Just 116 journeys a month for Stoke OnDemand

More than four months after the launch of the eBus, its new on-demand service for Stoke is “not tracking as well” as Nelson City Council would like.

The new public transport option essentially acts like a taxi, being able to shuttle people anywhere in Stoke between the boundaries of Saxton Field, Monaco, Marsden Valley and Beatson Rd, and can be used to connect into the main eBus network.

With at least 200 virtual stops across the suburb, eBus OnDemand services a much wider area than the old Stoke Loop bus it has replaced, but has seen fewer passengers.

The OnDemand service has an average of 116 journeys each month while the old Stoke Loop had an average of 218 per month.

Nelson City Council’s group manager infrastructure Alec Louverdis thinks that the eBus’s better coverage of Stoke than the old NBus service has contributed to the drop in users of the Stoke-specific service.

“For people travelling to Strawbridge Square, the easiest thing to do is simply get on the Route 2 bus that runs close to their home.”

But Alec acknowledges that the usage of the OnDemand service “is not tracking as well as we would like”.

The Joint Regional Transport Committee, consisting of elected members from both Nelson City and Tasman District Councils, has asked officers to look into the service’s patronage.

A survey of Stoke residents about eBus OnDemand shows that 84 per cent of people had heard of the service, but hadn’t used it.

About 2500 people have also downloaded the eBus OnDemand app with almost 2000 users having confirmed their details, but only 84 unique users have ordered a ride.

The survey results also show that many residents would like to use the eBus OnDemand service outside of its operating hours of 9am to 3pm on weekdays, and would like to see its range extended to include the Nelson Junction.

“We believe this shows that there is potential for use of the service to grow over time as people become more familiar with it and we tweak the way it works so it fits in with people’s lives as well as possible,” Alec says.

While council staff ran “well-attended” sessions at Stoke retirement villages to teach residents about the OnDemand service before its launch, the survey has given the council ideas for further training sessions in the new year.

“We see some confusion between the OnDemand service and the wider network, what meeting points are and how to find them, and the operating area the service covers. All are aspects we plan to cover.”

The entire eBus service continues to see strong patronage.

The last three months of the old NBus service saw a patronage of 127,400 while the first three months of the eBus saw a 71 per cent increase to 218,300.

Wider changes to the entire eBus service, including OnDemand, will be considered in an annual review of the network.