26 May 2020

InterCity buses resume service - but only at a third of capacity

2:39 pm on 26 May 2020

InterCity bus is restarting services in time for the long weekend, but the West Coast and the Far North miss out for now.

Intercity buses have since 1996 leased a terminal in the Sky City Casino complex, provided as part of the complexes 1995 resource consent

An InterCity bus in Auckland. File image. Photo: RNZ / Todd Niall

The nationwide bus service cancelled thousands of tickets and put itself on ice this month saying it could not afford to operate under the physical distancing rules.

It resumes operations on Thursday but said it was only running about a third of services across 70 percent of its network compared to pre-Covid-19 levels.

InterCity chief executive John Thorburn said the physical distancing rules meant it would likely run at a loss and could not sustain this long term.

As a result not all stops on the network would be available.

This included services north of Kerikeri; Coromandel town; National Park and Ohakune; the entire West Coast of the South Island; Mount Cook; Wanaka; Te Anau, Tekapo and Cromwell.

InterCity usually carries about 1.5 million passengers a year on more than 100 daily services to more than 600 destinations nationwide.

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