NZ Bus

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NZ Bus, formerly Stagecoach New Zealand, is New Zealand's largest bus company, operating in Auckland, Wellington & Whangarei, with a fleet of around 1,000 vehicles. It also owns 96% of Fullers Ferries Auckland. It is owned by Infratil.

1 History
- 1.1 Company rebranding
- 1.2 Integrated Ticketing
2 See also
3 External links

[edit] History

A Stagecoach bus in 2006 livery on Queen Street, Auckland, followed by a Link bus

Stagecoach New Zealand was part of the British Stagecoach Group, and began operations when the firm acquired in 1992 Stagecoach expanded Wellington operations by purchasing Wellington City Transport, the largest bus operator in Wellington, from the Wellington City Council. WCT had just recently purchased the Auckland and Hutt Valley suburban bus operations of the New Zealand Railways Road Services, then branded CityLine.

Stagecoach greatly expanded its Auckland operations in 1998 by purchasing Transportation Auckland Corporation (trading as The Yellow Bus Company) from the Auckland Regional Council.

NZ Bus is owned by infrastructure investment company Infratil, which bought the firm from Stagecoach in November 2005. The Stagecoach Group has agreed to let Infratil use the name and livery for five years from the sale.

In January 2008 the Company brought A Whangarei School & Charter business Adams Travelines they have since won the Tender to provide the urban bus service for Whangarei.

[edit] Company rebranding

A new Link bus near Auckland Hospital

Buses operating out of the North Shore and Hibiscus Coast depots are rebranded North Star, announced on 4 December 2006.

In November 2006 Infratil announced that Stagecoach Wellington services would begin operating under the GOWellington brand from early 2007, with a yellow and black livery.

Cityline Hutt Valley was rebranded Valley Flyer on 21 November 2007. The bus with purple and yellow livery feature "a tui in full flight. The tail of the tui depicts the Hutt River flowing through the valley, while the wings capture the shapes of our hills and mountains. The orange swish on the buses represent the Valley itself."

Stagecoach Swanson Depot was rebranded Go West on 23 February 2008. The GO WEST brand fuses together the destinations of Waitakere with its rich surroundings, to capture the passion and inspiration that fuels West Auckland.

[edit] Integrated Ticketing

On 20 April 2008, NZ Bus confirmed they will start using new ticketing machines to make bus travel quicker, easier and simpler for their customers. The new ticketing machines were introduced on Friday April 4th and are being piloted on GOWellington bus Route 17 over the next two months. The supplier of the technology is Korea Smart Card. Established in 2003, they were a joint venture between Seoul Metropolitan Govt and LG Group who introduced T-money to six major cities in Korea. The new ticketing machines will be able to use a payment system called Snapper card which is based on RFID technology embedded in cards or portable devices such as USB sticks.