Ritchies Coachlines

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Ritchies Transport Holdings Ltd was established in 1972 and describes itself on its website as "the largest privately owned bus and coach transport operator in New Zealand" with a fleet of "over 600" vehicles spread across depots nationwide.

It is a part-owner of the Intercity and Newmans coach lines.

Ritchies' website says Ritchies was "formed in Temuka 70 years ago by John Ritchie (Senior) and is still owned by the Ritchie family." and that its head office "was located in Timaru but at the beginning of December 2003 relocated to Christchurch." The company "expanded into the North Island 20 years ago and now has a large operation in Auckland in addition to branches in Rotorua, Helensville, Dargaville and Ruakaka."

1 Long-distance services
2 Tourism services
3 Urban services (past and present)
4 External links

[edit] Long-distance services

see main article Intercity (New Zealand)

[edit] Tourism services

Richies operates coach services for several package tour operators.

[edit] Urban services (past and present)

passengers boarding a Northern Express service on the Northern Busway, Auckland operated by Ritchies Coachlines

Auckland

Ritchies main urban bus operations are in Auckland operating out of depots in Swanson and Albany servicing West Auckland including Helensville and the North Shore. Ritchies also operates high-speed services on the Northern Busway on Auckland's North Shore.

Blenheim

Ritchies operate the local bus service in Blenheim under contract to the Marlborough District Council. There are two loops that service the town.

Timaru and Temuka

Ritchies operated four Timaru routes from the 1990s until January 2007 under contract to Environment Canterbury. Ritchies still operate the Temuka-Timaru service.

Christchurch

With deregulation of bus services Ritchies entered the Christchurch urban market with a number of routes using various buses purchased from other companies, including the ARA, Invercargill City Transport, Timaru City Transport and New Plymouth City Buses. In January 1997 Ritchies sold it's Christchurch urban contracts to the then Christchurch Transport Ltd but retained ownership of the buses passed onto CTL.