Passenger demand rolls out extra bus

An extra bus has been added to the Motueka-Nelson route after passengers in Māpua couldn’t be collected last week due to a lack of space.

Nelson City Council group manager for infrastructure, Alec Louverdis, says on 5 October, eBus route 5, which services Motueka and Māpua, reached full capacity, and requiring the roll out of an overflow bus.

Alec says the overflow bus, which is the same size and operates under the same timetable, has been introduced to route 5’s Thursday and Friday service.

“When at capacity, the bus will stop where passengers are waiting and indicate that an overflow bus is not far behind,” he says.

“Data from the first month of eBus showed just under 3000 journeys taken on route 5, and anecdotally it seems as if usage has increased over the school holidays.

“The Regional Land Transport Plan envisages weekend services for route 5 in the future, however council could bring plans to commence these services forward if there is a clear demand.”

Alec says route 1 from Richmond to Nelson has also reached capacity during peak hours on weekdays.

He says the route is already serviced by an overflow bus which uses route 7, between Richmond and Nelson, and follows route 1 between 8am and 3pm to collect passengers after the bus hits capacity.

Alec says Council will monitor route 5 during the summer school holidays and respond when necessary.