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by Paul Taylor, Lakes Weekly Bulletin

How stupid is the proposal to axe Queenstown’s free school buses? On a scale of 1 to so-dumb-it’s-painful, this takes the biscuit.

While the future of Queenstown’s entire under-pressure transport network relies on ‘modal shift’ - horrible council jargon for bus, bike or walk rather than drive - some absolute muppets at the Ministry of Education are looking at cuts to a service that already keeps cars off the roads. Something that actually works to reduce congestion. Hundreds of kids from Wakatipu High School and seven primary schools across the basin catch these buses. God knows how many SUVs that keeps off the school run. God knows how many hours a week this gives back to hard-working parents.

The idea is that children will catch the public bus service instead. But there will be very few parents who’ll happily wave goodbye to six-year-old little Johnny as he jumps on the Orbus packed with tourists and itinerant workers. Parents aren’t going to risk it. They’ll drive instead. So will many high school parents. Which means more congestion, longer commutes, more emissions, more frazzled parents, more sick days, as well as the knock-on costs to businesses of traffic delays, and, of course, more reputational damage for Queenstown as a tourist destination.

I’d say there must be some pencil pusher at the MoE, or even Education Minister Erica Stanford, capable of thinking ‘hold on, if we cut the school buses, we’ll only have to spend more on public buses and roads and bridges’. But it doesn’t work like that. Not my department. The public buses are funded by Otago Regional Council, QLDC and NZTA, while roads and bridges are funded on a ‘how hard can you beg?’ system.

It seems the grand plan is to push as much cost as possible on to the direct user and councils. Rather than a free service, which ultimately benefits society as a whole, parents will pay hundreds more dollars a year to get their kids to school by hook or by crook. If the roads get too busy - here’s some congestion charging! Anything to reduce the direct cost to Central Government.

What’s worse, the Government is also asking councils to boost the percentage of public transport operating costs covered by passenger fares, to 40%. So, the days of $2 buses and subsidised fares could be numbered. Worse still, this school bus decision isn’t being made with community input. The Ministry says it’ll consult with schools - not parents. Not the people stuck in traffic. Not the ones who’ll end up paying the price in fuel, time, and frustration.

Yes, anyone who’s happily cocooned in an SUV, rather than modal shifting, is to blame for the traffic. But at least give us a fighting chance. At least don’t cut services that are reducing traffic.