Queenstown's privately owned Connectabus company is having
discussions with the Otago Regional Council over operating
new bus services in the resort from July 1. Photo supplied.
Queenstown's long-awaited new bus services look set to
begin from July 1 - and may well be operated by Connectabus.
The Otago Daily Times on Tuesday reported the Otago
Regional Council's draft annual plan proposed a targeted rate
of about $526,000 for Queenstown ratepayers in the 2010-11
financial year for the extra bus services.
The services were to have started last November, but were
delayed because the ORC was waiting on funding approval from
the New Zealand Transport Agency.
The ORC applied for $2.45 million to fund its Wakatipu
Transport Strategy, which included plans to expand transport
services, in April last year.
Preliminary funding for the three-year trial was approved by
NZTA in November and the services are now due to begin on
July 1.
They will include bus routes served by Connectabus, a private
Queenstown company, but if negotiations are successful the
routes will be extended to include more residential areas at
Kelvin Heights, Arthurs Point, Goldfield Heights, Quail Rise
and Lake Hayes Estate.
The funding will also go towards marketing and timetable
information, bus shelters on feeder routes, electronic
ticketing, three "real-time" information boards and
transponders on all buses.
ORC policy and resource planning director Fraser McRae, of
Dunedin, said the council was in negotiations with
Connectabus to run the extensions as "integral parts of a
network in Queenstown".
"They are the only commercial operator in the area at the
moment."
Who would set fares - and how much those fares cost - was
being negotiated.
"The service that's going in isn't competing with the current
service . . . it's extending that service into the
residential areas.
"It will mean more buses and it may well mean different
styles of buses . . . there may be smaller buses used."
Connectabus owner Ewen McCammon said discussions with the ORC
were "coming to a conclusion".
If the negotiations were successful, six new buses would be
required to service the extended routes. Some of those would
be 24-seat buses used on "feeder services".
Feeder areas would likely be Arthurs Point, Quail Rise,
Kelvin Heights and Lake Hayes Estate, he said.
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