The regional council will split the cost with Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency to provide additional funding of $1.85 million per year to allow bus operators to top up all driver wages to at least the living wage. A total of 318 drivers, or more than half of bus drivers in the Wellington region, are currently being paid a base rate less than the living wage. “That seems to me to be basically unfair. When we think about the job of a bus driver, it’s a hard job, it’s a skilful job, it has high accountability for public safety. It’s unfair at the moment that half of our bus drivers are not on the living wage,” regional councillor Roger Blakeley said.
CHRIS SKELTON/Stuff
Some houses in Redwood are within 100 to 200 metres of the new Northern Corridor, which opened late last year.
Pleas by residents to reduce the noise from a new Christchurch motorway are being supported by their local MP and the city council, with both now calling for a temporary speed limit reduction to lower noise. Residents who live near the new $290 million Northern Corridor have complained of being woken early in the morning by the noise of cars. Some say the noise has affected their mental health. On Wednesday, Christchurch central Labour MP Dr Duncan Webb said in a public newsletter that he had written to the chief executive of Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), asking them to consider a temporary speed limit reduction on the motorway.
Matthew Hooton: Michael Wood, light rail and the new role that could wreck a career
8 Apr, 2021 05:00 PM
6 minutes to read
Transport Minister Michael Wood. Photo / Alex Burton
NZ Herald
OPINION: If the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, then Transport Minister Michael Wood s announcement of an Establishment Unit for light rail makes him certifiable.
The same officials, from the same agencies, will do the same analysis, based on the same basic facts and assumptions, that they ve been doing for a decade. Despite their best efforts – and those of the investment bankers and project managers at the Super Fund and CDPQ Infra – no one has been able to make the engineering, economics, environmental impact, politics and construction plan add up.
Renewable LPG can supply New Zealand’s LPG needs and achieve the emissions reductions proposed by the Climate Commission without the need to ban new connections, a new study shows. The investigation, by leading consultancy Worley, was prepared for the . More The Government’s new initiatives to quell the rocketing housing market were announced last week, just as house prices hit a new high for the end of March. The average value increased 7.8% nationally over the past three-month period, up from the 6.8% . More March 30, 2021 An original and rare piece of art by secretive British street artist Banksy has sold at auction in Auckland for $1.7 million, making it the most expensive work by a contemporary artist ever sold in the country. Keep It Real had been predicted . More
Wellington short of 50 bus drivers, service cancellations continue nzherald.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nzherald.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.