Some of our drivers have told us that people want to pay for their bus rides, and are showing their GoCard when boarding buses. There’s no need, as Orbus remains fare free until we transition from the GoCard to the Bee Card later this winter. We hope you enjoy the free bus trips until then!

What else is happening with Orbus? Have a look.

Decommissioning a stop on Bank Street

There are two stops on Bank Street close to the Cricket Grounds near the Dunedin Botanical Gardens, which are within 100 metres of each other.  

To improve efficiency, especially during peak times, we are taking one out of service.

From Wednesday 1 July, the single stop closest to the intersection of Opoho Road, Great King Street, Bank Street and North Road will no longer be operational.

The shelter and road markings will remain in place for now and we’ll put signs up to say it’s out of service.

The nearest stop is about 50 metres further up the road, across from Dolphin Street.

This affects services starting with 5 and 6 as well as 8, 10, 10A and 15.

Back to the drawing board on St Kilda bus changes

A little while ago, we proposed changes to the bus routes in St Kilda and asked for your feedback.

The current bus routes 44 Halfway Bush/St Kilda and 55 Brockville/ St Kilda follow the same route and only travel one direction in a loop from Bay View Road via East Avenue, Hargest Crescent and Moreau Street to the terminus in Victoria Road before heading along Prince Albert Road back towards the city.

This route uses a number of residential streets and means some passengers have to wait on the bus at the terminus before they can travel to their destination.

We proposed simplifying the routes and removing the need for both the 44 and 55 to make the same loop at the end of the journey in St Kilda.

Many people submitted feedback, with around half for and half against the proposed changes, so we are going back to the drawing board.

We are looking at an alternative using Bay View Road and Moreau Street, and will be talking with residents on Moreau Street soon, as well as those people who signed up to get updates on this matter.  

Winter weather

Winter has set in and the frosty conditions this week affected some early morning services. Extreme weather can cause delays so please be patient and keep an eye out on our ORC website for service delays. Safety will always come first.

When we launch the Bee Card later this winter, the system will make it much easier for us to introduce real-time tracking where you’ll be able to monitor your bus’s progress in real time via an online tracking map or text alerts.