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Waikato Regional Council Regional Transport Connections Efficiency and Effectiveness Review
Guiding Waikato's public transport future.
Height partnered with Waikato Regional Council (WRC) to deliver a comprehensive Section 17A efficiency and effectiveness review of public transport services, resulting in a fully ratified set of recommendations to guide future bus contract procurement and investment.
What did WRC want to achieve?
WRC needed to fulfil its Section 17A obligations by reviewing its current public transport delivery model across service delivery, funding and financial exposure, asset ownership, governance, and readiness for the zero-emission transition. The Council sought clear, practical options to improve cost-effectiveness and service outcomes ahead of a major investment decision on the future procurement of public service bus contracts. This required untangling complex, overlapping relationships among WRC, Territorial Authorities, NZTA, bus operators, and elected members, while ensuring any recommendations were grounded in evidence and stakeholder consensus rather than assumption.
How Height helped
Height led the end-to-end delivery of the review, designing a bespoke methodology to maximise engagement across NZTA, WRC staff, and bus operators. The approach combined a comprehensive analysis of contracts, obligations, and mandates with a series of in-person stakeholder workshops structured around eight focus areas: contract scope and specifications; roles and responsibilities; relationships with the community, Iwi, elected members, and stakeholders; resourcing, systems, and governance processes; health, safety, and environment; KPIs and reporting; budget and finance; and communications, collaboration, and culture.
Findings from the desktop review and workshops were synthesised into opportunity statements, which Height then overlaid in a multi-criteria analysis to produce an objective, evidence-based set of recommendations. This process also underpinned Height's assessment of governance effectiveness, testing whether WRC's decision-making arrangements were clear, informed and timely, and identifying opportunities to strengthen role clarity, communication pathways, elected-member reporting, and alignment between service planning, infrastructure delivery and funding decisions. Height specifically recommended strengthening relationships with Elected Members to build a clearer understanding of service delivery constraints and the implications of major decisions, such as the zero-emission bus transition.
Results
Height maintained regular engagement with the Manager and Director of the Regional Transport Connections team throughout the review, ensuring findings were tested and refined before final presentation. The recommendations focused on strengthening long-term planning, clarifying roles and responsibilities, improving collaborative governance with operators and stakeholders, and ensuring that future procurement settings support flexibility, market participation and value for money. Following the presentation of the final report, Council approved and ratified all of Height's recommendations.
Key benefits:
- Fulfilled WRC's Section 17A statutory obligations through a robust, evidence-based review process
- Delivered an objective multi-criteria assessment combining desktop analysis with direct stakeholder input
- Strengthened governance clarity across WRC, Territorial Authorities, operators and central government agencies
- Improved elected member understanding of public transport delivery constraints and major decisions like zero-emission transition
- Produced practical recommendations for future procurement that support flexibility, market participation and value for money
- Achieved full Council approval and ratification of all recommendations.
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