Due to the downturn in patronage, Redbus have pulled their two commercial services, the 29 Airport route and the 10 Harewood-Cashmere route. The #29 will become a tendered route with some changes, while the loss of the 10 will be covered through changes to other routes.
This development is not entirely surprising, and ultimately shouldn’t have too much of an effect on the overall system or its future. One of the real problems with having 3 services to the airport was the timetabling – three buses turning up 15 minutes apart meant that the first to leave (the #3, which remains) would get the most passengers. The #3 Airport-Sumner also runs every 30 minutes, against the #29 and #10 once-an-hour timetables. Not surprisingly, regular services win.
For those interested in such things, the demise of the #10 has some significance as it is pretty much the successor to the former bus route number 1, which in turn was preceded by tram route 1 (Papanui-Cashmere), the busiest and last tram route to operate in Christchurch (closed 1954). How times change.
The change in services will take effect on 4 February.
marsoe
jhumm
MrV
January 13, 2012
The reality is many have no clue where buses go anymore.
The 10 used to be a good route into the CBD, so it’s not surprising it isn’t frequented now there basically is no CBD. The airport section was a bonus, and a convenient turn-around place.
If they tracked most people using cars, they would see that in most cases a bus can’t get them to destination within 30mins of an equivalent car ride, owing to the nature of at least one bus transfer required.
It’s time to get all the buses under one management company (exisitng companies can have a share on pro rata basis), paint them one colour and rationalise the network