Double-decker buses will become a common sight on New Zealand highways, running daily services between cities.
The Intercity group has bought five Volvo double-deckers, and is billing them as the first to be used for regular long-distance travel in this country.
The buses were officially launched yesterday at theSky City coach terminal, but have already made a couple of trial runs. They will be used on the Auckland-Napier, Auckland-Tauranga and Christchurch-Dunedin-Te Anau routes.
Intercity bought the buses because they have 67 seats, compared with 45 on a typical single-decker, and are quieter upstairs because passengers are farther from the engine.
One Intercity manager said the buses could trim 30 minutes from a trip between Auckland and Wellington because they had two doors for passengers, which meant less time at terminals letting people on and off.
Intercity took guests on a tiki-tour over the Auckland Harbour Bridge yesterday to show off its new purchase.
The Volvos were bought second-hand from Hong Kong, and the one used at yesterday's launch still had Chinese instructions on its dashboard.
"The first thing is to work out what all these things mean," the driver said while looking at knobs and buttons.
Intercity operations manager Bob Pink said the five buses should be operating by late January, and passengers would be charged the same fare as if travelling on a single-decker.
Anybody wanting to travel on one of the double-decker buses would have to find out their departure times and specifically book one of them.
The Volvos seat 57 people upstairs and 10 downstairs, are 4.1m high and 12.6m long, have 400hp engines, and cost nearly $750,000 new.
