An express bus service and intra-city bus loops will be introduced in a second Upper Clutha public bus trial set to begin this Monday (May 29).

Wānaka’s Community Networks/LINK was given the green light recently to start phase two of the Community Shuttle Trial with a scheduled bus running between Hāwea and Wānaka and within Wānaka’s environs five days a week.

This second trial, designed in collaboration with Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC), Otago Regional Council (ORC), Lake Wānaka Tourism (LWT), and Yello has refined elements of the first trial which ran for three months last year, from September to December.

This new three month trial will test different network designs, such as a twice-daily return express service between Hāwea and Wanaka to better suit commuters, community development coordinator Joanna Perry said.  

“The most significant feedback we received from the first trial was about the length of route (time and distance) and the frequency of the service (three days per week being considered too little).

“We aim to address this in the second trial by streamlining the Hāwea - Wānaka route …and developing a more frequent service running five days a week.”

To optimise the express service and make it more economically viable, the new route will now take only 25 minutes, departing Lake Hāwea at 8:00am, with stops at Camphill Road (near its intersection with SH6) and Albert Town, before finishing in Wānaka’s town centre. 

The same service will be repeated at midday from Hāwea, with return services departing Wānaka at 11:30am and again at 5:15pm.

“We have had to make some difficult decisions around the number of stops in areas such as Hāwea and Hāwea Flat, particularly where there were low numbers of passengers getting on and off the bus during the first trial,” Joanna said. 

The second major change from the first trial is the introduction of an intra-city shuttle service as a response to public feedback wanting services to connect places within Wānaka, such as Northlake and Anderson Road to the CBD, she said.

The new intra-city loop service will occur five times a day, Monday to Friday, take about 30 minutes, and incorporate stops at Wānaka’s Medical Centre, Three Parks, Albert Town, Aubrey Road, Anderson Road and the CBD.

This second trial, funded by QLDC and LWT, will collect patronage data and feedback from public surveys which will be vital to any future business case ORC makes for public transport in the Upper Clutha, Joanna said. 

“The results of this trial will feed into a study of community transport solutions in rural areas of Otago for ORC.”

Like the first trial, booking a seat on the service is preferred (either online through Community Networks or by phoning Yello) and the subsidised service will cost passengers $2 per trip.

The three month trial begins Monday, May 29 and finishes on Friday, August 18, 2023.

Further information about the new trial and the bus timetable can be found here.

PHOTO: Supplied.