People commuting from Rolleston to Christchurch will be riding high when four new electric double-decker public buses are added to the route early next year. 

Metro Canterbury announced the new electric double-decker buses will run on the Rolleston/Christchurch City Direct route and cost $800,000 a year to operate.

The new buses are expected to arrive in the first half of next year.

They will almost double the passenger capacity on the high-demand route and increase Metro’s electric fleet to 75 vehicles.

“For now, you may see a double-decker bus out and about in your community while we do some route testing,” an Environment Canterbury (ECan) spokesperson said in a statement.

“We’ll have more info for you next year when these buses are ready to ride.”

ECan said the cost of the “vehicles themselves is commercially sensitive”.

The buses will be funded using money from a targeted rate established in 2025 following public consultation.

ECan councillor and public transport spokesperson Joe Davies told The Press it also wants to improve capacity on other crowded bus services like route 1 Rangiora/Belfast to Cashmere and route 5 Rangiora/Hornby to New Brighton.

ECan asked the government for $5 million earlier this year to improve the region’s public transport system.

Metro Christchurch saw a 10% increase in people — or about 120,000 more passengers — using public transport in April this year, compared to the same month last year.

ECan public transport general manager Stewart Gibbon said at the time some people were “being left behind at particular stops on particular routes” as a result of crowded buses.

“Well for this current funding period, for the three years through to the end of next year, we were seeking around about $10 million to improve our network,” Gibbon said in May.

“Half of that, of course, would come from us and half from government. We’ve got our share so ideally it doesn’t sound like a lot of money does it?"

The Rolleston direct service started as a trial in August last year, with funding earmarked until mid-2027. ECan added its first electric double-decker bus to its Christchurch fleet in March.

-Allied Media