Early Christmas present for bus travellers

Rotorua bus travellers will get an early Christmas present this year.

Environment Bay of Plenty, which started up the Cityride service in July, now plans to carry its special introductory fare through into the New Year. Initially, the flat rate fare of $1.50 was only going to run until November.

Transport policy manager Garry Maloney describes the new-style urban service as “a great success”. Bus use has risen nearly every month since July, with 25,000 trips logged in October alone, he explains. Overall, patronage has more than doubled since the green Cityride buses hit the road with a new 30-minute service and more direct routes.

“It’s obviously working well for people but we’re still looking for ways to improve it,” Mr Maloney says. “Next year, we will tweak a few of the routes to improve them. We’re also going to look at introducing a Sunday service, though this may mean cutting back the frequency on Saturday.”

Fares will be increased early next year, when electronic ticketing machines are installed in the buses and smartcards introduced. However, smartcard holders will find the cost of a trip less than it is now, Mr Maloney says.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>