Passenger Transport Citibus buses at the Dunedin depot.
Invercargill Passenger Transport Ltd
was a
bus company
which operated public transport routes in
Dunedin
and
Invercargill
as well as school transport services in those cities as well as
Queenstown
and
leisure
and tourism transport services throughout the South Island of New Zealand
Company history
[
edit
]
Invercargill Passenger Transport was formed in 1991 through the
privatisation
of the
Invercargill
City Council bus fleet. In 1995 the company established a branch in
Dunedin
and has operated part of
Dunedin's bus network
since. It eventually expanded to have branches in
Christchurch
and
Queenstown
and for a period operated a fleet of coaches based in
Auckland
.
Sold to Go Bus Transport Ltd
[
edit
]
In early February 2014,
Go Bus Transport
agreed to purchase the urban, school, charter and special needs operations of Invercargill Passenger Transport, gaining around 200+ buses and depots in Christchurch, Queenstown, Dunedin, Invercargill and Gore. Go Bus took over Invercargill Passenger Transport on 1 April 2014.
[
citation needed
]
Invercargill depot
[
edit
]
Invercargill depot was the head office of the company. From this depot since 1991 Passenger Transport has operated
public transport in Invercargill
under contract to the Southland Regional Council initially and latterly the Invercargill City Council, much of this with the previous council-owned bus fleet.
As well as urban bus services, Passenger Transport also operate school services in Invercargill and outlying areas of
Southland, New Zealand
,
inter-city coach services
under the
nakedbus.com
franchise and a charter operation including worker transport to the
Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter
in
Bluff, New Zealand
.
Dunedin Depot
[
edit
]
Passenger Transport was able to expand its operations to Dunedin in the 1995 annual tender rounds of urban bus services and held a large number of services in the city.
In 2011, Passenger Transport bought competitor Citibus from the
Dunedin City Council
.
[1]
Citibus
, previously called Citibus-Newton, began as the municipal transport service in Dunedin known at various times as Dunedin City Transport, Dunedin Corporation Transport, Dunedin Corporation Tramways or DCT. DCT operated
Dunedin's cable car system
and trams (some of which were built by private developers) as a municipal transport department of the
Dunedin City Council
. In the mid-1980s
Rogernomics
reforms, the department was incorporated as a
Local Authority Trading Enterprise
and named
Citibus Ltd
.
Newton's Coachways
was a charter coach, sightseeing and school bus company and was formed from an earlier business Marshall Motors in 1962
[2]
which was bought by Stewart Newton and Norma Newton (
nee
Marshall) from Norma's uncle.
[3]
In 1991 Newton's took over the Dunedin area services and fleet of the
New Zealand Railways Road Services
, then known as
Cityline
and re-branded it
Newton's City Line
. Newton's was taken over by Citibus in 1993, and the combined firm traded for many years as
Citibus-Newton Ltd
or
CNL
. It reverted to
Citibus
in 2005, but the Newton's
brand
for tour and charter coaches remained in use by Invercargill Passenger Transport.
In 2006 CNL took over
inter-city
coach operator Wanaka Connexions.
By 2011, Citibus was described by city mayor
Dave Cull
as "
haemorrhaging
money",
[4]
and the Dunedin City Council decided the business should be
privatised
.
[1]
The new owners elected to retain the 'Citibus' naming, branding the Dunedin operation
Passenger Transport Citibus
,
[5]
but decided to sell the Connexions business.
[6]
Christchurch depot
[
edit
]
The Christchurch depot was primarily a charter operation with a fleet of coaches for such purposes. It also operated tour and long-distance bus services to other cities of the South Island. Previously the company operated limited urban bus services in the city.
Queenstown depot
[
edit
]
Passenger Transport was the major operator of Ministry of Education
school bus services
in the
Queenstown Lakes
area for some years. It also operated charter services in the area as well as long-distance services to Christchurch under the
nakedbus.com
franchise.
Tourism services
[
edit
]
A
Bristol
double decker bus
operated by PT Citibus's
First City Tours
providing
sightseeing
tours of Dunedin, at
Dunedin Railway Station
Passenger Transport operated
Tour coach
services to
package tour
operators were provided under the
Newtons
brand and a
double decker bus
sightseeing tour around
Dunedin
under the brand First City Tours.
Long distance services
[
edit
]
Passenger Transport operated
inter-city coach services
as part of other
franchise
networks:
Fleet history
[
edit
]
Citibus and its predecessors operated
Leyland
vehicles for nearly 90 years before their last
Leyland Leopard
bus left service in 2011
[7]
References
[
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]
External links
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Urban bus companies
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Long distance bus companies
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Tourism bus companies
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Bus manufacturers
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Government & regulation
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History
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Infrastructure
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