I was excited about not taking my car to work today. I was waiting at the bus stop outside my apartment block at 7am. By 7:30, I was slightly more than angry. In the span of less than 12 hours, I went from proclaiming the benefits of public transportation to being a victim of the system. Day 1 has been a failure.

I’d done some research beforehand. I had determined that the best route to take to work would require 2 buses and an hour for each direction. That’s not too bad, all things considered. I was looking forward to having time to sit and read. I’d bought the $80/month GoldPass, which I’d believed would cover Wellington City and the Eastbourne Connector, which would run past the office. This was working beautifully until the Eastbourne driver told me that I was wrong and I couldn’t catch his bus with my pass. While it’s true that I could ride that bus, I could not take it north of the train station, which is the direction that I needed to go. I ended up having to find an ATM to cover the $4.50 to catch the next (and last) bus to work.

My $80 mistake (in buying the pass that I bought) was due to misreading the website (check out this page layout. The screenshot was taken from Internet Explorer in case there were rendering difference between platforms). There is a PlatinumPass, for $149 that does what I had expected my GoldPass to do. (Coincidentally, the randomiser just brought up the perfect song: Morcheeba – Daylight Robbery.) Alternatively, there is an $80 GoRider that can be used in Hutt Valley. I don’t know if I can use it to catch a bus from Wellington, however, and it seems that it can only be purchased from a bus driver.(?!) I can’t believe how user-unfriendly this experience is turning into.

I have to work through the numbers again. It might not be worth taking buses at all. At the current price of fuel, it looks like it will be about the same price to drive as to take the bus, if I assume the $149 PlatinumPass. I need to talk to an actual person and ask questions that have answers. I tried this morning, but the man at the train station didn’t believe there was anyone I could talk to.

It’s a safe bet that I’ll be driving to work tomorrow. I don’t need the stress of a bus system that makes itself painful to use. I’ll try again once I find out how to catch a bus without spending $10/day. I’m sure I’ll be coming back to this topic again and again over the coming weeks. I have a lot of things to say about public facilities and the effort to stop relying on private vehicles for daily transportation.