Christchurch bus company sold

Photo / NZ Herald

A Christchurch bus company which had a number of buses ordered immediately off the road this week has been sold to Hamilton-based Go Bus Transport, amid regional council concerns that it was struggling to meet fulfil its requirements.

Go Bus is expected to take over Canterbury Bus Services (CBS), which holds a third of all routes in greater Christchurch, on December 1.

Go Bus operates bus services for regional councils in Hamilton, Tauranga and Napier.

Police were staggered at the poor condition of some buses when a sting operation, prompted by public complaints, resulted in 28 being ordered immediately off the street, many of them CBS vehicles.

The investigation by the Commercial Vehicle Investigation Unit (CVIU), which inspected 114 urban buses from Tuesday to Thursday, also saw a further 34 buses allowed to finish their run, then taken out of service for repair.

Ecan, which manages the Metro bus system, said most of the buses ordered off the road appeared to have been Christchurch Bus Services vehicles, although Red Bus and Leopard Coachlines vehicles were also involved.

As of this evening, CBS was servicing close to 90 per cent of all its trips having worked to get buses back on the roads, the council said.

Ecan had become concerned recently about the service offered by CBS during protracted sale negotiations.

It gave the company a deadline of 5pm today to complete the sale, or Ecan would withdraw its contracts.

In addition, Christchurch City Council-owned Red Bus had not been willing to negotiate with the other two companies to lease out its spare buses to ease a temporary shortage worsened by the recent earthquake, Ecan acting operations director Wayne Holton-Jeffreys said.

Leopard's order for 32 new buses had been delayed by damage at the Rolleston manufacturers because of the earthquake, and the company had hired 25 from North Island operators -- all of which had accounted for its eight minor faults picked up in the sting, Leopard managing director Brent Early told NZPA.

Leopard Coachlines had six buses out of its 150-vehicle fleet caught with minor faults, such as windscreen chips and broken tail-lights.

Another two were given green stickers which had to be fixed and rechecked before they could return to service. One of them, a late model bus, had a brake imbalance.

"We'd had it in the fleet for less than 16 days at that point so very disappointing that that particular one wasn't up to scratch, but of course it hadn't been anywhere near our workshop at that stage," Leopard managing director Brent Early said.

All the buses had current certificates of fitness.

Red Bus chief executive Paul McNoe said his firm, one of the three urban bus companies, had no buses ordered off the road and four had minor problems.

"I'm disappointed from an industry perspective. I was surprised by the volume (of buses ordered off the road)," he said.

Mr Early said the bus audit was appropriate.

"CVIU need to be out there and ensuring that people are operating to the letter of the law, so we're more than happy to stand the test."

CBS has been unavailable for comment.

Police say there will be prosecutions arising from the investigation.

- NZPA