Tourists testing local bus services
After years of yearning for their tourist dollar, Kiwis are side-eyeing the cruise ship passengers clogging up public buses.
In Christchurch and Dunedin, the near bi-weekly docking of tourists strains public transport services, but their respective regional councils are yet to find enough staff to resolve delays.
In Canterbury’s case, its regional council doesn’t expect to increase service frequency until some time next year.
In the meantime, tourists – who injected $547 million into the country during the 2019-20 cruise season – are being asked to pay about $50 for a private trip that locals pay less than $3 for.
On Wednesday, Christchurch City councillor Sara Templeton shared the number 28 bus – between Lyttelton and the city – with about 51 other people.
As someone who had avoided Covid-19 so far, she was concerned about the lack of ventilation and mask use, she said.
Over the weekend, the Guardian reported the Majestic Princess, which docked in Lyttelton on November 5, ended its two-week tour of New Zealand with 800 cases of Covid-19.
Templeton said she had heard from locals opting not to travel by bus last week because of overcrowding.
While bus use was great, ‘‘we need to make sure that the sudden rush of users doesn’t displace locals’’, she said.
She understood the regional council was working on increasing service frequency but believed cruise ship operators ought to provide cheaper private transport in the meantime.
Blue Star Taxis, which told The Press it was the ships’ preferred service, offered a $45 capped fare for tourists heading into the city, then $90 per hour of travel. The same trip into the city was $2.10 under the Government’s current public bus subsidy.
It’s an issue Kevin Taylor, a resident near Otago’s Port Chalmers, said ‘‘shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone’’.
‘‘It doesn’t take much for a tourist with a cellphone to find out the [local] fare is cheaper.’’
He said the Otago Regional Council knew it was an issue before Covid-19, and in his opinion it was up to them to fix it. He had already seen pictures of queues at the Dunedin bus hub and heard of locals struggling to get home from school and work.
‘‘There’s a sense of manaakitanga, or hospitality, that needs to be balanced against the disruption to school children and workers,’’ he said.
Both Otago and Canterbury regional councils had struggled to maintain services amid staff shortages.
As a response to this and threats of strike action, both councils recently increased drivers’ wages to $28, the minimum
‘‘It is public after all.’’ Kevin O’Sullivan NZ Cruise Association chief executive
required by Immigration New Zealand to recruit overseas.
Environmental Canterbury, the Canterbury regional council, secured funding to increase service frequency along route 28 in June, but it would not be active until some time next year.
Kevin O’Sullivan, chief executive of
New Zealand Cruise Association, said Christchurch and Dunedin may be unique in their respective councils not providing the bulk of transport options for tourists.
O’Sullivan said transport on land was handled differently depending on the cruise line, and likewise the cost of private transport varied too much to put a number on it.
‘‘It [public transport] is public after all. At times it has impacted local services, but that doesn’t seem much of an issue lately.’’
He said people on cruises were often ‘‘on a trip of a lifetime’’ – regular people who had saved up for the trip and would likely opt for bargains where they could.
‘‘We’ve been wanting them [cruise ships] back for so long and we’ve worked so hard to make it happen ... we’re pleased with how things have gone.’’