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OUSA, in partnership with the Dunedin City Council (DCC) and Otago Regional Council (ORC), has announced they are working towards an improved Dunedin bus service for students. This will involve simplifying routes and timetables, and addressing student pricing.

The ORC has committed to a two-month trial run with a 25 per cent student discount for early next year. Exact dates, however, are yet to be finalised, as has a method for quantifying the success of the scheme.

“Increasing student usage of the buses is good for two reasons: firstly, it opens up the whole of Dunedin for students to rent and live in, and secondly, it’s good for the environment,” OUSA President Francisco Hernandez told Critic.

“One of the biggest conclusions we drew from OUSA’s DCC Services Survey was that students want a better bus service.”

The initiative complements OUSA’s warmer housing campaign, as it will encourage students to pay the same rent for better places further away.

“The market has had enough time to work [on bus fares and student accommodation]. This addresses some of the market failure stuff, because all of a sudden the nicer places further away, which cost the same as a Hyde Street flat, come into play,” OUSA General manager Darel Hall told Critic.

Critic questioned whether the policy would be successful during its trial run, as students wouldn’t necessarily be willing to move further away at the start of next year if the pricing scheme wasn’t already in place. Hernandez countered that there will be a marketing strategy “with pictures of me on flyers saying what’s happening.”

“We did commit from our end to promote this to the Summer School students, and we’ll put things in our first-year packs and communication, so we will be promoting from late December,” Hall said. “Of course, a lot of the flats are being signed now, but we’ve been pushing for the last few years for people to get into their flats later.”

“We’re de-ghettoing the ghetto,” Hernandez continued. “Actually, that sounds like some form of racial purification policy so don’t write that.”

Hernandez then made an incomprehensible pseudo-German yell and banged his hand on the table.

“I was going to do a parody of Hitler but it might be taken out of context,” he said.