Following strong support, Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury) is introducing a new 12-month trial bus service for Aranui, starting later this year.

The trial service will run hourly between New Brighton and either Eastgate Mall or The Palms Shopping Centre. To help make the trial work as well as possible for the community, the Council wants the community’s feedback on which destination it should go to – both options are busy bus hubs, giving customers options for travelling further around the city.

The Regional Council voted unanimously in favour of the trial bus service, following continued requests from the Aranui community.

Public Transport Core Service Lead Councillor Joe Davies said he’s glad Council supported the request.

“This community has campaigned on this for a long time, so I’m pleased we can now put something in place that will really help them,” he said.

A survey has been set-up for the community to have its say on where the service should travel to: ecan.govt.nz/aranuitrial. This gives the community a chance to say whether Eastgate Mall or The Palms Shopping Centre is a better destination.

“If you're a part of this community, it’s important you have your say on where you’d like the trial bus service to go, we want to give it the best chance of success,” Cr Davies said.“Both Eastgate and The Palms connect with other bus routes, so it’s a matter of the community letting us know which makes more sense for them,” he added.

The survey will be open for two weeks, closing on Sunday 3 May 2026.

Once we have received and reviewed feedback from the community on the destination, we will begin detailed planning for the service and can then confirm its start date. The trial will run for a year.

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