Wellington icon finally saved, say Greens

green-party

Thu May 10 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Wellington icon finally saved, say Greens

Thursday, 10 May 2007, 5:35 pm
Press Release: Green Party

Embargoed till 4pm, May 10
10 May 2007

Green Party MP Sue Kedgley says she is delighted that a Wellington icon has been saved and that Wellingtonians will soon have a modern fleet of trolley buses to ride around in.

"Wellingtonians have stoically put up with dilapidated trolley buses that are 22 to 26 years old and are well past their use-by date, and its great news that we will now be rewarded with a new fleet," Ms Kedgley says.

"It's unfortunate, however, that the buses are arriving three years after the new fleet was promised, as a result of the glacial pace of negotiations between the Wellington Regional Council and Stagecoach."

Wellingtonians strongly support trolley buses as they are a quiet, sustainable form of transport that uses renewable energy sources and don't emit pollution, Ms Kedgley says.

"It's worth remembering that we have twice thwarted efforts to get the trolley buses removed from Wellington. In the 1980s Dunedin and Auckland got rid of theirs, but Wellingtonians stopped the same thing happening by dint of their protests.

"And we did the same thing a couple of years ago when their future was once again under threat by short-sighted local politicians.

"Now that the future of the trolley fleet is assured, we need to explore even more environmentally friendly options such as using wind energy as a source of electricity generation," Ms Kedgley says.

It will be the end of an era when the last of the hard-working old buses is retired.

"They have carried thousands of Wellingtonians to their destinations, are good for the environment and have continued to work long after their use-by date. We owe them a debt of gratitude," Ms Kedgley says.

ENDS

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