Weekly Review No.78
This week, bus bike racks come back into use, Metlink & Orbus welcome new EV buses and scaffolding comes down at Beresford Square.
Welcome to the Weekly Review, hopefully the weather clears for our special Tour de Auckland Rail Network to see what work Auckland Transport & KiwiRail are doing during the April School Holidays closure.
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Metlink passengers will be protected from significant fare increases by interim Private Share targets adopted by the regional council.
The wheels on the bus have been going round and round for a century in Dunedin. Last week marked the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first bus service to the city.
Under the cover of darkness, BT Coach Builders managing directors Brendan Thomson and Jo Smith from Ashburton, drove a special vehicle to Hanmer Springs, concealing it in a local church ground.
One year after opening the covered drop-off pick-up area in the Transport Hub at Auckland Airport's international terminal, 3.2 million vehicles have passed through it.
Hawkes Bay Regional Council announced that from Monday 14 April, bike racks will be back on public transport buses across the Hawke’s Bay Region.
In Christchurch, Metro announced the daytime restriction of the use of front-mounted bike racks on all public transport buses would be lifted from Wednesday 16 April in Greater Christchurch, allowing Metro customers to utilise bus bike racks during daylight hours.
Waipā bus timetables are changing next week, with a new weekday service added between Leamington and Cambridge High School. The 8.05 am trip from Leamington to Hamilton will now stop in Taylor Street to allow students to get to Cambridge High School, with the afternoon service to Leamington providing a return trip and weekday late-night trips between both Cambridge and Hamilton, and Kihikihi/Te Awamutu and Hamilton, will now only run on Friday evenings.
Transit Group shared photos of the new double-decker electric buses for the WX1, 11 and 12 routes in their new liveries.
Wellingtonians will lose out on 59 new buses and dozens of services, due to a lack of funding and the need to hit more ambitious revenue targets set by the government.
Sailings of the Interislander ferry were cancelled 150 times over the last year, numbers released under the Official Information Act show.
Shaun Baker from Multimodal Adventures shared an update on the progress of the construction of the City Rail Link stations and the surrounding streetscapes.
A massive increase in freight is expected in Canterbury in the coming years, but there are hopes a railway at a new industrial hub will mean not all is destined for the region’s roads.
Greater Auckland have written an open letter that they will be sending to AT asking to reverse their last-minute changes to the Karanga-a-Hape Station precinct integration project.
Weka Pass Railway & the Canterbury Railway Society have swapped locomotives, with Weka Pass Railway leasing shunting locomotive Tr 111 while Canterbury Railway Society take on the rebuild of Dsa 276 for WPR.
DC4375 recently received a new primer layer to its underframe while undergoing a rebuild for Steam Incorporated.
From Monday, 28 April, fares for Baybus OnDemand will be changing.
Standard fare will increase from $3.40 to $5.00 per trip
Bee Card fare will increase from $2.72 to $4.00 per trip
Free transfers between Baybus OnDemand and the main Baybus network will no longer apply
Free peak-time travel for children and young people aged 5 to 18 with a Bee Card will no longer apply
Titan Contracting Group has shared a video of their crews assisting with track removal works near Homai Station. The track is lifted in one long section and moved further along the line to be reinstalled at a later date, allowing the foundations to be rebuilt.
Dramatic orchestral symphonies, soaring operatic solos and piano sonatas have been blasting from speakers at Christchurch's bus interchange in a council trial aimed at driving trouble away.
16 new zero-emission buses are joining the Metlink fleet, bringing the total number of electric buses in the Metlink fleet to 119. The buses are owned by Kinetic and will replace 10 diesel buses. The aim is for all 16 buses to be in service by the end of April.
Six electric buses will join the Orbus Mosgiel fleet by July, These 6 buses are part of 13 new EV buses joining the Orbus fleet. The fleet will include 6 large, 6 standard, and one 22-seat wheelchair-accessible bus for the Mosgiel On Demand service. The buses are owned and operated by Go Bus / Kinetic.
Ruapehu District Council shared a video update on the (SA/SD) carriage removal from Taumarunui. In the short term, KiwiRail will tidy up the carriages to reduce the visual impact, and in the medium term, KiwiRail plans to move the carriages elsewhere.
Bike rack use on ORC’s Orbus services in Dunedin and Queenstown is being resumed in time for Easter weekend. Dunedin will resume day & night from 6 am, 19 April. Queenstown will resume daytime use (7 am-6 pm) from 18 April. Night use will resume from early May.
City Rail Link released a video showing the diver's point of view travelling the tunnels between Maungawhau Station and Waitematā Station (Britomart).
A 19th-century steam locomotive was swung into its new home by crane through the roof of the shed in the Lumsden railway precinct on Tuesday. The 1880 D class locomotive, D6, has been refurbished in Winton by Bulleid Engineering over the past three years.
KiwiRail was fined $63,000 in relation to a 2023 incident where the Te Huia train failed to obey a red signal at the Penrose station in Auckland.
When Albert Snelgrove launched his Wairarapa bus service in 1925, he could scarcely have imagined his business would thrive for 100 years to become New Zealand’s biggest family-owned transport and tourism company, Tranzit Group.
New 2023 Census data has been loaded into Commuter Waka's interactive map, showing how Kiwis are choosing to commute in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Weka Pass Railway announced the launch of the Great Northern Market. The Great Northern Market will be held on the public reserve beside the Waikari public toilets, a short walk from Waikari railway station, and the market will run alongside Weka Pass Railway's running days starting April 20th.
Wellington electric ferry the Ika Rere has been tied up at Queen’s Wharf since July last year, East by West Ferries is waiting for a part from overseas, and the Ika Rere should be back in business this May.
Brook St resident and accessibility consultant Callum McMenamin said the council should install permanent seating to avoid other future heists of community chairs.
Huntly Museum has been a hive of activity as work to move the Museum into the Huntly Station building continues. Foam backing has been installed in the artefact drawers, local imagery has been printed and installed & a new security door has been installed.
The McMaster Building crew have been at the Lumsden Railway Precinct replacing the roof of the static display shed, which now houses D6 a 1880 Steam Locomotive. The shed roof was removed on Tuesday to allow for D6 to be craned into place.
Fullers Waiheke Island Walk-up service will transition to the off-peak timetable from 12:01am on Monday, 28 April 2025. This timetable is the same as the 2024 off-peak timetable.
More people whose travel plans are derailed by Interislander ferry cancellations will now be eligible for compensation.
KiwiRail has shared a behind-the-scenes video of their work on the Johnsonville Line they are working on during the Easter & ANZAC weekends.
Much of the scaffolding inside the Beresford Square entrance to the Karanga-a-Hape Station has been taken down. The next main work focus is laying the terrazzo tiles connecting the escalators to the street pavers as well as continuing installation of soffit panels.
Fullers360 announced they had cancelled all remaining ferry services for Thursday, 17 April 2025, due to concerns for the health and safety of passengers and crew. Fullers expect that limited services may be able to run on Friday, 18 April.
Despite the poor weather in Auckland on Friday, Titan Contracting Group crews are still at work on the tracks near Tamaki Drive.
