Last year, a commercial service previously available to school students on the Otago Peninsula was discontinued by the operator, resulting in residents petitioning the Otago Regional Council to make changes to the public bus service.

The proposed change to the service would see a variation to the normal route for just two services each weekday.

The services running the variation to the normal route would be:

• Portobello – City departing Portobello 7.47am (this service would replace the current weekday 7.57am service)
• City – Portobello departing from the City at 3.08pm (this would be an additional weekday service)

A formal consultation process is necessary because proposed change will see the service no longer running the same route each time – which is at odds with the planning principles outlined in the Regional Public Transport Plan 2014 (our planning framework for bus services under the Land Transport Management Act).

Full details of the proposed amendment to the Regional Public Transport Plan 2014 are available at https://yoursay.orc.govt.nz/peninsulabus- submissions can be made online there too. For those who prefer to make a hard copy submission, forms are available from the Regional Council (0800 474 082) or on the Peninsula bus. Submissions close Friday 24 August, 5pm.

For more information contact:
Gerard Collings, Manager Support Services – ORC - 0274 848 800
gerard.collings@orc.govt.nz

For Comms information contact:
Emma Schranz, Senior Media Advisor - ORC – 0276 275 894
emma.schranz@orc.govt.nz