than the UK trains I've used :) It's $286 for a monthly ticket considering that when driving and parking in Wellington for the day it's not bad. A lot of people use it regularly and OH has meet quite a few people on the train he now sees outside of work :clap

Have at www.tranzmetro.co.nz there's also www.metlink.org.nz/section10.php which will give you all the public transport details in Wellington.

[Anita & Marco]

My partner and me live in Karori and walk as often as possible to either CBD/Courtenay Place - both taking 45 minutes one way.

We could also take the bus, with would normally take anything between 15 - 45 minutes depending on waiting time and traffic.

Commuting by car is about 10 minutes - parking charges around $10 per day.

Cheers,
Anita

[Huttvalleypom]

I commute into central Wellington from Waterloo (Hutt Central) in Lower Hutt. Single fare is $4.00 ($3.00 off peak) or $32.00 for a ten-trip ticket or $96.00 for a monthly pass. Services are plentiful and the journey takes 18 minutes on the Express service which travels directly from Waterloo into Wellington without stopping. The rolling stock is a trainspotters delight with a mixture of Hungarian carriages from the early 1980s to English Electric trains from the 1940s. The infrastructure is creaking but it is a better set up than many comparable cities around the World. Most of the stations have free parking.

OH drives Lower Hutt to Newtown, Wellington outside of the rush hour with the journey taking around 20-25 minutes. If this were in the rush hour you could easily double that travelling time.

Russell

[barryp]

I'm a bit of a public transport zealot and fancier (visiting a new city, I like to ride the bus and train as a form of entertainment). My take is that the system, as a whole, works pretty smoothly most of the time and is fairly cost-effective if you work in the CBD and travel during peak weekday times. There are some significant glitches right now - the bus company still does not have enough drivers to meet routing changes made two weeks ago, and the inner city bypass has added to congestion for all vehicles as it's not fully operational. Both should work themselves out after much grumbling.

I don't think I'd recommend relying on public transport for a reccy trip, if your intent is to check out suburbs. If time is tight, you will cover much more ground with a rental car.

The secret mode of commuting in Wellington city is by scooter - there are plenty of free parking areas in the CBD. (Depends on one's risk tolerance; I prefer not being run over by cars and trucks.) The other odd but not so secret commuting mode is walking - it's quite possible to walk to work, and a number of colleagues do regularly, depending on where you live.

My bus is 35min each way at most - door to door from North Antarctica (the southernmost part of Island Bay) to Parliament. Not bad for $95 per month.

[kimandgareth]

Thanks for all the info everyone, that really helps. It sounds like its good to walk if you can (which I'd love to do) or you can take the train or bus so that leaves lots of options open to us which is wonderful.

We have a rental for the reccie Barry, partly because we're doing some South Island travelling before getting to Welly :) Its interesting about the scooters - I think I'd have to give it a miss though, I've got so used to driving in Milton Keynes (which has to be the easiest place to drive in the world), that I'd probably be on a scooter for 10 minutes before either falling off or driving into something!! :laugh

[Avalon]

Also worth noting that the Carriages on the Wairarapa line are going to be upgraded this year. So they will be more comfy and I hear that there is also going to be a buffet car on board (not sure if thats worth anything though - would be dangerous for me if they serve proper coffee!)

[Big Puku]

Don't know about central Wgtn suburbs, but I used to get the train in everyday from Plimmerton ($144 a month or $12 return) and it used to take ~25 mins and was really reliable/no probs with getting a seat.

Now that we live in Upper Hutt I take the bike, 20 mins each way (takes approx. 40 mins on the train - 30 mins by car, up to an hour when traffic is really bad tho).

Matt

[wanderingoregonian]

I did a lot on my reccy trip by public transport. If you start your day after 9 am, you can ask for a day tripper pass for 6 dollars and can get on and off the bus as much as you want.

When I came, I took a bus up to wilton, then walked to Karori, hiked around the santuary up there, and then wandered down through Kelburn to catch the cable car. I also have taken the 3 bus from Karori all the way to Lyall Bay which gives a bit of an overview of a variety of different close suburbs - and touches near the Pak n Save, the water, the CBD and the edge of the botantical gardens.

Definetely get a map at a local petrol stations so that as you wander around, however you choose to do it, you can understand where you are. There are plenty of places where it takes 10 minutes to drive, and less to walk because there are tons of pedestrian short cuts. The map is also very helpful if you don't buy a day pass as you'll need to tell the driver were you are going, and if you don't know because you are just traveling, you can point to an area on the map - then they can calculate your fare and make change for you on the bus!

Thanks also to whomever posted about the sneaking welly council. I had no idea that happened, and think that is a terrible idea. I love public transport, and the freedom of getting on and off whenever I want - that and being able to see the world around me rather than focus on traffic. A city like Wellington really needs good public transport as there is only so much road development you can do on these hills. Well in my personal opinion all cities need great public transport to deal with the realities of so many people living close together, let alone the enviromental impacts ... okay back to setting up my new flat

[sarahw]

Paremata - drive in or train - hubby car-pools with colleague in company truck so commuting for him is free unless he has to take his car for meetings at head-office (works on building sites).