Hi CAW,
I’m back in Wellington as of yesterday and after a few months working at Bicycle Victoria combined with four days of cycling conference and CANDo madness, needless to say I am pumped about people riding bikes in Wellington.
I spoke with Paul Bruce at the conference and he mentioned he was interested in having a meeting with the Tranzrail boss Ross Hayward and the NZBus boss Bruce Emson. He asked if I wanted to go along on behalf of CAW, to attempt to get some positive dialogue going with them both (which I would love to) but I’m aware I’m only recently back and lots may be going on that I am not up to date with.
Firstly, I wondered if people were happy for me to go along with Paul to a meeting and secondly, whether there were any particular issues that they wanted to bring up. The message from both the Australian and New Zealand cycling conferences is that having a good relationship with PT providers is very important and after the bikes on trains saga I think it would be great to attempt to air out some issues and engage with them before anything else crops up. We never got to speak directly with Ross Hayward during the bikes on trains campaign but Paul is confident he could get a meeting set up now. It would also be a good opportunity to say that most of the time we find the train guards very friendly and helpful, that the dropping of the fee was hugely appreciated by people who ride bikes and want to use PT (but the enforced limit has created significant problems) and that we look forward to the introduction of the new trains that are designed to have more space for bikes on trains. The main point however would be just to create a relationship so we had access to talk with them regarding issues in the future.
Thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. If anyone else feels like they would be better placed to speak on behalf of CAW and would rather go along with Paul, no worries, he will just be pleased to have a representative.
Looking forward to seeing you all again at the next meeting,
Claire Pascoe