Dannevirke: Competition may hurt bus service

A new commuter bus service coming to Dannevirke will be competition for Rose Coachlines. Photo / file

A new commuter bus service proposed by Horizons Regional Council will take money from the pocket of Dannevirke bus company owner Derek Rose he says.

"My service has never been a school bus, I've always provided a public passenger service and it's not easy to keep going," Mr Rose, the owner of Rose Coachlines, told the Dannevirke News.

Last week Horizons Regional Council sent a questionnaire to residents throughout the Tararua canvassing their views on a proposed new, subsidised service. But Mr Rose said the regional council should have taken a different approach.

"They would have been better to ask what I could do to help the three towns, Dannevirke, Woodville and Pahiatua. I've been in business here for 20 years and we run a bus from Dannevirke which goes through Woodville and another one from Pahiatua, every day during the school term.

"If Horizons goes ahead and puts another service on, well . . . there will be five on the dole queue.

"We run our buses to schools in Palmerston North, the airport and around town over there, but we run on the bones of our arse and to lose a few more passengers to this new service will make ours uneconomical.

"I don't want someone else putting on another service, cheaper than what I can provide.

"If the Horizons trial is unsuccessful, I reckon they'll stop their bus and we will have gone too and there will be no service at all."

Currently a Roses Coachlines bus leaves Dannevirke at 7.20am every school morning, arriving in Woodville at 7.45am and then on to Palmerston North. A second bus departs from Pahiatua at 7.30am to Palmerston North.

"If people wanted to use a bus they would be using it now," Mr Rose said.

"For most it's just a last resort. John Barrow (Horizons councillor) and the regional council could have come to us and asked 'how can we make it happen'? I know from experience you can't run a bus service like they're proposing with just 10 people on board without the regional council propping it up. That money, which is probably ratepayer-funded, would be better spent elsewhere." Suresh Patel, chairman of the Dannevirke Chamber of Commerce, said he too has concerns about Mr Rose being squeezed out by a subsidised service.

"It's a fantastic service Derek runs and it's a pity people don't support it. Local people are the first to speak up if a local business disappears, but if they don't patronise it, what can they expect." Horizons' Wayne Wallace has told the Dannevirke News some of the money for the proposed new service will come from an New Zealand Transport Agency subsidy and the survey to residents asks what they believe is a reasonable one-way fare - $6, $7, $8, $9 or $10.

The survey, which has to be returned to Horizons by December 11, also lists Roses Coachlines, Naked Bus and InterCity as passenger services already available, with the St John Health Shuttle for medical appointments.