Christchurch Bus Services sold

Environment Canterbury welcomes the sale of Christchurch Bus Services (CBS) to highly successful North Island bus operator Go Bus Transport Ltd, of Hamilton, with an expected takeover date of December 1, 2010.

“Go Bus operates highly successful urban bus services on behalf of regional councils in Hamilton, Tauranga and Napier,” said Environment Canterbury chief executive Dr Bryan Jenkins. “It is ideally placed to take over the contracts currently being run by Christchurch Bus Services, which hold a third of all routes in Greater Christchurch.

“At all times in recent weeks, Environment Canterbury has acted in the best interests of Christchurch ratepayers and bus users to minimise costs and aim for a long-term solution to difficulties faced by Christchurch Bus Services.”

Dr Jenkins said he believed the new ownership would help rebuild public confidence and grow the public transport business.

Go Bus Transport will begin the takeover process from CBS next week with the arrival of a specialist project team to manage the transition to ensure that for customers there is a significant improvement over the current services. “That is great news,” said Dr Jenkins.

“As of this evening, CBS was working to get all of its buses back on the roads after this week’s safety checks and was servicing close to 90 per cent of all its trips.”

Environment Waikato Regional Council, which contracts Go Bus to provide a significant number of its services, has recently reviewed and renewed contracts with the company for a further four years for the Hamilton urban routes. It noted the high standards of service Go Bus has provided the city’s bus users.

Craig Worth, Commercial Director (Go Bus Transport), said that “after several months of negotiations we are delighted to finally conclude a deal and are excited about the challenges ahead.

“We are looking forward to working with Environment Canterbury and the people of Christchurch as we take over CBS and integrate the company into the Go Bus family.  We recognise that there is some catching up to be done and some work ahead, but we are confident that with the imminent arrival of new vehicles, the introduction of our ISO standard quality control and operating procedures, we will quickly restore the confidence of Christchurch passengers”.  

Go Bus Transport operates a fleet of over 650 vehicles and employs over 700 staff in the North Island of New Zealand.  Go Bus is an accredited AS/NZS ISO9001:2008  organisation.