Bus ran for three weeks without a single passenger

A 20-seater bus on a rural service ran without a single passenger for three weeks.

Only a couple of dozen people in total took the bus between Waipukurau and Waipawa over three months.

Hawke's Bay Regional Council, which paid Brun's Charter Services Limited $280 a week to run the service three times a week, hoped more people would take the bus during the school holidays.

But they didn't, and a planned four-month trial was cancelled on Friday, three weeks earlier than planned.

Less than $100 in fares were collected over the nine weeks of operation - the fare was $3 one-way or $5 for a round trip. The distance between the two towns is about 10km.

The regional council spent around $1000 advertising the bus service when it started in May and again - without any success - when passengers disappeared in June.

The trial was launched after a survey at the beginning of the year, when 42 per cent of the 33 Central Hawke's Bay residents who responded said they would use a bus service more than once a week.

The survey noted there were obvious benefits in a daily bus service that people could use to get to work, but that this was too expensive, and a three days a week service would meet the needs of the elderly.

- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY