Taranaki Regional Council media release
26 June 2009
For immediate release

More Bus Services For South Taranaki

South Taranaki bus services will be expanded as new Taranaki Regional Council contracts take effect from 1 July.

It will be business as usual for the weekly South Link services between Opunake and New Plymouth and between Waverley and Hawera, but there are changes to the service between Opunake and Hawera.

This will now operate on Fridays instead of Thurdays, with an earlier departure time from Hawera.

Additonal changes include:

• Creation of a new route linking Hawera and Manaia to Opunake, in conjunction with the Opunake-Hawera service on Fridays.
• Timing this new service so that passengers can transfer to and from the Opunake-New Plymouth service on Fridays – effectively giving Hawera people a new weekly bus link to and from New Plymouth.
• Retaining the current Waverley-Hawera return service on Thursdays but running a new return Hawera-Waverley service in conjunction with it.

The new three-year South Link contracts have been awarded to Pickering Motors (Opunake-New Plymouth) and Atlas Transport Limited (Opunake-Hawera, Waverley-Hawera and the new routes). They follow two-year trial services on the three existing routes.

“We’ve been able to award contracts that expand the public transport options in South Taranaki,” says the Taranaki Regional Council’s Director-Operations, Rob Phillips.

“We’re pleased there’s a connection through to New Plymouth and return, and that Waverley can be a destination as well as a departure point.”

Details of timetable, routes and fares will be available next week on the www.taranakibus.info website, by calling 0800 736 222, or by emailing transport@trc.govt.nz.

ENDS