On 30th June 1991 it didn't matter where you wanted to go in Christchurch you took a Christchurch Transport Board Big Red Bus.
Come deregulation on 1st July 1991 and on the road in Christchurch is Christchurch Transport (the former CTB re-born as a local body owned company), Ritchies Coachlines, Blue Star Taxi's, Gold Band Taxi's, Strathmore Coachlines , Astro Coachlines and Te Karu .
Christchurch is in a state of confusion with so many new companies on the road and Chch people being used to their lovely Big Red Bus's.
Right from the start of deregulation in 1991 Christchurch bus companies operated the Datafare Ticket Machine system. There was no such thing as an intergraded ticketing system with each company offering their own Multi Trip tickets and these were not interchangeable with other operators. Transfer tickets existed but were only useable on the company that you purchased your tickets on and again were not interchangeable. The only time there was a change of ticket machines was when Passenger Transport came to Christchurch bringing with them their ticket machines, which were called Wayfarer. On the 10th of February 2002 Leopard switched to operating the TP 4000 ticket machines and Redbus followed a week later. Although these machines had the option of Smart card ticketing this option was not put into the system till 27th October 2003.
In 1991 Christchurch Regional Council contracted routes were labelled as "Canride" and all buses operating contracted routes carried the Canride logo. In 2002 Canterbury Regional Council started re-inventing itself. The name changed to Ecan and in 2003 they changed the branding and the name of Christchurch's bus system to Metro. Metro pods appeared on the front of buses. There is now a cardboard cut out figure that runs around and is known as Mandy Metro and she appears on most things to do with buses in Christchurch.
The Rangiora route had a real mix of operators. Strathmore Coachlines were doing the day time Rangiora run using a Bristol and a couple of Hino BG100 coaches while Astro Coachlines were doing the nighttime after 6.00pm using Hino's, Isuzu's and of course a few Bristols. On Sundays Blue Star Taxis were doing the routes using minibuses. Strathmore Coachlines had registered the day time services as a commercial service while the evening and weekend services were contracted.
Christchurch Transport continued to operate the bulk of the routes and used the fleet of MAN SL202 buses, plus a few Bristols, passed over from CTB. Initially the unused Bristols were kept in storage put were soon sold to appear with operators all over the country.
Ritchies started in Christchurch running a fleet of imported ex Auckland and New Plymouth Mercedes 0305 and the odd Mercedes 0303-ex Auckland.
Astro Coachlines were using a few Jap Imports and Blue Star Taxis were using their mini vans as buses on a Sunday on some services.
Te Karu started with Japanese imports and later had ex-CTB Bristols 607 and 608..
On 3rd March 1993 Cesta appeared on the road using LPG buses converted from CNG on the 10 Parklands, 14 Barrington and 20 Cracroft routes. They were prone to breaking down quite a bit. In November Cesta acquired the tender for Sunday Papanui/Cashmere and Cranford St services. Monday to Saturday services were granted to Ritchies. Cesta 32 was the former DCT Leopard 178.
Some time late in 1994 Christchurch Transport started operating to the airport in competition with Te Karu. In 1995 Sam & Dave Te Karu accepted the inevitable and ceased services.
March 1995 brought a major change to operators. Leopard Citylines took over Hornby and Russley services. Leopard started with a fleet of Volvo B10M buses converted from WCT Anslado trolleybuses. Ritchies did the Sunday Hornby services and also acquired Templeton. Christchurch Transport took over North Beach and Dallington. Blue Star Taxis use there minibuses to Governors Bay. Cesta acquired the Lyttleton route using 5 ex-Australia MAN SL200s.
On 6th December 1996 Leopard bought Cesta out of the Lyttleton route. The MAN SL200s were acquired as part of the deal. Then in January 1997 Christchurch Transport took over Ritchies routes. To cover for a shortage of buses 30 of Ritchies Mercedes Benz 0305 buses were leased to Christchurch Transport (CTL). A further reduction inoperators came in February 1997 when Astro took over the daytime Rangiora service from Strathmore Coachlines.
In 1997 Christchurch started going the way of other cities in New Zealand and introduced a number of Super Low Floor buses and there is now around a fleet of 117 on the roads In Christchurch on any given day of the week. As each tender round came up the Regional Council pushed for Super Low Floor Buses to be put on contracts instead of high floor buses. Astro Coachlines only ever purchased one Super Low Floor bus and it was a Scorpion Super Low Floor with a Cummings Motor in it. In the tender round of 2000 and 2001 MAN 11-220 Super Low Floors appeared on the road and this time they were built to the Euro 3 Standard. The 2003 tender round of 2003 brought Man 12-223 and Man 17-223's on the road.
Christchurch Regional Council began expanding the public transport in Christchurch. The free shuttle with 3 electric buses began in December 1998. July 1999 saw the start of Orbiter service by Leopard with a new fleet of MAN SLFs.
A new operator came to Christchurch in 2000 when IPT operating as Christchurch Passenger Transport began operating the night and weekends to Rangiora. Christchurch Passenger transport never gained a large number of routes and left the city in 2001 handing services over the CTL now renamed Redbus Ltd. Astro also quit in 2000 selling all services and buses to Redbus.
In 2002 attempts were made to return Christchurch to a single operator when Redbus applied to the Commerce Commission for approval to buy Leopard Coachlines urban services. While the Commerce Commission had allowed Stagecoach to become a dominant operator in Auckland and Wellington both these cities had other operators. In Christchurch Redbus would have become the only operator and the Commerce Commission declined the application.
This peice of history closes in June 2004 as Designline work around the clock to finish construction of a fleet of Mercedes Benz SLF buses based on imported chassis for Christchurch Bus Services.
Photos Ritchies line up - Wayne Duncan. Leopard MAN SL200 - Richard Lloyd. Leopard MAN 11.160SLF - Nick Stoneman. Redbus Shuttle 200 - Steve Lloyd.
Last Updated 22 August 2004