Golden Bay Coachlines to put Tākaka-Nelson bus service on ice

Friday, 18 March 2022

Rising costs and low passenger numbers have prompted Golden Bay Coachlines to pull the plug for now on its Tākaka-Nelson bus service.

Manager Arthur Clarence on Thursday said the already reduced service was due to cease on March 31.

The Covid-19 pandemic and an associated fall in visitors to the Bay was driving the decision as well as rising fuel costs.

“There’s just not enough passenger numbers to make it viable,” Clarence said.

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Pre-Covid, the service would operate at least once a day every day, sometimes twice a day. During a “normal summer,” up to 100 people a day would use the bus.

“We only did 100 people for the whole of February,” Clarence said.

A busy summer would help subsidise the service during the winter, which was traditionally quieter.

The company had reduced the frequency of the Tākaka-Nelson service to three days a week – Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, leaving Tākaka at 9am and getting back about 3pm. It also covered Wainui and Mārahau, if they were booked.

However, even the reduced service could no longer continue.

“Some days we have nobody booked at all,” Clarence said. “We can't afford to run at a loss.”

The cessation of the service was frustrating because some residents of Golden Bay and Motueka were “regulars, dependent upon” the bus, especially as it was one of a few only that stopped at Nelson Airport.

Clarence outlined the situation in an email, which was copied to Golden Bay Community Board member Averill Grant and added to the community board agenda for its meeting this week.

In the email, Clarence asks if Tasman District Council could consider subsidising the three-day-per-week service after March until next summer.

“Not as a permanent arrangement but to help Golden Bay [residents] in the interim.”

Golden Bay Coachlines was optimistic that “when some normality returns to the world, we will be able to step this service up to the former pre-Covid levels”.

After the meeting, community board chairwoman Abbie Langford said the board was committed to looking at all transport options into and around Golden Bay.

Environmental assurance group manager Dennis Bush-King said council staff were looking into the matter.