Red Bus was a bus operator in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, New Zealand. Red Bus operated public transport bus services around Christchurch on behalf of the

Canterbury Regional Council Environment Canterbury, frequently abbreviated to ECan. is the promotional name for the Canterbury Regional Council. It is the regional council for Canterbury, the largest region in the South Island of New Zealand. It is part of New Zealand's str ...

, and it operated the free inner city Shuttle on behalf of the city council until the

2011 Christchurch earthquake A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the entire of the Canterbury region in the South Island, centred south-east ...

. On 4 November 2020 it was announced

Ritchies Transport __NOTOC__ Ritchies Transport is a New Zealand private bus operator, owned by KKR. It was established in 1972 and describes itself as "the largest privately owned bus and coach transport operator in New Zealand" with a fleet of over 1500 vehicles s ...

Holdings Limited had purchased the assets of Red Bus, with 63 job losses. The sale was completed on 7 December 2020.

History

Red Bus evolved from the

Christchurch Transport Board The Christchurch Transport Board was an autonomous special-purpose municipal authority responsible for the construction, acquisition, and ownership of local transport assets and the operation of public transport services in the Christchurch regi ...

which for several decades had run all urban bus services with its distinctive red buses. It was then owned by

Christchurch City Holdings Christchurch City Holdings Ltd (CCHL) is a wholly owned investment arm of the Christchurch City Council. The council controlled trading organisations (CCTO) own and run some of the important infrastructure in Christchurch, such as the public t ...

, a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

of the

Christchurch City Council The Christchurch City Council is the local government authority for Christchurch in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Christchurch. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Christchurch is Phil Mauger, who ...

. Red Bus operated the free central city bus, The Shuttle, on behalf of Christchurch City Council from 1998 to 2011. In November 2016 the business of Aaron Travel was purchased. The company lost routes in the 2019 tender for Public Transport services conducted by the

(ECAN), the agency that runs public transport in Christchurch – reducing it to running just 20 per cent of the urban network. In June 2019 three

Alexander Dennis Enviro200 The Alexander Dennis Enviro200 (previously known as the TransBus Enviro200) is a midibus that was manufactured by TransBus International and later Alexander Dennis between 2003 and 2018. The original TransBus Enviro200 design was innovative but ...

bodied BYD K9 electric buses were introduced. In December 2014, a charter division commenced under the Red Travel brand. Red Travel was closed down in May 2020 as a result of the actual and forecast reduction in demand due to Covid-19. On 7 May 2020, the

held a public-excluded meeting to discuss the future of the company. On 8 May 2020, former City Councillor

Deon Swiggs Deon William Swiggs (born 6 September 1986) is a New Zealand politician serving as the Environment Canterbury Councillor representing the Christchurch West/Ōpuna Regional Constituency. He previously served as the Christchurch City Councillor ...

revealed that the Council gave approval for

to explore selling the Red Bus business. Red Bus CEO Paul McNoe resigned as CEO of Red Bus effective immediately on 8 May 2020. The company lost routes in the 2019 tender for public transport services conducted by the Canterbury Regional Council, the agency that runs public transport in Christchurch. On 4 November 2020 it was announced

Holdings Limited had purchased the assets of Red Bus.

Fleet

As at August 2018, Red Bus operated 151 vehicles, predominantly Designline bodied MANs.Red Bus
Australian Bus Fleet Lists This dropped to 52 vehicles in December 2020.

References

External links

Official websiteMetroInfo
{{Authority control Bus transport in New Zealand Public transport in Christchurch