The 2024-2034 Regional Land Transport Plan and Te Tairāwhiti Regional Public Transport Plan have been adopted.
Background
We asked for feedback on our draft plans and received 298 submissions.
We know our roading network's been severely impacted by multiple major storm events over the last 3 years and any new questions or chat about roading can be incredibly frustrating for everyone. There’s a lot of work to do to get our roads back in shape, especially in our rural communities.
We're reviewing our Regional Land Transport and Public Transport plans (RLTP and RPTP) and we've developed a draft Mode Shift Plan and Active Travel Strategy.
The draft Mode Shift Plan and Active Travel Strategy provide supporting strategic direction to inform our planning and investment bids to Waka Kotahi through the 2024 RPTP and RLTP.
The Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP)
The RLTP vision, transport priorities and investment projects have a very strong focus on the basics of a fit-for-purpose transport system – recovery, resilience, asset management, safety and customer choice. The plan represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in a transport network that will be much more resilient to the impacts of severe weather and other natural hazard challenges such as coastal erosion.
The required level of investment to enable recovery and resilience is well beyond the means of the National Land Transport Fund and our ratepayers - it's in the billions of dollars. It's important to note that the RLTP contains all investment proposals that the region wishes to be delivered, irrespective of funding source. Therefore, the plan can also be used to make a compelling case for additional funding from the government, as well as any other sources that emerge over time.
What's different?
We know we need to stick to the basics because there's a lot of work that needs to be done, and affordability is a key concern. There's only minimal changes to levels of service through any additional work for the next 3 years to make sure we can continue to focus on the cyclone recovery work.
Here’s the new projects we think we need to progress over the next 3 years, alongside our existing recovery work:
We know we need to stick to the basics because there's a lot of work that needs to be done, and affordability is a key concern.
Here’s the new projects we think we need to progress over the next 3 years, alongside our existing recovery work:
- We would like to work with our Hawkes' Bay neighbours and look at different options for moving freight and people. This is key for ensuring inter-regional resilience and making sure our businesses can get their products where they need to go.
- We’ve been working on what we need to do to get more people walking and cycling safely around our city and townships. We’ve updated the projected walking and cycling projects to reflect the outcome of that work – a lot of the more expensive projects are currently planned for 2027 onwards.
- Focus more time on encouraging people to use other ways to get around our city and townships that don’t involve jumping in the car. There's so many benefits for people and our community if we used our cars a little bit less each week.
- The heart of our city needs a bit of TLC.
We have a project to start working on the CBD revitalisation including how we move around.
Initially this will be planning and design work, with any construction taking place after everyone's had a chance to have their say.
- A revamped GizzyBus.
We know less people are taking the bus because it's not as convenient as it could be. We’re wanting to explore new bus routes so people can use GizzyBus to get to where they need to go. Also look to increase the number of times the bus goes along these routes each day, and investigate other options such as a weekly fare cap to make sure our service remains affordable.
The draft Mode Shift Plan and Active Travel Strategy provide supporting strategic direction to inform our planning and investment bids to Waka Kotahi through the 2024 RPTP and RLTP.
