The Tide launched on February 18. Photo / Bevan Conley
The Tide launched on February 18. Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui’s new bus service - Te Ngaru The Tide - is proving to be a hit.
It launched on February 18, running every 20 minutes and operating between Castlecliff and Aramoho.
Anthonie Tonnon, Whanganui District Council’s representative on Horizons’ Passenger Transport Committee, said in its first full month of service The Tide had become the third-most-used bus route in the entire Horizons region.
There was an 86 per cent increase in urban public transport trips in Whanganui on usage last March, with 11,778 compared to 6319.
A large proportion of that - 45.4 per cent - had come from The Tide (5346 trips).
“When I talked to public transport experts, they said we might not get overnight success with this,” Tonnon said.
“You would normally expect that the first people you get on a new service are the people that are already taking the old service.
“I’m hearing great feedback from people who weren’t taking the buses before but are now using them to get to work every day, or at least trying them casually.”
There were now more full-fare adults than SuperGold card holders using bus services, with 3650 full-fare adults and 2900 SuperGold holders this March compared to 1350 and 1920 at the same time last year.
Horizons’ transport services manager Mark Read said the success of The Tide showed people wanted alternative modes of transport.
“The Tide is an example of how we can take practicable steps to help people fulfil that goal.
“Getting more people using public transport makes it easier for everyone to get to the places we work, live and play.
“Whanganui has also had good uptake of the Transit app, which gives people an easy way to access real-time information, making catching The Tide and other public transport services easy.”
Anthonie Tonnon says a high-frequency spine service benefits other routes in the network.
It was heartening to see the whole Whanganui network was getting more use, Tonnon said.
“It’s important people know that if you’re in Whanganui East, you can take the 207 or 208 to Trafalgar Square and switch to The Tide, which can take you to Pak’nSave or out to the hospital or [Castlecliff] beach.
“There are benefits for all of the bus routes when you introduce a high-frequency spine service.”
The four buses usually operating on The Tide route are smaller than the regular Transit vehicles, with 33 seats instead of 42.
Tonnon said other regional cities had experimented with their public transport services.
One example was Timaru’s My Way service, which resulted in a 16 per cent increase in usage in its first year.
“For us to see an 86 per cent increase in one month is pretty huge.
“One advantage Whanganui has is we have so much population on the corridor that The Tide runs on.
“It’s an old tram route and we built a lot of housing along there. With just a little walk, there are a lot of people near it.”
Tonnon said another interesting bit of data was the highest-use hours for The Tide, which were between 11am and 3pm.
“People’s work habits have changed since Covid-19 and there is shift work and part-time, so we don’t necessarily know when they are going to travel in the way we might have in the 1950s.
